WhatsApp Launches Proxy Tool to Fight Internet Censorship
[ad_1] The company says it started putting the capability for proxies to be used in WhatsApp in the final few months of 2022 and is launching it now as most…
Iran’s Internet Blackouts Are Sabotaging Its Own Economy
[ad_1] As internet shutdowns, platform blocking, and content filtering become increasingly common levers for authoritarian control around the world, Iran has presented an especially dramatic case study on the economic…
The Internet Is at Risk of Driving Women Away
[ad_1] Unless we act, 2023 will be the year that women leave the internet. Women already face enormous risks online. A Pew Research report of a US survey shows that one-third…
Instagram Is a Site of Protest for the Chinese Diaspora
[ad_1] Northern Square was not the only account reviving the lo-fi, nostalgic aesthetic from China’s more hopeful and democratic past. Pages like @beijing_silvermine, and @beijing_in_springtime all became popular in the Chinese Instagram…
No One on Twitter Is Safe From Elon Musk
[ad_1] Musk changed his tune this week after he alleged a “crazy stalker” followed a car carrying his young son. Questions about the incident remain, and it’s not clear how…
Trump’s Twitter Ban Was Unfair, but Not for the Reason You Think
[ad_1] In January 2021, after former US president Donald Trump tweeted in support of an insurrection on the Capitol, his account was frozen and he was locked out. But across…
Transparency For Thee, But Not For Me
[ad_1] In short, no one’s tweets were unfindable to the public without the poster knowing about it: If they were suspended or banned, naturally they’d be aware. De-amplification—affecting a person’s ranking…
How Chinese Netizens Swamped China’s Internet Controls
[ad_1] The tragedy came as frustrations with zero-Covid policies were already starting to spike. Violent confrontations had broken out between workers and security at a Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou that manufactures…
Iran’s Protests Reveal What’s Lost If Twitter Crumbles
[ad_1] Twitter isn’t Iran’s biggest social network—WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram are more popular—but as in many other countries, it is used to share breaking news and real-time updates on events.…
Elon Musk Has Put Twitter’s Free Speech in Danger
[ad_1] Before becoming Twitter’s CEO, owner, and “Chief Twit,” Elon Musk had often lobbed criticism at the platform for its approach to content moderation, even going so far as to…
The Strange Death of the Uyghur Internet
[ad_1] Making a living as a programmer also became hard, says a former Bilkan developer, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for his family’s safety. In 2016, the…
Iran’s Internet Blackouts Are Part of a Global Menace
[ad_1] For the past five weeks, thousands of Iranians, led by courageous young women, have taken to the streets of dozens of cities around the country, driven to action by…
China’s WeChat Is a Hot New Venue for US Election Misinformation
[ad_1] When Chinese-language misinformation appears on US platforms like YouTube or Facebook, activists say it seems to get less actively moderated than English content, a pattern that has also been…
Section 230’s Fate Belongs With Congress—Not the US Supreme Court
[ad_1] In the nearly 27 years since Congress passed Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, courts have broadly interpreted it to protect online communities for being legally responsible for…
The Challenge of Cracking Iran’s Internet Blockade
[ad_1] Some communication services have systems in place for attempting to skirt digital blockades. The secure messaging app Signal, for example, offers tools so people around the world can set…
Brazil’s Far Right Plots Its Own January 6 Insurrection
[ad_1] Telegram did not respond to a request fof comment. Telegram was used heavily by organizers of the January 6 riot in the US. The platform is unmoderated, with small…
Child Predators Mine Twitch to Prey on Kids
[ad_1] Some churches across the United States are using invasive phone-monitoring technology in efforts to discourage “sinful” behavior, a WIRED investigation revealed this week. The churches are using a series…
Iran’s Internet Shutdown Hides a Deadly Crackdown
[ad_1] Iran started shutting the internet down on September 19 as protests around Amini’s death gained momentum. Since then, multiple internet-monitoring organizations, including Kentik, Netblocks, Cloudflare, and the Open Observatory…
Bogus Fears of Censorship Could Spell the End of Content Moderation
[ad_1] Hi, everyone. Glad to hear from Joe Biden that the pandemic is over. But who’s going to tell the coronavirus? The Plain View The linguist George Lakoff is famous…
This Clever Anti-Censorship Tool Lets Russians Read Blocked News
[ad_1] When censors at Belarus’ Ministry of Information announced they were going to block the website of lifestyle publication KYKY in the summer of 2020, everything changed for its team…
Protest Hides in Plain Sight in Hong Kong
[ad_1] On a particularly clear day, I ascended Lion’s Rock, an iconic peak in Kowloon which offers stunning vistas of Hong Kong to the intrepid hiker. In 2019, the grandiose…
How Tor Is Fighting—and Beating—Russian Censorship
[ad_1] For years, the anonymity service Tor has been the best way to stay private online and dodge web censorship. Much to the ire of governments and law enforcement agencies,…
Russia Is Quietly Ramping Up Its Internet Censorship Machine
[ad_1] Finally, Shakirov says, there is the “restriction of access to information”—blocking websites. The legal ability to block websites was implemented through the adoption of Russia’s sovereign internet law in…
Instagram Slow to Tackle Bots Targeting Iranian Women’s Groups
[ad_1] IRANIAN women’s rights groups have for months faced a deluge of bots following their Instagram accounts and disrupting their digital outreach operations. Activists say that while they have repeatedly…