In The News

Egypt: 10,000 March in Protest at Woman Dragged Half-Naked Through Street

December 26, 2011
A military loses credibility when it emphasizes power over security, turning on its own citizens – especially after abuses are documented and released over the internet for the world to see. About 10,000 women marched on the streets of Cairo to protest brutal treatment of female protesters. “Even before the protest was over, the military council issued an unusually strong statement of regret for...

China-Based Hacking of 760 Companies Shows Cyber Cold War

Michael Riley, John Walcott December 16, 2011
US investigators have warned that hackers based in China allegedly infiltrated more than 700 companies, universities, government agencies and more. The hackers “specialize in infiltrating networks using phishing e-mails laden with spyware, often passing on the task of exfiltrating data to others,” explains an article in Bloomberg Businessweek. Targets “range from some of the largest corporations...

Chanting “Russia Without Putin,” Flash Mobs Roil Moscow

Fred Weir December 9, 2011
Russians are using social media to report vote rigging by authorities and organize flash protests in the streets of Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities. “For more than a decade, Russians appear to have quietly accepted Vladimir Putin's system of ‘managed democracy,’” writes Fred Weir for the Christian Science Monitor, explaining that measures “ensure that only Kremlin-approved parties...

Stop the Great Firewall of America

Rebecca MacKinnon November 25, 2011
Protection sometimes can go too far. Proposed US legislation that aims to prevent the theft of intellectual property could actually aid and abet censorship efforts, complementing those in China. “The bills would empower the attorney general to create a blacklist of sites to be blocked by Internet service providers, search engines, payment providers and advertising networks, all without a court...

Technology Boosts Bangladesh Migrant Job Search

Anbarasan Ethirajan November 9, 2011
The Bangladeshi government has turned to technology to assist its citizens in looking for jobs overseas. Any worker can now post his or her resume, national identification and passport details on a government website portal, which can then be viewed by foreign employers. This process reduces transaction costs related to attaining jobs overseas, particularly payoffs to corrupt middlemen, and rural...

Brazil's Stand-Up Comics Lead Social Revolution Against Powerful Elites

Tom Phillips October 7, 2011
The powerful, never appreciating being the butt of comics’ jokes or withering commentary of critics, have long tried to keep a lid on criticism with ownership of media conglomerates and influence over media licenses. The freewheeling internet has changed all that, allowing comedy to take hold in nations like Brazil where the powerful expected unthinking deference. In the 1980s, jokes about...

A Dispatch Disaster in Six Acts

Christian Stöcker September 2, 2011
More than 250,000 US State Department cables were released to WikiLeaks and, starting in November 2010, gradually published in newspapers around the globe with the understanding that sensitive details, including names of informants, would be redacted. Under the threat of denial-of-service attacks and censorship, WikiLeaks staff released password-protected copies of the cables to supporters. Not...