In The News

China and Google: “Illegal Flower Tribute”

Evan Osnos January 14, 2010
The news that Google will offer uncensored searches in China at the risk of being shut down has caused a stir in China despite the government's efforts to restrict coverage of the story. The response by state-backed media has been predictably critical of Google, even alleging ulterior motives for its actions. Yet, as New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos posts from Beijing, the “savviest” Web...

Google Threat Jolts Chinese Internet Industry

Loretta Chao, Aaron Back January 13, 2010
Google’s decision to start offering uncensored searches in China at the risk of being barred from the country is likely to have broad repercussions. Google announced its decision as a result of cyber attacks, some of which sought to compromise Google’s Gmail accounts of human rights activists. Politically, the move could add further tension to the US-China relationship, as the attacks were...

Iranian Crackdown Goes Global

Farnaz Fassihi December 4, 2009
Iranians abroad who used Facebook and Twitter to protest the controversial elections are receiving emails threatening their relatives back in Iran. Immigrants who return home are detained at the airport, where they are shown videos taken of them participating in protests in countries of their residence or are forced to log in to their Facebook accounts. Residents of Iran report being harassed and...

Obama Backs Non-Censorship; Beijing, Apparently, Does Not

Keith B. Richburg November 17, 2009
President Obama's arrival in Shanghai featured a town hall forum with students watched by the foreign media. During the question and answer period, Obama stated his support for internet freedom of expression in response to a question on Beijing’s blocking of social media sites like Facebook. Meanwhile, Beijing did its best to make the event a non-story within China by carefully choosing the...

U.S. Eases Grip Over Web Body

Christopher Rhoads October 1, 2009
The World Wide Web might symbolize globalization for many, but control of the architecture remains largely local. Domain names are controlled by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that reports to the US Commerce Department. The premise behind such a structure was that one body controlling web address suffixes like “.com” would ensure ease of use and universal...

Linguist’s Preservation Kit Has New Digital Tools

Chris Nicholson July 28, 2009
Languages have faced extinction throughout history. Often, it is the evolutionary forces of greater interconnectedness through trade and war that lead to the dominance of one spoken tongue. From Greek to Arabic to English, the language of traders has frequently become the lingua franca. This has led to a decline in the usage of other languages as individuals connect speaking a particular language...

In Dusty Turkish Village, Surfing the Web for Brides

Yigal Schleifer July 14, 2009
The arrival of the internet in Turkey’s rural southeast has had at least one surprising consequence: men in the village of Gokce have started using the web to seek second wives from abroad. Although in the past, Turkish men would travel to neighboring Syria, now they increasingly use Arabic chat websites to attract potential wives from Morocco. Moroccan women make appealing candidates because...