In The News

India – A Silicon Valley for Emerging Markets?

Dinesh C. Sharma June 4, 2015
Emerging markets represent 80 percent of the globe’s population and more than 50 percent of its GDP. So many consumers living in the emerging economies are digitally deprived, yet eager to explore the internet. India is well positioned to become the next hub for internet development. “Capitalizing on early investments in science and engineering development, India showed the world a new way of...

Major Companies Threaten to End Relationships With Indiana Over “License to Discriminate” Law

Louis Weisberg April 2, 2015
A storm of criticism from multinational corporations and human-rights groups has convinced lawmakers in Indiana to backtrack on a vague law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, suggesting that governments could not “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” and individuals or businesses could assert such claims in legal proceedings. The law was crafted soon after courts required...

Social Media Becomes Lifeline for Civilians Under Fire in Ukraine

Paul Sonne February 9, 2015
Anecdotal reports emerge of Ukrainians relying on social media to avoid skirmishes or track down missing relatives. Images and videos also document the conflict. “In the midst of the latest violence, online social-networking groups dedicated to specific towns in eastern Ukraine are offering some of the most vivid, real-time glimpses into the conflict’s crushing impact on civilians,” reports Paul...

How Headlines Change the Way We Think

Maria Konnikova December 31, 2014
First impressions matter, global researchers agree. With a constant onslaught of data, reports and opinions online and off, headlines must be thorough, enticing and accurate, suggests Maria Konnikova in an essay for the New Yorker. Busy readers, especially those active on social media, often only have time for headlines. “By now, everyone knows that a headline determines how many people will read...

Why #I'llRideWithYou Worked

Husna Haq December 19, 2014
Muslims represent about 2 percent of Australia’s population. After a lone extremist, out on bail for serious charges, terrorized a group in a Sydney chocolate store, Twitter users realized that Muslims might expect a backlash and started a campaign on #I’llRideWithYou: “the hashtag began with a Facebook post … [by a woman] who said a Muslim woman sitting next to her on a train in Sydney had...

India: Bengaluru Man Confesses to Managing Islamic State Twitter Account

Vasudevan Sridharan December 18, 2014
Social-media debates are a magnet for the mentally ill, the marginalized and even educated professionals who are disenchanted with government, including dictatorships like that in Syria or their own democracies. Indian police have arrested a man accused of operating the most popular Islamic State Twitter account, @ShamiWitness, reports International Business Times. Bengaluru police suspect he was...

How Social Media Is Helping Islamic State to Spread Its Poison

Con Coughlin November 11, 2014
Exposure of top-secret, massive US surveillance operations by Edward Snowden – and subsequent efforts by companies like Twitter, Facebook, Google and Apple to counter the surveillance – is aiding the Islamic State, contends Con Coughlin for the Telegraph. “Aided by the increased use of encryption software by the leading internet service providers, terrorist groups such as the Islamic State … have...