Stories about Tech & Tools
Hong Kong set to implement a China-style health code and contact-tracing app
Hong Kong may adopt a health code system similar to the mainland Chinese three-colour version to curb the latest outbreak of COVID infections, according to the city's new health chief.
China: Possible police database breach exposes at least 1 billion citizens’ personal data
"...the data breach is a fresh new case of a dictator’s dilemma: the more you concentrate, the more you lose control."
How the economically marginalised navigate digital adoption in India amid the pandemic
COVID-19 drove the shift to digital services in India, but this has left informal workers struggling to access basic services and protect their personal data within an incomprehensible system.
In Sri Lanka, state-sponsored disinformation and suppression of dissent taint COVID-19 response
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sri Lankan government has used the digital space to further an authoritarian agenda, affecting the digital rights and freedoms of citizens.
The battle of crypto dreams in Myanmar
Myanmar’s crypto revolution is at the beginning of the tug of war between repression and resistance, and will play a critical role in Myanmar’s political revolution.
How Artificial Intelligence could influence Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections
When technologies are adopted in the absence of a solid legal framework and strict safeguards, they pose significant threats to privacy and personal security.
In Russia's invasion of Ukraine, cyberwarfare is a decisive element of the battlefield
The information war in Ukraine has only just started but already citizens on both sides are saturated by their government’s propaganda and left without balanced information.
Still flattening the curve?: Increased risk of digital authoritarianism after COVID-19
In the face of state surveillance, control, and censorship, we need a solid plan to reclaim our digital rights and develop proper political and legal regulations to protect them.
Pandemic tech and digital rights in Morocco
While data-driven technologies can add great value, they carry very significant risks for human dignity, autonomy and privacy and the exercise of human rights in general if not managed appropriately.
How Sudanese resistance committees are shadowbanned on Facebook
The attacks primarily aim to affect public opinion by spreading disinformation, but the last attack aimed at changing the feed's algorithm to hide information on the user’s Facebook timeline.
What does Russia's new “hostage-taking” law mean for social media companies?
The new law imposes new obligations on popular foreign websites and social media platforms with over half a million daily Russian users, asking them to register legal entities in Russia.
Google removes YouTube ads featuring interrogations of Belarusian political prisoners
The short videos, used to promote pro-government channels, feature opposition members and independent journalists imprisoned by the Lukashenka regime in what look like forced confessions made under duress.
Russian censors block website of legal aid non-profit OVD-Info
"We see this as a continuation of the state's attack on civil society. It is no surprise that the attack is now focused on OVD-Info."
Russia blocks access to Tor browser website
The push for greater online censorship is part of the country's "sovereign internet" strategy which seeks to cement centralised state control over internet infrastructure and online spaces.
Behind the success of the Kenyan Twitter disinformation campaign to discredit the Pandora Papers
Kenya’s disinformation industry successfully manipulated Twitter’s trending algorithm to attack the Pandora Papers and protect President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose family was implicated in the exposé.
Taiwan: Deepfake pornographic video victims call for new laws against sexual violence in cyberspace
Taiwan's recent arrest of popular YouTuber Xiao Yu, Zhu Yuchen, for allegedly selling deepfake pornographic videos of public figures has drawn public attention to artificial intelligence (AI) crimes.
Russian internet censor blocks Team Navalny websites
Navalny's main website, navalny.com, as well as over 40 other webpages for Navalny's national network of campaign offices were added to Roskomnadzor's state registry for blocked websites.
We made the largest Mexican telecommunications operator stop blocking secure internet
Group effort, research, perseverance, and Global Voices' journalism played a key role
Serbian journalists expose a ruling party bot application used to manipulate readers’ comments on media websites
Investigative journalists discovered that a mobile application linked to their country's ruling party IP address was used for automatic voting on user comments on websites of popular media outlets.
Netizen Report: If protecting your privacy is ‘part of a conspiracy,’ then we’re all in big trouble
Digital privacy tools draw suspicion in the US and Ecuador, India tackles Tiktok, and a Chinese man learns that facial recognition works -- even while you’re sleeping.
