· April, 2013

Stories about News from April, 2013

Netizen Report: Israel Asserts Right to Search Email

Global Voices Advocacy's Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world. This week we focus on a new set of surveillance issues in Israel and the United States, as well as challenges to online activists in Singapore and Malaysia.

30 April 2013

Human Rights Verdict Could Affect Cisco in China

In 2011, two separate lawsuits were filed against Cisco Systems alleging that its technology enabled the government of China to monitor, capture, and kill Chinese citizens for their views and beliefs. To what extent are these human rights violations attributable to technology provided by Cisco?

24 April 2013

Netizen Report: News Sites Face Cyberattacks, Censorship

Global Voices Advocacy's Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world. This week we focus on a series of attacks on digital news sites in Guatemala, Hong Kong, and Bangladesh, and examine challenges to online activists in Russia, Venezuela, and Nigeria.

23 April 2013

Japan: The Police Don't Want You to Use Tor [UPDATE]

According to an April 18 news report, Japan's National Police Agency may soon urge Internet Service Providers to 'voluntarily' block the use of Tor, the anonymous online communication system. The NPA report carrying this announcement has not been formally released; whether NPA will actually put this move into practice remains unknown.

23 April 2013

Hong Kong Citizen Media Site Faces DDoS Attack From China

Hong Kong-based citizen media platform inmediahk.net was hit by a DDoS attack last week, coming mainly from China. Inmedia, a volunteer citizen media network, has been blocked in mainland China since 2007. Inmedia members believe that recent coverage of controversial issues, including a dock workers' strike in Hong Kong and the construction of a military pier in the city's center, may have triggered the attack.

22 April 2013

Venezuela: Facebook User Detained for “Destabilizing” Photograph

Two days after presidential elections in Venezuela, authorities detained Andrés Rondón Sayago, a citizen who allegedly spread photographs of burning ballots. Officials say that the photographs were taken during 2007 elections, not in the present day. Rondón Sayago has been accused of sharing the photographs with “destabilizing intentions.”

18 April 2013

Netizen Report: Wikimedia Stands Ground in Russia, France

Global Voices Advocacy's Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world. This week we focus on the Wikimedia Foundation, which is challenging take down orders in both Russia and France, and chart a wave of threats against netizens in Chad, Mexico, and various countries in the MENA region.

16 April 2013

Chadian Blogger Detained

Internet Without Borders reports that Jean Laokolé, a Chadian blogger and writer, was arrested on March 22 by security forces in N'Djamena, Chad's capital. In a petition released today, the advocacy group calls for the blogger's "immediate and unconditional release." Laokolé writes under a pseudonym for one of Chad's most popular blogs, where he covers corruption and other problems in politics.

9 April 2013

Netizen Report: Tibetan Internet Users Targeted With Malware

Global Voices Advocacy's Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world. Highlights this week include China's efforts to deploy new surveillance tactics against users in Tibet, the questionable prison sentence of an Azeri web editor, and WordPress' decision to step up their game on user security.

9 April 2013

Netizen Report: Bloggers Under Threat in Bangladesh and Beyond

Global Voices Advocacy's Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world. This week, we begin with Bangladesh, where authorities are targeting bloggers accused of "anti-Muslim" writings. We then look at cases of bloggers in Vietnam, Egypt, and Kuwait, all of whom are facing government threats for political expression online.

3 April 2013

Accused of Blasphemy, Three Bloggers Detained in Bangladesh

The Detective Branch of Bangladesh Police has detained three bloggers- Rasel Parvez, Mashiur Rahman Biplob & Subrata Adhikari Shuvo yesterday night for their alleged write-ups demeaning Islam and Prophet Muhammad. Since yesterday the community blogging platform Amarblog.com has become inaccessible from Bangladesh. It is yet to be known whether the authorities have blocked it and why.

2 April 2013

Cyber Attack on Pakistan's Electoral Commission Website

The Electoral Commission of Pakistan, an independent body tasked with supervising the upcoming general election, had its website attacked on Friday, March 29, 2013. According to local media, an "[Indian hacker] defaced the home page" and may have "compromised its availability to visitors.”

1 April 2013