Global Voices Advox

Articles by Global Voices Advox

The WhatsApp messaging application is seen on a phone screen, 3 August 2017, REUTERS/Thomas White

Facebook, WhatsApp, encryption and the moderation of fake news

As WhatsApp has become a key platform for disseminating news and information, for groups of friends and media houses alike, it has also increasingly served as a mechanism for distributing fake news.

An employee works inside the office of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network in Jerusalem, 7 August 2017, REUTERS/Ammar Awad

No August reprieve for journalists and activists in the Middle East and North Africa

Whether authoritarian regimes, so-called democracies or warring armed groups, those who wield power in the Middle East and North Africa have taken internet censorship to new levels and stepped up their individual campaigns against critics, journalists, and opponents this month.

Computer code is seen on a screen above a Chinese flag in this 12 July 2017 illustration photo, REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration

China to ban anonymous online comments, blacklist users

Chinese netizens who have not registered their user accounts with platforms under a new real name system will not be able to post online comments.

Zunar, after filing his lawsuit against the Malaysian government, Facebook page of Zunar Cartoonist Fan Club

Malaysian cartoonist Zunar sues police for unlawful arrest

Zunar, renowned Malaysian cartoonist accused of sedition and now living under a travel ban, has announced he is suing his persecutors…and demanding the return of his books and t-shirts.

Internet Archive server, Scott Beale / Laughing Squid under CC license

India bans the Internet Archive over concerns of pirated Bollywood films

The ban is the result of a court petition to stop file-sharing websites from distributing pirated copies of recently released Bollywood movies.

Graphic by 7iber (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Will Palestine’s cybercrime law pave the way for more rights violations?

The law was prepared discreetly and approved without holding discussions with civil society or internet service providers.

An image of Bassel Khartabil, uploaded on Flickr on 25 September 2011, Flickr/David Kindler

Global Voices honors the life of open web activist Bassel Khartabil, executed by the Syrian regime

A Creative Commons leader who was active in projects like Firefox and Wikipedia, Bassel Khartabil played a pivotal role in extending online access in Syria. His wife, and the world, recently learned he was executed in 2015.

Palestinians react as a stun grenade explodes in a street at Jerusalem's Old city outside a compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, 27 July 2017, REUTERS/Amir Cohen

MENA round-up: Freedom of assembly and freedom of the press hit hardest in July

This July, protesters in Israel and Morocco were met with violence and journalists were subjected to harassment and denial of access, Lebanon banned protests, and 150 organisations met in Doha to discuss threats to freedom of expression in general, and the case of Al Jazeera in particular.