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PDF….. plus dissident Vietnamese bloggers, using technology to drive political change, and a host of other issues are addressed on the must-read Digital Mash-Up from the Center for International Media Assistance, including:
Promoting Digital Equality: The Internet as a Public Good and Commons
The myriad barriers to access and adoption of affordable, fast broadband Internet are causing digital inequalities across contemporary America. This, in turn, presents a host of growing social problems, especially for rural and low-income urban communities, especially since the means to learn and participate in society are increasingly becoming mediated through online outlets.
Korea Policing the Net. Twist? It’s South Korea.
A government critic who called the president a curse word on his Twitter account found it blocked. An activist whose Twitter posting likened officials to pirates for approving a controversial naval base was accused by the navy of criminal defamation.
Google’s Opaque New Policy Lets Rightsholders Dictate Search Results
Earlier this summer, we applauded Google for releasing detailed stats about content removal requests from copyright holders. Now that we know how they are going to use that data, we are less enthusiastic. Today, Google announced that it would use copyright takedown notices made under the DMCA1 as what it calls a “signal” on search results.
Iran Plans to Stop Using the Internet By 2013
Iran is planning on joining the list of nations abandoning the global internet for their own national intranet, and officials say that the transition may be completed by 2013. (Business Insider, 8/9
Vietnam: Another Blogger Gets Jail TermOn Anti-Government Propaganda Charge
Reporters Without Borders deplores the five-year jail sentence that a Hanoi people’s court passed on the blogger Le Thanh Tung at the end of a summary one-hour trial on 11 August, just three days after fellow blogger Dinh Dang Dinh was given a six-year sentence (below). (Reporters Without Borders, 8/14)
A Censorship-Free Alternative to the Global Internet?
As interest in finding alternatives to the global internet and reliance on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) has increased, many parties, ranging from online activists to municipal governments and Silicon Valley start-ups, have experimented with decentralized mesh networks, or meshnets-a system of networking where each node collects information and then relays it to another node until it reaches its intended recipient. (Open Net Initiative, 8/8)
Activism 2.0: Using Technology to Drive Change
Interview with Darko Brkan, founding president of Zasto ne (Why Not), a Sarajevo-based organization that promotes civic activism, government accountability, and the use of digital media in deepening democracy in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). He is also a founding member of Dosta! (Enough!), one of Bosnia’s most prominent citizens’ movements for social justice and government accountability. (World Youth Movement for Democracy, 8/2012)
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The Center for International Media Assistance is an initiative of the National Endowment for Democracy, the Washington-based democracy assistance group.
