Myanmar’s army has ordered internet service providers to block access to Facebook as it attempts to stamp out signs of dissent, days after it ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Access to the internet in Myanmar dropped sharply after the military detained leaders of ruling party National League for Democracy, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and declared a state of emergency. The NLD won a wide majority of parliamentary seats in November’s general election, which the military alleges was the result of election fraud. In a statement on military-owned television, the army said a year-long state of emergency would be declared in Myanmar and power handed to military chief Min Aung Hlaing.
While the United Nations has deemed government-orchestrated internet shutdowns to be a human rights violation, Iran continues to push the limits
Deplatforming President Trump showed that the First Amendment is broken — but not in the way his supporters think.
Some of the biggest names in tech have taken aggressive steps against the inflammatory rhetoric of President Trump and some of his allies that culminated last week with a mob of his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol while Congress was attempting to certify the election of Joe Biden as the nation’s 46th president.
Social media platforms are continuing to crack down on fringe groups and conspiracy theories following last week’s deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol.
It is “no longer acceptable” for social media giants to take key decisions on online content removals alone, following the high profile takedowns of US President Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Twitter, the European Commission has said.
On the Telegram messaging app, there were calls for armed marches on state capitols and the offices of tech companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter, starting on Jan. 16.
As the world adjusts to a Twitter without @realdonaldtrump, the next big question is: “Now what?”
Major tech platforms, long accused of giving President Donald Trump special treatment not allotted to regular users, have shown him the door in the wake of his incitement of violence by supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. He’s gone from Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat — even Shopify.
The Trump appointee who oversees the government’s global media operations is moving to shut down a federally funded nonprofit that helps support internet access around the world, documents show, a decision that could limit people’s ability to get around constraints in places that tightly control internet access, like Iran and China.