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Top Government Efforts to Curb Social Media and Internet Freedom in 2012

January 4, 2013 By ishayat 3 Comments

It was an eventful year for the tech geeks, where the government of different countries tried to curb social media and internet freedom in different ways. We are presenting here the top 7 government efforts to curb our internet freedom.

YouTube Ban in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sudan and Pakistan

An anti-Islamic video called “The Innocence of Muslims” recently triggered violence in some countries and the governments of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sudan and Pakistan blocked the popular online video sharing website YouTube for not removing the video. The government asked the website to block access to the video but Google, which owns YouTube, explained that it doesn’t have any localized operation in these countries so it could not restrict access. There are millions of YouTube users in these countries so the ban has had a far reaching impact.

Internet Censorship in India

Reliance Communications blocked a number of popular websites including The Pirate Bay, Dailymotion, Vimeo and Torrentz in 3 May, 2012 without any prior warnings. To protest this internet censorship, a hacker hacked the server of Reliance Communications. Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi and journalist Alok Dixit also started a movement called “Save Your Voice” against Internet censorship in India. Some popular domain hosting sites like Fabulous.com, Buydomains.com were also blocked in July 2012.

VoIP Services banned by Ethiopian Government

The Ethiopian government has only one state-owned ISP, Ethio Telecom and it has been filtering its citizen’s internet access for quite a while now. The government has also passed a law, according to which, VoIP service users can be punished by up to 15 years in prison. They banned popular VoIP services like Skype and Google Talk and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology can now also “supervise and issue licenses to all privately owned companies that import equipment used for the communication of information” under this new law.

Iran Censored Gmail and Google Search

Iran blocked Gmail and Google search for a week back in September. However, after receiving complaints from people including members of their own parliament, the government decided to remove the barrier. Mohammad Reza Aghamiri, a member of the committee said in a statement to the Mehr news agency, “We wanted to ban YouTube and then Gmail was cut off as well, and this was unintended.” The country continues to block any website or social network that shares anti-government views.

Twitter blocked Neo-Nazi Account in Germany

Twitter used its local censorship policy for the first time in Germany and blocked access to a neo-Nazi account at the request of the government. The social networking site introduced the policy to users back in January but used it for the first time in October. “Never want to withhold content; good to have tools to do it narrowly and transparently,” that’s what Twitter’s general counsel Alex Macgillibray said after announcing the decision.

China Unveiled Tight Internet Censorship Rules

China legalized the deletion of pages or posts which are considered to contain illegal objects and information this December and unveiled tighter internet censorship rules. The new rule indicates that, Xi Jinping, the Communist Party chief will continue to stop the often attacking, not-so-government-friendly online chatting. From now on, the internet users have to use their real names for registration process with network providers.

The Philippines Bans Cybersex and Trolling

The government of the Philippines has recently signed into the law the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. The list of cybercrime includes getting naked on online video chat service and talking bad about people online. And that’s not all, the Filipinos have to abide by the rules even when they are not on their country’s soil.

Analysts Say Apple Is Stronger Than Ever With China Sales

December 28, 2012 By Guest Author Leave a Comment

If there’s any doubt about the fact that Apple’s latest iPhone is something to watch out for then clearly we haven’t heard the analysts speak. Just a few months after the successful release of the iPhone 5 in the United States, Apple ventured into the world by releasing the iPhone 5 in about 50 countries including Albania, Malaysia, Taiwan, Turkey and Venezuela. But the most notable release the American tech giant has had abroad was in China and the numbers say there is no denying that.

Two Million iPhones and Counting

Just three days after the December 14 release of the iPhone 5 in China, the Cupertino-based tech company announced that they were able to sell 2 million units, a feat that CEO Tim Cook described as “incredible” and “the best first weekend sales ever in China.” Such was the iPhone 5 phenomenon in China that, weeks before the release, China Unicom, Apple’s partner carrier in China, reported 300,000 reservations for the said iPhone. And while reports say there were less stellar crowds at the Apple Store on opening day, analysts say the iPhone 5’s first few days on China’s shores still showed strong signs of growth.

The Expert’s Take

After selling 5 million units in three days in the United States, the tech giant suffered a shocking plunge in stocks which was credited to the slow shipping of iPhone 5 supplies, easily scratched back panels, Maps app failures and management shakeups. But a lot of analysts who looked into the China sales feat thought that this was exactly what Apple needed to climb back on top. Analysts from Atlantic Equities believe that the 2 million mark could help the American tech giant bring back investor trust. People at Barclay’s also agree that the China sales report was a good start to easing the worries investors may be having as of late.

ISI, meanwhile, reported that Apple’s iPhone 5 success in China was a “strong launch” especially since the 3G subscriber market in the said country is very limited. Some analysts like those from RBS thought that it was notable how the tech company managed to get a fair share of the Chinese smartphone market even without the help of China Mobile’s 700 million subscribers as well as their 75.6 million 3G customers. Piper Jaffray’s analysts also believe that the demand for the iPhone remains strong despite all the troubles the company went through in the past quarters.

Is Bigger and Tougher Going to Cut It for Apple?

It is not very surprising that the tech giant is beginning to toughen up their marketing strategies by going global. Just this month, the tech giant managed to launch the iPhone 5 in 50 countries. Reports say the company is on its way to launching the premiere smartphone in more than 100 countries by the end of this year. And while this bold attempt is pushing analysts to the edge of their seats, iPhone addicts are clearly becoming more excited about what’s in store for them, no matter where they are in the world.

Author Byline: Twila B. is a writer, a multimedia enthusiast, a blogger and an iPhone addict. She’s currently a news writer for Cashforiphones.com and has written hundreds of articles since 2010. Check out her writings at Cashforiphones.com/cfi/news!