Julia Reda: Out-of-control censorship machines removed my article warning of out-of-control censorship machines . “A few days ago, about a dozen articles and campaign sites criticising EU plans for copyright censorship machines silently vanished from the world’s most popular search engine. Proving their point in the most blatant possible way, the sites were removed by exactly what they were warning of: Copyright censorship machines. Among the websites that were made impossible to find: A blog post of mine in which I inform Europeans about where their governments stand on online censorship in the name of copyright and a campaign site warning of copyright law that favors corporations over free speech.”
censorship
Ars Technica: After employee revolt, Google says it is “not close” to launching search in China
Ars Technica: After employee revolt, Google says it is “not close” to launching search in China. “Google’s employees and Google’s management are clashing over ethical issues again. Just two months after Google’s ‘Project Maven’ military drone project was seemingly resolved, Google’s employees are now up in arms over company plans to create censored products for China. The internal protests resulted in the issue being addressed at an all-hands meeting, and we got to learn a bit more about Google’s China plans.”
New York Times: Google Employees Protest Secret Work on Censored Search Engine for China
New York Times: Google Employees Protest Secret Work on Censored Search Engine for China. “Hundreds of Google employees, upset at the company’s decision to secretly build a censored version of its search engine for China, have signed a letter demanding more transparency to understand the ethical consequences of their work.”
The Citizen Lab: How WeChat Filters Images For One Billion Users
The Citizen Lab: How WeChat Filters Images For One Billion Users. “With over 1 billion monthly users, WeChat boasts the title of most popular chat application in China and the fourth largest in the world. However, a new report by Citizen Lab researchers reveals exactly how the platform is able to censor images sent by these billion users.”
Al Jazeera: How social media shaped calls for political change in Ethiopia
Al Jazeera: How social media shaped calls for political change in Ethiopia. “A look at Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and the hope for media reform.”
New York Times: A Generation Grows Up in China Without Google, Facebook or Twitter
New York Times: A Generation Grows Up in China Without Google, Facebook or Twitter. “Wei Dilong, 18, who lives in the southern Chinese city of Liuzhou, likes basketball, hip-hop music and Hollywood superhero movies. He plans to study chemistry in Canada when he goes to college in 2020. Mr. Wei is typical of Chinese teenagers in another way, too: He has never heard of Google or Twitter. He once heard of Facebook, though. It is ‘maybe like Baidu?’ he asked one recent afternoon, referring to China’s dominant search engine.”
Fortune: Google’s Plans to Create Censor-Friendly Products for China Are Even Bigger Than We Thought
Fortune: Google’s Plans to Create Censor-Friendly Products for China Are Even Bigger Than We Thought . “Google isn’t just reported to be working on a censored search engine for the Chinese market—according to a new article from The Information, it’s also developing a censored news aggregation app for China. And some Google employees are reportedly not wild about this new push.”
