Quartz: Uganda’s social media tax has led to a drop in internet and mobile money users. “Uganda’s social media tax has proved to be detrimental to both its internet and mobile money sectors. In the three months following the introduction of the levy in July 2018, there was a noted decline in the number of internet users, total revenues collected, as well as mobile money transactions. In a series of tweets, the Uganda Communications Commission noted internet subscription declined by more than 2.5 million users, while the sum of taxpayers from over-the-top (OTT) media services decreased by more than 1.2 million users.”
human rights
New Delhi Times: Zimbabwe Activists Push Back on Social Media Restrictions
New Delhi Times: Zimbabwe Activists Push Back on Social Media Restrictions. “In Zimbabwe, rights and opposition groups are surviving by using social media to communicate with the masses as state-owned media remain reserved for ruling party officials. During recent anti-government protests, the public received information through social media and now the government wants a law to block such platforms.”
San Diego State University: SDSU Library Archive Details Detainee’s Path to Seeking Asylum, Conditions Inside Detention
San Diego State University: SDSU Library Archive Details Detainee’s Path to Seeking Asylum, Conditions Inside Detention. “What began as a casual gathering of friends has become a first-of-its-kind living archive of handwritten letters shared by hundreds of asylum seekers detained along the U.S.-Mexico border. Those letters, in the collective correspondence, provide a detailed description of each person’s path to pursuing asylum, and the conditions inside detention centers.”
The Intercept: Prisons Across The U.S. Are Quietly Building Databases Of Incarcerated People’s Voice Prints
The Intercept: Prisons Across The U.S. Are Quietly Building Databases Of Incarcerated People’s Voice Prints. “In New York and other states across the country, authorities are acquiring technology to extract and digitize the voices of incarcerated people into unique biometric signatures, known as voice prints. Prison authorities have quietly enrolled hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people’s voice prints into large-scale biometric databases. Computer algorithms then draw on these databases to identify the voices taking part in a call and to search for other calls in which the voices of interest are detected. Some programs, like New York’s, even analyze the voices of call recipients outside prisons to track which outsiders speak to multiple prisoners regularly.”
The Guardian: Thailand’s military junta cracks down on social media ahead of election
The Guardian: Thailand’s military junta cracks down on social media ahead of election. “Social media campaigning will be heavily restricted in the upcoming Thai election, in a move political parties claim will gag freedom of expression and directly affect younger voters.”
CNN: Social media access restored in Zimbabwe by court order
CNN: Social media access restored in Zimbabwe by court order. “Access to social media platforms in Zimbabwe was reinstated on Monday, hours after a court deemed the government’s internet shutdown illegal. Zimbabwean authorities clamped down on internet use last week, after violent protests broke out over President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s announcement of a 150% hike on fuel prices.”
BBC: Zimbabwe cuts internet indefinitely amid violent crackdown
BBC: Zimbabwe cuts internet indefinitely amid violent crackdown. “Zimbabwe has shut down the internet indefinitely amid an intensifying crackdown on protests against a hike in fuel prices. The country’s largest mobile operator – Econet – says it has been ordered to cut services until further notice.”
