Mob Rule, Vigilante Behavior and Blasphemy in Pakistan's Digital Age
BY Nighat Dad | Wednesday, November 26 2014
Blasphemy cases in Pakistan are considered a norm these days. However, the latest incident of a mob beating to death a Christian couple is the most gruesome manifestation of this sensitive issue. The couple in Punjab was alleged to have desecrated a copy of the Qur’an. The mob attacked the couple, killed them, and later burnt their bodies in the brick kiln where they worked. The blasphemy law presents a frightening level of vigilante violence where prison and private guards, neighbors and colleagues turn into mobs killing those accused of blasphemy. Unfortunately, this mob behavior is being strengthened by the increasing adoption of technology in the country like mobile phones and the internet.
Read MoreCreating Bottom-Up Tech Tools to Fight Ebola
BY Rebecca Chao | Friday, November 21 2014
The fight against Ebola in West Africa is far from over. TechPresident recently covered New York Tech Meetup’s Ebola Hackathon and wrote about what technology can and can’t do. But what emerged from these discussions is that technology needed to be more responsive -- designed after community input and not before. Here are a few systems that were built in just that manner. Read More
After Sunflower Movement, Taiwan's g0v Uses Open Source to Open the Government
BY Sonia Roubini and Jason R. Tashea | Wednesday, November 5 2014
This past March, the online community g0v helped organize hundreds of protestors to storm Taiwan’s parliament, the Legislative Yuan, in opposition to a pending trade deal with China. Now g0v wants to make the government more transparent and accessible. By doing so, it hopes to help citizens understand both how government works and how to make it better. Read More
Uploading Democracy
BY La Netscouade | Wednesday, October 29 2014
TechPresident partnered with La Netscouade to feature an in-depth multimedia report on how the Hong Kong protestors are utilizing technology in the Umbrella Movement. Read More
Anti-Corruption Alert, a Secure Platform For Public Servants Willing to Blow the Whistle
BY Antonella Napolitano | Tuesday, October 28 2014
Last week, the Italian chapter of Transparency International launched Anti-Corruption Alert, a platform aimed mainly at public servants willing to denounce malpractice in the public administration. The platform uses GlobaLeaks, an open-source software specifically designed to protect the identity of the whistleblower and the receiver in the exchange of confidential material. Read More
Italy Pioneers An Internet Bill of Rights
BY Fabio Chiusi | Monday, October 27 2014
Do we need another Internet Bill of Rights? Fabio Chiusi talks to a number of experts about Italy's new project. Read More
Tunisian Youth Activists Dissect Budget Ahead of Parliamentary Elections
BY Rebecca Chao | Wednesday, October 22 2014
Amira Yahyaoui is known for her plucky efforts to monitor the National Constituent Assembly -- turning up at private committee meetings, nettling officials with live tweets, taking their attendance and recording their every vote. Now she wants to open up Tunisia's economy too, starting with the state budget. Read More
FireChat Wasn’t Meant For Protests. Here’s How It Worked (Or Didn’t) at Occupy Central
BY Rebecca Chao | Friday, October 10 2014
On September 28, the third day of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests known as Occupy Central, one of the movement’s leaders, 17-year-old Joshua Wong, posted a message on Facebook to fellow protestors asking them to download an app called FireChat in case the government decided to shut down phone and wifi connections. A week later, even though the government had not cut off connectivity, downloads had more than quadrupled at 450,000. But so far, there's been little reporting on whether FireChat actually enables useful communications among protesters. Read More
[Op-Ed] Policing With Consent Would Require Throwing Away Our Freedoms
BY Guðjón Idir | Wednesday, October 8 2014
Keith Bristow, Director of the UK's National Crime Agency, asks the public to agree to more surveillance (Chatham House/flickr)
Guðjón Idir, the Executive Director of the Icelandic Modern Media Institute, explains why the UK's request for "policing with consent" demands trading in our freedoms. Read More
[Op-Ed] Like Island, Like Party: How Kim Dotcom's Internet Party Resonates In Iceland
BY Birgitta Jonsdottir | Monday, October 6 2014
Birgitta Jonsdottir, a Representative of the Pirate Party in Iceland, writes in with her thoughts on Kim Dotcom's Internet Party and its recent loss in the parliamentary elections in New Zealand. Read More