Tag archive: country

Reports from Iran say that the country has unblocked SMS messaging services for the first time since the contested election. Texts, as well as social networking and blogging services, were used by protestors demonstrating against the election result in the country.  There had been texting restrictions since June 11, a day before the elections.  However, Iranian new agency Tabnak.ir says that while the service is back up and… Read More

Myanmar – the country formerly known as Burma – has been judged the most restrictive country for bloggers, according to a new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists. The junta ruling Myanmar blocked all Internet access for a while during uprisings in 2007. Coming second on the list is Iran, where blogger Omid Mir Sayafi died in Tehran's Evin jail. He’d allegedly insulted the country’s leader,… Read More

The Australian government faces a rebellion by the country’s ISPs over its plan to filter Net content and block 10,000 sites. Initial trials of the system were due to begin before Christmas, but Telstra, the country’s largest ISP, has said it will not participate, as has Internode, while others have said they will only support a smaller system that blocks access to a 1300-strong list of sites hosting illegal content,… Read More

It was bound to happen when a country with 1.3 billion people starting wiring up: China has officially become the most population online nation, surpassing the United States for total users. According to information released by the Chinese government on Friday, the nation now hosts 253 million surfers. The country’s Internet usage has been surging upward in recent years as more and more Chinese plug in, despite strict government… Read More

Fidel Castro only stepped down as Cuba's president last month after nearly 50 years as the island nation's leader, but one major change is already on the way for Cuban citizens: Reuters is reporting the country is getting set to allow unrestricted sales of DVD players and computers. Currently, only businesses and foreigners are allowed to purchase computers in Cuba, and until last year DVD players were actually seized at Cuban… Read More

The recent demonstrations in Myanmar were shown to the world largely by mobile phone video footage and blogs and video posted online by those within the country.   As thousands marched againstthe control of the military junta, the rest of the world watched. At least, they watched until the country’s government cut off Internet access.   Against a backdrop of arrests of protestleaders, that online access was reinstated on… Read More

The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has always existed at a strange intersection of technology, culture, and politics. While dancing a fine line between international credibility and being controlled by the U.S. Department of Commerce, ICANN continually deals with issues regarding the languages, cultures, and nations of the world. And even the seemingly simple stuff is never easy. Take, for instance,… Read More