The Hong Kong Court of Appeal granted an interlocutory injunction Wednesday to restrain any activities associated with the protest song “Glory to Hong Kong”. The Secretary for Justice Paul Lam highlighted that the injunction balanced the interest of national security and freedom of speech by narrowing the scope to activities with seditious intent and providing exemptions [...]
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Israel shutters Al Jazeera operations and begins raiding news organization's offices
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that his cabinet had unanimously voted to shut down operations of Al Jazeera in Israel. Authorities started raiding the news organization’s offices soon after. Israel has long had a strained relationship with Al Jazeera, accusing it of anti-Israel bias and collaborating with Hamas. The decision was enabled by [...]
Florida governor signs restrictive social media ban for minors
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed one of the country’s most restrictive social media bans for minors into law on Monday. The law bans social media accounts for children under the age of 14 and requires parental permission for accounts for children between the ages of 14 and 15. The law is set to take effect [...]
Kenya’s Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki told the Public Petitions Committee of the National Assembly that the National Security Council (NSC) is coping with the threats posed by social media platforms particularly the app TikTok. TikTok is a short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance, rapidly gaining worldwide popularity in recent years. [...]
Amnesty International: India derogates farmers' freedom to peaceful protest
Amnesty International released a statement on Wednesday warning of the Indian government’s disproportionate restrictions on the right to peaceful protest to quell the “Dilli Chalo” farmers protest. In response to farmers’ protests against agricultural policies, Indian authorities imposed limitations on group gatherings, barricaded along the route of the protest march and deployed tear gas and [...]
Following a Parliamentary vote Monday, Senegal will delay the West African nation’s presidential election until Dec 2024. After 12 years in office, President Macky Sall recently confirmed he would not run for another term. However, he submitted a bill to the Parliament to postpone the election. In his announcement, Sall cites that the constitutional judges approving [...]
Russia court sentences pro-war activist to 4 years in a penal colony for inciting 'extremism'
The Moscow Municipal Court sentenced Igor Girkin (also known as Igor Strelkov) on Thursday to four years in a general regime colony for questioning the salaries of Russian fighters and the situation in Crimea. Girkin was found guilty of committing a crime under Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian [...]
Pakistan experiences internet disruption during virtual PTI rally
Social media platforms in Pakistan experienced a “national-scale disruption” on Saturday, according to reports by internet monitor Netblocks, during a virtual rally by the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), led by embattled former prime minister Imran Khan. Netblocks issued a statement declaring that their official metric demonstrated disruptions to X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, [...]
Australia internet watchdog reports safety layoffs at X corp.
The Australian E-safety Commission reported on Thursday that X Corp, formally Twitter, has laid off over 30 percent of its trust and safety staff. The organisation tasked with overseeing the internet safety of people in Australia reported that under new owner Elon Musk’s efforts to cut costs at the company, a significant amount of staff [...]
Afghanistan's Education Crisis: A Plea for Global Policy Measures Against Taliban Indoctrination
“The Taliban’s new curriculum is all about killing people in the name of Jihad,” a Kabul-based teacher* told me in a recent interview. “I’m not going to teach that material, even if I know it means I will almost certainly lose my job,” the teacher said, citing an early draft of the new curriculum. Upon [...]