![]() ![]() ![]() The number of countries where such arrests occur has increased by over 50 percent since 2013. Offenses that led to arrests ranged from mocking the king’s pet dog in Thailand to “spreading atheism” in Saudi Arabia. Users in some countries were put behind bars for simply “liking” offending material on Facebook, or for not denouncing critical messages sent to them by others. Social media users face unprecedented penalties: In addition to restricting access to social media and communication apps, state authorities more frequently imprison users for their posts and the content of their messages, creating a chilling effect among others who write on controversial topics. They are now restricted in several countries to protect the revenue of national telecommunications firms, as users were turning to the new services instead of making calls through fixed-line or mobile telephony. Online voice and video calling apps like Skype have also come under pressure for more mundane reasons. Some communication apps face restrictions due to their encryption features, which make it extremely difficult for authorities to obtain user data, even for the legitimate purposes of law enforcement and national security. Authorities in several countries have even resorted to shutting down all internet access at politically contentious times, solely to prevent users from disseminating information through social media and communication apps, with untold social, commercial, and humanitarian consequences. It is no coincidence that the tools at the center of the current crackdown have been widely used to hold governments accountable and facilitate uncensored conversations. The increased controls show the importance of social media and online communication for advancing political freedom and social justice. These services are able to spread information and connect users quickly and securely, making it more difficult for authorities to control the information landscape or conduct surveillance. Public-facing social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been subject to growing censorship for several years, but in a new trend, governments increasingly target voice communication and messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram. Internet freedom has declined for the sixth consecutive year, with more governments than ever before targeting social media and communication apps as a means of halting the rapid dissemination of information, particularly during anti-government protests. Emergency Assistance and Thematic Programs.Afghanistan Human Rights Coordination Mechanism.Government Accountability & Transparency.However, as Shangaiist reported back in December about the existence of Chinese rage comics, they seem to be picking up in popularity in China due in part to the website 暴走漫画 (Baozou Manhua). Rage comics are rather passe now in America, having peaked in popularity a year or two ago. Why does this matter? No particular reason (I was joking about this being major news by the way), but it is notable that someone at Sina thought it worth implementing a whole panel worth of emoji that began strictly as an English-language meme–and an often times mean-spirited one at that. They aren’t heavily used in posts, with most of these emoji having less than 20 search results (which doesn’t include usage in comments). They come from the so-called “ rage comics” which originated from the anything-goes imageboard 4chan and were further popularized by the website Reddit, both of which are English-language (and primarily American) websites.īased on some cursory searching of Weibo posts for the rage comic emojis, they seem to have started appearing around January 17. What makes these curious are they fact that they aren’t your typical, cutesy 可爱 emoticons (even a pile of poo is cute when rendered into emoji form). ![]() HOW TO UNCENSOR SKYPE EMOJIS SERIESMajor breaking news everyone: Sina Weibo introduced this month a new series of emojis (you know, those popular smiley face images that are found in many text messaging apps), bringing up the number of unique animated gifs that you can embed into your tweets to over 1,000. ![]()
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