Censorship »
Censorship or justified? Google Glass blocks swear words and there is no way to unblock
Like Android smartphones and tablets, Google Glass comes equipped with Google’s voice-to-text translation engine; in other words, you can dictate to Google Glass and, using voice recognition, it will type what you want to say. It turns out Google pulled an Apple on everyone and decided to implement a filter [...]
Read More »Chinese firm is looking to hire a “Chief Pornographic Identification Officer”
We’ve all heard about countries wanting to rid the internet of porn — South Korea and Iceland to name a few. China is also one of these countries, and if you’ve ever wondered how they choose their porn-fighters, it’s simple. Like every other job, they post a job listing!
Security [...]
Read More »Watch out, Apple will erase your iCloud emails if they contain words or phrases Apple doesn’t like
Apple is reportedly deleting any emails received in iCloud email accounts that contain the phrase “barely legal teen.” What makes things even more interesting is that the company is also deleting emails that are sent from iCloud accounts that contain the phrase… which is pretty much a form of censorship, [...]
Read More »Apple bans game about the Syrian conflict from the App Store
Apple sometimes gets a lot of flak for what they deem can and cannot be on their App Store. Sometimes it’s understandable and sometimes it’s just downright head-scratchingly baffling.The news of a game that deals with the current conflict in Syria getting banned might fall somewhere around the middle, I [...]
Read More »Iran plans on using “intelligent software” to censor social networks instead of blocking them
Do you think a censored Facebook is better than no Facebook at all? That seems to be the thinking behind Iran’s recent decision to develop “intelligent software” to censor social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, instead of outright blocking them completely.
Facebook and Twitter, as any Iranian would know, [...]
Read More »Google no longer warning Chinese citizens about potential censorship
When performing searches on Google’s Hong Kong-based site, Google warns users about potential censorship by displaying a message. The message would usually tell the user that searching for that particular term may “temporarily break your connection to Google” and that “This interruption is outside Google’s control,” due to the results [...]
Read More »Pakistan lifts Youtube ban for three minutes
When a blasphemous video of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) began circulating and inciting riots last year, Pakistan’s government decided to ban Youtube altogether. The government decided to lift the ban a few days ago, only to reinstate it after three minutes. Why, that’s not even enough time to watch Gangnam [...]
Read More »South Korea wants to block nudity and profanity on teenager phones
The South Korean government is taking censorship to the next level — for teenagers at least. In an attempt to prevent cyber-bullying, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has plans to install software on teenagers’ phones that will block swear words and “illegal and harmful information.”
The government also [...]
Read More »Real name registration may become mandatory for Internet users in China
Real names on Facebook? That’s nothing. What about your real name tied to every account you use on the Internet, anonymous or not? That’s what Internet users in China might have to deal with if this new policy becomes official. A draft decision proposing a new “identity management” policy has [...]
Read More »China strengthening the Great Firewall by blocking VPNs
When going on a trip to China, don’t expect to be able use sites like Facebook, Twitter or even YouTube — those sites are all blocked by the Chinese mainland’s so-called “Great Firewall,” which is designed to keep out content that may go against China’s policies. Foreigners and even residents, [...]
Read More »Iran launches ‘Mehr’, their very own version of YouTube
Iran has launched an alternative to YouTube called ‘Mehr’. Why not just use YouTube with its already well-established amount of cat videos, you ask? That’s because sites like YouTube (and even Facebook) have been banned in the country since 2009, with YouTube being deemed as “inappropriate”.
Mehr, which means affection [...]
Read More »South Korea declares war against Internet porn
Pornography is illegal in South Korea. Inevitably, savvy Internet-users find ways to go around governmental blocks, in this case to acquire or view said pornography. South Korea’s solution? Destroy all the porn in an all-out war!
The Associated Press reports that officials in South Korea have decided to outsource an [...]
Read More »Google censors The Pirate Bay in Google Search’s ‘Instant’ and ‘Autocomplete’ features
Google has a list of words it likes to censor from Google Search’s ‘Instant’ (i.e. how search results are shown as you type search queries) and ‘Autocomplete’ (i.e. how Google recommends search queries based on what you have typed so far). While there is no official, publicly available list of [...]
French court orders Google to censor illegal file sharing words
The entertainment industry always seems to be in limelight for attempts to curb Internet piracy. In this particular situation the battlefield is France with SNEP (a French music industry group) going after Google for ‘facilitating’ file sharing.
The SNEP brought a lawsuit against Google in France looking to force Google [...]
Read More »US government asks Google to turn over more and more private user data
Every so often Google voluntarily releases reports in regards to requests made by governments across the world to access private user data. The recently released bi-annual report by Google notes there has been an increase of around 37% in the requests for private data of users by the US government.[...]
What are Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act, and how they will affect you [dotTech Explains]
If you follow technology news regularly you will have, without a doubt, read about SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act – Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act). With SOPA and PIPA being thrown around on every bloody website in [...]