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8-year-old Asifa’s heinous rape and murder in India fans the flames of nationalism · Global Voices
Vishal Yashoda Manve

Screenshot from YouTube
Early in January 2018, Asifa, an 8-year-old Muslim child from the nomadic Bakarwal community in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir in northern India, was gang-raped and murdered, as reported by Global Voices.
Much of India's local news coverage relegated the heinous story to its back pages due to its religiously-charged content. Asifa hailed from a Muslim community while her perpetrators come from a predominantly Hindu community backed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with sloganeering and rallies in the Jammu region.
After three months and countless struggles faced by the family, including denial to bury Asifa in her family land, political pressure, advocates in the region blocking the filing of the charge sheet and threatening Asifa's lawyer Deepika S. Rajawat, local stringer Nazir Masoodi analyzed the charge sheet filed in the case:
The charge sheet, filed by the Crime Branch of J & K [Jammu and Kashmir] police, says that the 8-year-old was not fed for the four days that she was kept captive. She was put on sedatives while she was raped by three men. The drugs ensured she would not cry out loud, not even when she was strangled.
The documents say all this happened under the watch of the temple custodian Sanji Ram. His own son, Vishal, his nephew (a juvenile) and a special police officer, Deepak Khajuria, are also accused of raping her and are among the eight men who were arrested by Crime Branch.
Masoodi's detailed report for New Delhi Television (NDTV) clearly describes Asifa's inhumane treatment. It reports on how local police conspired with perpetrators in an attempt to cover up the crime, using nationalist tactics such as joining in pro-India demonstrations in the region that borders Muslim-majority Kashmir.
While Masoodi's report raised awareness among Indians as well as Kashmiris, the news polarised communities throughout India. For example, Vishnu Nandakumar, a Kotak Mahindra Bank employee in the southern state of Kerala, India, made disparaging comments about Asifa through a Facebook post, which got him sacked amid social media outrage.
Jammu and Kashmir's Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti promised justice for Asifa and condemned a group of Jammu bar association lawyers who allegedly attempted to derail the investigation and charge sheet filing process.
The narratives surrounding Asifa's disturbing crime has polarized netizens from India, Kashmir and around the world as her case has been used to fuel nationalist and religiously-charged debate.
One impassioned Twitter user implored readers to understand Asifa's rape as a hate crime against Muslims of Bakarawal:
Ashifa is not ‘just the face of a child'; she symbolises the violence her community faces. Fuck your appeal to ‘humanity’. People are more than just human faces. This was a hate crime. If you can't talk about her as a Bakarwal Muslim, don't talk about her at all.
— deleting low impression tweets to enhance brand (@inshallahvolcel) April 12, 2018
Poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar wrote an inflammatory tweet against the Muslim Bakarwal, dismissing the community for informing the Indian army of a Pakistani intrusion during the Kargil Conflict on the border between Jammu and Kashmir and India in 1999:
Who was Asifa ?  She was an eight years old daughter of Bakerwals. Who are Bakerwals ? A nomad tribe who when  spotted the Kargil intruders promptly informed the army .Who are the people  who are trying to protect the rapists of this little girl . ? Now it is your turn to answer.
— Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) April 13, 2018
To which Kashmir-based historian M. Junaid retorted:
I can understand the constant desire for elite Indian Muslims to appear nationalistic, but may I ask why it is necessary for Asifa’s community [by the way, how racist & antiquated are you to call them ‘nomad tribe'!] to be represented as snitches to receive empathy from you? https://t.co/L8PQiAYrzn
— M Junaid (@mjunaidr) April 13, 2018
Oommen C. Curian also responded by explaining why Akhtar's argument was invalid on the grounds that a crime is a crime no matter its religious connotations or political background, referring to another religiously-motivated lynching of a Muslim man in 2015:
Deeply uncomfortable with the liberal parade of Bakarwals as ‘the watchmen’ who've served the nation. It reminds one of the sudden urge during [the] Dadri [lynching] to say that Akhlaq [a Muslim man] had mutton, not beef, in his refrigerator.
What if it was indeed beef?
What if she were, say, a stone-pelter?
— Oommen C. Kurian (@oommen) April 13, 2018
Many actors and activists from the film industry shared outraged reactions and expressed grief at the brutal gangrape, akin to the 2012 New Delhi gangrape of a medical student that triggered major protests.
Actor and comedian Vir Das wrote:
Dear politicians,
I'd like to see every one of you miserable scum and your army of slimy sycophants put your parties and your bullshit aside and do something to make sure that no child ever has to face what this girl did. But you won't. Because you don't deserve this country.
— Vir Das (@thevirdas) April 12, 2018
Kashmiri journalist Gowhar Geelani accused India's journalism community of spinning the narrative and reasserting the crime as religiously and politically motivated:
Attempt by Indian scribes to give a spin & portray the brutal gang-rape, kidnapping, torture & murder of the 8-year-old Muslim girl #Asifa in #Kathua by Hindu goons, backed by rightwing groups, as ‘a normal rape for lust’ is shameful. This was a rape to drive away Muslim nomads.
— Gowhar Geelani (@gowhargeelani) April 17, 2018
Activist Shehla Rashid took a jibe on the ruling BJP with a tweet:
No one raped Ashifa. No one murdered her. No one tortured her. The innocent *Hindu* men are being targeted unfairly, and there should be a CBI probe to get justice for these innocent *Hindu* men who are being oppressed by Muslims!!
Story of BJP, from #BetiBachao to #RapistBachao
— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) April 12, 2018
The New York Times questioned why President Modi waited so long to respond to the case in an April 16 editorial:
On Friday, Mr. Modi said that these cases had brought shame on the country and that ‘our daughters will definitely get justice.’ But his remarks ring hollow because he waited so long to talk about the cases and spoke in broad generalities — describing the crimes as ‘incidents being discussed since past two days.’ He has taken a similar approach in the past when addressing cases in which vigilante groups affiliated with his political movement have attacked and killed Muslims and Dalits — members of India’s lowest caste — who they falsely accused of killing cows, which are sacred to Hindus.
Global Voices contributor Inji Pennu offered some explanatory points:
Gentle corrections to narratives:
* Asifa was brutally Murdered, her neck was strangled and broken (not only raped).
* Asifa was also a child of 8 years. Rape of adult women are separate issues.
-Asifa was raped by multiple people — Gang raped is an insulting word to the victim. There is no ‘gang’ rape.
Around fifty retired civil servants termed the incident ‘the darkest hour in post-Independent India’ in a letter addressed to President Modi.
Kashmir Observer made a plea for the greater social good:
We as a society must think that no matter what our politics and ideology, we can’t fail in our collective duty towards the safety of our children.
Global Voices will continue to report on the latest updates and proceedings on Asifa's case that has rattled Jammu and Kashmir, as well as India's conscience.

author: Vishal Yashoda Manve


text:
Chinese netizens’ #IamLGBT campaign pushes change at Weibo · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Image remixed from Wikimedia. CC: AT-SA.
The viral social media campaign #IamLGBT (#我是同性戀) has successfully pressured China’s most popular social media platform, Weibo, to scale back its censorship of LGBT content.
The shift does not signal an end to the silencing of LGBT voices online, but it demonstrates a significant departure from the company's standard line.
On April 13, Weibo announced plans to launch a three-month crackdown on cartoon, game and multimedia content, in accordance with China's cybersecurity law, which emphasizes ideological control and “socialist core values” as key components of maintaining state security. The law does not explicitly address content reflecting LGBT topics.
The company specifically stated that content related to LGBT topics would be targeted, and that it had already deleted 56,243 posts, removed 108 user accounts and shut down 62 topical discussion threads.
On the next day, “LGBT voices”, a popular LGBT user account made an announcement on their Weibo:
【公告】由于不可抗力原因，同志之声微博编辑部将无限期暂停工作。在暂停工作期间，我们将不再使用@同志之声 官方微博更新任何同志资讯。感谢新浪微博多年来对同志之声的支持与帮助！感谢2009年至今关注同志之声的微博读者：你的每一次评论、转发与点赞，都是在完成一次对爱的发声。愿明天会更好！
[Public announcement] Due to matters beyond our control, the Weibo editorial of LGBT voices will cease operations indefinitely. During this period, we will not use the official Weibo of LGBT voices to publish updates on LGBT news. We want to express our thanks to Weibo for supporting LGBT voices all these years. I want to thank Weibo users who have been supporting us since 2009. Every comment, like and share is a voice out for love. Let’s hope we have a better tomorrow.
The above message was shared for more than 37,000 times.
Soon after the news spread, a large number of Weibo users began posting the hashtag #IamLGBT to protest the censorship. In less than one week, the hashtag had been used 500 thousand times garnered roughly 500 million views. Censorship authorities attempted to crack down on the online protest by deleting the topical pages, but could not keep apace with users as they continued speaking out and as mainstream media outlets outside China began to followed the story.
Under the pressure of strong public opinion, the People’s Daily (an official publication of the Chinese Communist Party) published a memorandum on April 15 stating that LGBT content should not be confused with vulgar, violent or pornographic content.
The next day, Weibo amended its announcement stating that its three-month censorship measures would not specifically target at LGBT content, but would focus only on vulgar, pornographic and violent content.
The LGBT voices account on Weibo restored its operation with another announcement on April 16:
【公告：#同志之声微博恢复更新#】感谢每一位参与发声的你。没有阿声的 48 小时所发生的一切，足以证明：发声才有可能改变。@同志之声 微博编辑部即刻重新出发！—— 48 小时内，全因有你：同志之声 7 年前发起的 #我是同性戀# 微博话题阅读量超过 5 亿，超越 #撑同志反歧视# 成为中国互联网历史上最高阅读量的同志微博话题；48 小时内，世界十大报纸、党和政府的《人民日报》撰稿发文为同志发声；@微博管理员 最终修正错误决定，不再将同性恋列入违规内容清查范围。
——以上所有，都将被历史铭记。同志公益事业的路上，有你更有力量！我们将继续不遗余力传播健康的、科学的、有见地的同志资讯，让公众更客观、更科学地了解同志群体，从而消除歧视。同志之声也将不忘初心，继续在多领域为中国 LGBT 群体服务。
[Public announcement: #LGBT voices restores its operation#] Thank you so much for speaking out. What has happened in the last 48 hours could prove that just by speaking out, one can bring change. The editorial of @LGBT voices can continue again — within 48 hours because of you. The hashtag #IamLGBT, which we started using seven years ago, accumulated more than 500 million views. It became the most read LGBT topic surpassing the hashtag #SupportLGBT against discrimination in China’s internet history. Within 48 hours, more than 10 media outlets outside China and the government and party affiliated People’s Daily spoke out on the issue. @Weibo admin has amended its decision and will no longer list LGBT content in its censorship list.
All of this should be recorded in history. With you standing by us, LGBT community work will remain strong. We will continue to spread healthy, scientific and informative LGBT content so that the public will develop a more comprehensive and scientific understanding of the LGBT community. This is the best way to tackle discrimination. LGBT voices will stick to our mission and continue serving the Chinese LGBT community.
But this is just one barrier lifted, among many others that remain firmly in place.
The Weibo censorship announcement was not an isolated incident, nor was it a random mistake made by the company. It was the result of pressure from the censorship authorities. LGBT content has been a target of censorship crackdowns in recent years. WeChat user @Freedom-404 has documented the following LGBT content censorship incidents (via China Digital Times):
March 2018: A screening of the award-winning film, Call me by your name, was cancelled at the Beijing Film Festival. The movie, which tells the love story of a homosexual couple, won the Best Adapted Screenplay at the US Academy Awards and was nominated for the Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Original Music.
May 2017: Local media outlet, Metropolis Weekly, prepared a special feature for the International Day Against Homophobia. The outlet was forced to withdraw the series of reports.
June 2017: The Online Audio Visual Service Provider Association issued a guideline demanding that online platforms censor content related to abnormal sexual behaviors including incest, homosexuality, sexual violence, sadism and masochism. Soon after, online audio and visual content platforms, including Ximalaya.com and Youku had taken down a significant proportion of its LGBT content.
July 2017: When feminist scholar Li Yinhe spoke out for the LGBT community against the crackdown, her account was suspended for three months.
July 2015: A popular online video program, “Should I come out to my parents?” was banned by the the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. The official reason for the ban was that the guests were too sympathetic to “abnormal” sexual behavior and that the program challenged conventional values and morality.
Weibo’s amended decision and the reappearance of LGBT voices will probably do well to temper public outrage, but it doesn’t mean that LGBT content will be spared from the latest censorship crackdown.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
‘Compromising journalism. Compromising a young woman’s right to be herself. Compromising the nation.’ · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A screengrab from a YouTube video by CelebNews&Style, celebrating Trinidad and Tobago sprinter Michelle Lee Ahye's win in the 100m event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Sprinter Michelle Lee Ahye became the first woman to bring home a gold medal for Trinidad and Tobago when she won the 100m Commonwealth Games title on April 9, 2018. The country was overjoyed, with huge coverage in mainstream media and messages of appreciation and congratulations flooding social media.
Three days after Ahye's win, Justice Devindra Rampersad accomplished another “first” when he delivered his decision in the case of Jason Jones vs. the Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago, ruling that sections of the country's Sexual Offences Act that criminalise anal sex between consenting adults as well as “serious indecency” — which have been widely interpreted as solely applicable to homosexual sex — are “unconstitutional”.
These would have been two completely unrelated events had it not been for a front-page story in the Trinidad & Tobago Guardian on April 17, titled “Smear Factor”. The distasteful headline was accompanied by photos of Ahye and her partner, who happens to be a woman. The bullet points under the photographs claimed that they had been “leaked” online and “spark[ed] up homophobic debate”, the newspaper's supposed justification for publishing the story.
Although Ahye's manager told the newspaper that Ahye has “never kept anything from the public”, she had also never discussed her sexual orientation in the public arena before, so The Guardian's coverage effectively outed her in front of a national audience.
Most social media users, fed up of the holier-than-thou rhetoric that surrounded the Jason Jones court case, lashed out hard.
Facebook user Steven Valdez was incensed:
What a sorry nation we have become!
We don’t even remember how to celebrate anymore! We don’t recognize joy when it is right in front of us! We don’t even understand what the word pride means anymore!
Imagine this athlete brought home gold for all of us to celebrate, enjoy and take pride in, yet the focus of this front page story in today’s #GuardianNewspaper is on her sexual orientation.
Michelle, I would like to publicly apologise to you on behalf of the many hundreds of thousands of #TrinidadandTobago nationals that see this as nothing short of desperation to sell more newspapers and at the same time wish to thank you for representing the #RedWhiteAndBlack so well on the world stage last week. We also wish you all the best in your professional and personal life…
Lesley-Anne Macf was also feeling angry:
A private Facebook status update which reads: “Today we praise you…tomorrow we degrade you…” Used with permission.
While many netizens wondered why Ahye even bothered to represent Trinidad and Tobago, where both the public and private sectors have a reputation of not supporting athletes and then jumping on the bandwagon after they succeed, others were squarely facing down the issue of journalistic integrity (or lack thereof).
Caroline Taylor referred to the paper as “a conglomeration of desperation without conscience”, while activist Tillah Willah, who used to have a column in the Guardian, commented:
[…] the Jammette of St. Vincent Street aka the mouthpiece of the terrified has again been found in a compromising position. Compromising journalism. Compromising a young woman's right to be herself. Compromising the nation.
T&T Guardian of nothing.
Blogger Rhoda Bharath put it plainly:
Public Facebook status by Rhoda Bharath, which says, “Michelle Ahye is a national hero. Why is the Guardian attacking a national hero?”
Discussion was also rife on Twitter:
we really don't deserve michelle lee ahye. she made history, and won gold for our country, and y'all choose to expose HER PRIVATE LIFE. Trinis, more so the guardian papers, are disgusting.
— sheerece ?? (@sheer_tt) April 17, 2018
One Twitter user even suggested an alternative headline:
New Headline: Michelle Lee Ahye and Girlfriend look absolutely adorable together.
Fuck your homophobia. https://t.co/4z4gFSM1bK
— Pilsbury Dough Girl (@sydneyaijoseph) April 17, 2018
Ahye herself, according to one radio station's Facebook page, deleted her social media accounts, but not before sending one last tweet, which read, “Do something good for the country.. and they still find a way to be negative smh Trinidadians.”
Many social media users were calling for a boycott of the newspaper, though some netizens were not convinced that action would have much staying power. Others were asking for the resignation of the newspaper's editor.
In a guest post at Wired868, Sr. Sheila Rampersad attempted to dissect the editorial decision:
Fleeing from journalistic intelligence, skill and artfulness, they saw the kernel of a legitimate news story, wrapped it in cultural conformity and late afternoon testosterone, then dropped that obzocky boulder into dirty water. […]
At the core of the Guardian fail was a valid news story: Michelle-Lee Ahye not only won us gold on the Gold Coast but did so with near-perfect execution. She ran the race of her career on the same day Justice Devindra Rampersad upended the golden-apple cart. [Editor's note: It was actually three days after Ahye's race that the judicial decision was announced.]
In the thick, hateful backlash, people were evicted, spat upon, verbally and physically abused, threatened with violence. With Ahye fresh on the mind, someone outed her by circulating a photo of her with her significant other. Another aspect of ugly attacks on LGBT people; now they outing them with the intention to shame, diminish their selfhood and national contribution, and draw a bullseye on their backs.
That’s a story there. […]
Any editor reading that story should have known to casually guide the reporter to fill out the parts, link the items, remove the story’s self-doubt and its irrelevant facts. Easy call: suppress her gf, push harder at the reprisal angle. […]
Instead, instincts clashed. The story wanting to go one way, the presentation of the story decidedly heading in another: we have photos, man; use them! Crop the gf? Nah, man. She smoking!
The editor always wins.
The country loses. This time.
Ahye flies two flags in one monumental cultural moment.
Dr. Emir Crowne called the story “a thinly veiled attempt by the Guardian to trade off the recent, and intense, interest in LGBTQ issues and rights”:
Irrespective of where one stands on LGBTQ rights, the story was shameful. It demeaned one of our island’s greatest athletes for no countervailing journalistic purpose. […]
Perhaps the silver lining in all of this is tomorrow’s unqualified apology that the Guardian should issue, given that their editorial policy appears to be based largely around social media outrage.
The newspaper did issue an apology, which some netizens thought was too little, too late.
With the country's president urging both mainstream and social media to “be careful not to damage the national psyche by inadvertently inciting victimisation, bigotry and violence”, the discussion has now turned to the pressing concern of training journalists how to responsibly cover lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues.
Tillah Willah, who, along with a few activist colleagues, created workshops to equip people with the tools to deal more effectively with gender-based violence, LGBT and other human rights issues, prefaced her offer to conduct sessions with the press by explaining:
Having worked for most of my life in media of some sort, I'm careful about being critical. Having spent most of my life in activism of some sort I know what it's like when journalists don't do their homework, rush down a story and/or are more concerned with protecting the agendas of their media house rather than getting a story that gives context, history or sensitivity to an issue. Chasing deadlines doesn't always give us the space to do that kind of work but a greater sense of awareness then informs the way that you respond in the field.
She added that the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) had yet to take her up on her months-long offer for sensitivity training sessions.
After blogger Rhoda Bharath followed up with MATT, the organisation replied that it is in the process of finalising a venue for a workshop it has arranged, and said that it would issue an announcement once the location was confirmed.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Jordan’s poorer areas can go weeks without water, while the wealthier have a 24/7 supply · Global Voices
Maram Alkayed

Wadi Rum, Jordan. Photo by: TreksJo. Used with permission.
Jordan is the world’s second water-poorest country. One of its major surface water resources, the Jordan River, is shared with Israel, and another one, the Yarmouk River, is shared with Syria—both of which leave a fairly small share of water for Jordan.
When it comes to the 12 identified groundwater basins countrywide, sustainability is a concern as some are exploited to their maximum capacity, and others are overexploited, threatening their future use.
The situation has been exasperated by the 1.4 million additional people residing in Jordan and relying on its finite water resources, due to the Syrian war.
And looking to the future, climate change only threatens to make it worse. Scientists from Stanford University predict that by the end of the century, Jordan could be 4°C hotter, with about a third less rain. Thus, it is threatened with absolute scarcity, as droughts and their duration are expected to double between 2071 and 2100.
Although the struggle is undeniable, the 9,903,877 citizens of Jordan do not all feel it equally. The government’s failure to provide water for some places can often be linked to the area’s social status.
Sara Bader, a former resident of Amman's Al-Yasmine neighborhood (a rather crowded and less than average neighborhood) talked to Global Voices about her experience when she moved to Abdoun (an area considered to be for the elite classes):
We would get water two times a week [in Al-Yasmine], sometimes in the summer that is barely enough to get us through the week, so we would time doing the laundry and other water-consuming activities with the day the water would get pumped. We would always be very cautious when it came to water consumption. Now [in Abdoun], the water is pumped daily, and my mother does not care what day of the week it is for her to do laundry.
It may seem unfair for an area to have 24/7 water pumping while another only gets it twice a week, but the truth is that getting water pumped twice a week is a privilege that many Jordanians in the less fortunate places dream of.
In the poorer areas of Amman, in the provinces, and most importantly in the villages, water is pumped every 20 days, and sometimes not at all.
In a letter sent to the government to complain about the water issue, a citizen residing in the Jerash province stated:
I am delivering the struggle of hundreds of people to you—people whom have not had water pumped to them in 30 or 20 or 19 days.
He continued:
I have proof that some water pipes have not held water for over a year because city hall has not been pumping water to these places, not even once a month.
The comments on the letter by his fellow Jordanians indicate that the problem is shared by others. Many advised him to move to a house “next to a government representative” or “to a better neighborhood” so that he gets better water service, as infrequent pumping is “unnoticeable” in the “elite” neighborhoods.
A huge issue in the provinces is that families there often have more members, and that a large amount of these citizens are farmers who desperately need the water for their crops as well.
Not to mention that the government bills people for water service whether the citizens actually receive the service or not. In the case that they don’t, they have to buy water that is delivered by non-government-owned water services (or “water tanks”, as they are colloquially known). Thus, they have to pay two bills: one issued by the government, and one by whoever you hire to fill your tanks.
The price set by the government for these water tanks is 4 Jordanian dinars (6 US dollars per meter), already an amount that many people can't afford, but some of these services exploit citizens in their time of need, charging 5 dinars.
What is the reason behind the government's apparent neglect of the provinces when it come to their supply of water? An employee in the Water and Irrigation Ministry who spoke with GV and who preferred to remain anonymous said:
The reality is different than most people’s assumptions: it is not that the ministry is biased in the schedule, it is simply that the poorer areas have weak infrastructure and pipes which cannot stand continuous pumping as they already leak 2/3 of the water pumped through them. That is why these places do not have a non-stop supply of water, because the ministry cannot afford losing that much water on a daily basis, thus the water is pumped every week or every two weeks, and most of it is not delivered because of the leaks.
When asked why the ministry does not fix the leaks in the pipes or replace them all together, he simply commented that the budget cannot currently prioritize that.
However, the government promises a fairer distribution of water this year and that the provinces’ supply of water is secured for the summer. Hopefully, it keeps those promises — after all, water is a human right.

author: Maram Alkayed


text:
Troll farm takes aim at American audiences in new web campaign · Global Voices
Lawrence Alexander

Russian troll farm's latest media adventure is little more than a placeholder page at the moment // Screencap by Lawrence Alexander
On April 4, 2018, RIA FAN, a self-described news organization with known connections to Saint Petersburg’s Internet Research Agency (IRA), revealed its plans to launch a brand new venture, entitled “USA Really”, within the next month.
The project, initially reported by EU vs Disinfo, takes a stance consistent with the anti-Western, anti-liberal narrative of previous Internet Research Agency efforts. Examples include the now defunct Russian language sites usaend.net, goodbyeusa.com, and antiliberalism.com, all registered in 2014.
The agency, also the subject of the 2015 eponymous exposé in the New York Times Magazine, grabbed international headlines again in 2016, before and after the presidential elections in the United States.
The IRA's previous attempt in 2014 to influence American audiences via a traveling photographic exhibition titled “Material Evidence”, has already been documented by RuNet Echo and others. The troll farm also produced a bizarre, scatological attempt at humor, “I am Ass”, aimed at US readers: (“There’s shit in Obamacare.” “Shit is in Health Care, in spy scandals.” “US National Debt is the biggest piece of shit.”)
Although “USA Really” is less crude, anti-American themes remain. As RIA FAN announced:
The information flow coming from the US and its allies, which is aimed at discrediting the Russian Federation, should not remain unanswered by the Russian media…The Federal News Agency (FAN) is not going to put up with the hegemony of the US authorities in the information field.
On April 4, 2018, at least nine different domains — usareally.com, usareally.net, usareally.org, usareally.biz, usareally.us, usareally.space, americareally.info, usareally.info and usareally.ru — were registered using the moniker “usareally”. They all had different top-level domain extensions, perhaps chosen to provide superficial credibility for American audiences. The last domain is the only one with a Russian extension, and as yet, there is no site attached to it.
On closer examination, the project bears further hallmarks of Russian origins. For example, the designated mail server for usareally.com (mx.yandex.net) belongs to the Russian Yandex service, even though the site's main contact e-mail (work@usareally.com) gives no such indication.
In addition, viewing the site's source code reveals that its Google Fonts API address is set to support Cyrillic and Extended Cyrillic typefaces as a subset to the standard Western character set, though no Russian text is displayed to the reader. This may be a default setting left over from RIA FAN's many Russian-language sites:
Source code of usareally.com. Image by Lawrence Alexander.
But there are also more direct clues pointing specifically to the infamous troll farm. All but one of the domains was registered anonymously on April 4, 2018, through regprivate.ru, part of reg.ru — a Russian domain registrar that the Internet Research Agency has previously employed:
Most of the USAReally domains were registered using a Russian service, Reg.RU, centered on IP address 194.58.112.174. Image by Lawrence Alexander.
Furthermore, overall domain anonymization was poorly realized, with usareally.us including unredacted contact information under the name of Evgenii Zubarev, the CEO of RIA FAN, and similar “news agencies” sharing the same physical building and web infrastructure as the IRA. This includes a Russian Yandex e-mail address, riafan@yandex.ru, and a Saint Petersburg telephone number:
WHOIS information for usareally.us. Image by Lawrence Alexander.
The Internet Research Agency's network of anti-US and pro-Kremlin social media pages and sites, along with their allies and amplifiers, wasted no time in heralding the arrival of the project. On April 4, no more than a few hours after the USAReally domains had been registered, at least 20 such VK pages (including PolitDigest, Politstar and Putin Speaks) published links to the RIA FAN press release:
Pro-Kremlin VK pages amplify release announcing USAReally. Image by Lawrence Alexander.
In the press release, the “news agency” says it intends to recruit English-speaking contributors to assist with the project. To this end, usareally.com offers readers a humble invitation: “if you need this job, e-mail us”:
Main page of usareally.com. Image by Lawrence Alexander
It is clear that attempts to disguise the Russian and pro-Kremlin origins of the US-centred project have been both ill-conceived and quite limited. Links between the “Federal News Agency” and the Internet Research Agency have already been widely reported, and although six different domains have been registered, only one currently resolves to an active website.
At present, USAReally has probably received more attention from observers of pro-Kremlin propaganda on Twitter than from the uninformed readers for which it is intended:
Great work out there by @LawrenceA_UK and others who also track #Russian #disinformation and #troll activity. Piggy backing on this article, I ran a reverse image search for this new logo and voila. They're all over these RU sites.https://t.co/3rqMHPW7af pic.twitter.com/jc64rAeqxy
— Chris Sampson (@TAPSTRIMEDIA) April 19, 2018
Thread: Catching up on a great spot by @EUvsDisinfo: this advert for American journalists for a "Wake up America" programme from https://t.co/8PrHpKLXuQ.
"Who is https://t.co/8PrHpKLXuQ?", I hear you cry.
It's the troll factory. pic.twitter.com/QXSXgIRCUu
— Ben Nimmo (@benimmo) April 17, 2018
If the project was indeed conceived by the Internet Research Agency as an exercise in covert disinformation against the United States, it seems unlikely that it will now fulfill this purpose.

author: Lawrence Alexander


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Armenian civil society spreads its feathers in #YerevanProtests involving up to 100,000 people · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Serzh Sargsyan photographed at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2016. Kremlin image. Licensed for reuse.
For Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, 10 years in power were not enough, even if many of his fellow citizens had regularly indicated that they had already had their fill of him.
Now, the country's wily, grey schemer-in-chief may finally have met his match as protests swell against his attempt to ease into the PM's chair following two corruption-racked terms in office as president.
It is impossible to underestimate the scale of the protests. Armenia is a country of just over 3 million people. And yet upper estimates of numbers packed into the country's Republic Square exceed 100,000. Their demand is straightforward: they want Sargsyan, who became the country's Prime Minister on April 17 after serving the maximum two terms as president, to disappear from the national political scene.
Protests began before Sargsyan even took office as prime minister. As of late evening April 22, they are still peaking. No protester has been reported as being killed in clashes with police but scores have been injured.
Sargsyan's transition from president to premier was foretold by controversial constitutional changes passed by referendum in 2015 that empowered the PM position specifically. Sargsyan said at that the time he would not be seeking the newly emboldened hot seat of cabinet chief.
Almost no-one believed him.
Armenia could be facing a very scary night, depending on the reaction of government troops to a rally that continued to grow massively even after an MP and activists identified as the leaders of the protests were arrested on April 22.
Yet much like the protests that followed a proposed electricity tariff hike three years ago, the anti-Sargsyan protests trending under the hashtags #RejectSerzh and #YerevanProtests have testified to the tremendous force of the country's civil society.
Below are some of Global Voices’ favourite tweets from the protests.
?Created by Nikolay Torosyan 〰#civildisobedience #yerevan #armenia #protests #մերժիրսերժին #RejectSerzh #merjirserjin #ՔայլԱրա #yerevanprotests #unify #〰 #?? pic.twitter.com/XZUturvDwD
— Ara the Rat (@aratherat) April 21, 2018
Another epic picture from #Yerevan.#Armenia #RejectSerzh #ՄերժիրՍերժին pic.twitter.com/cpTB1oY2yE
— Tigran Grigoryan (@Tigartsakh) April 20, 2018
This is the generation who will fix our country #YerevanNow #Armenia #ArmeniaToday #RejectSerzh pic.twitter.com/aZxV4BEBJm
— iReport.am (@armenianpages) April 20, 2018
”The shop is closed. We went to a demonstration. #RejectSerzh”. #ՄերժիրՍերժին #YerevanProtests pic.twitter.com/ufgXPYgZoF
— Tigran Grigoryan (@Tigartsakh) April 21, 2018
Unprecedented numbers, perhaps anywhere from 70-100,000 ppl in Republic Square, something that Armenia hasn't witnessed – a protest without a leader, spontaneous people power. #RejectSerzh #YerevanProtests Photos by Roubina Margossian. pic.twitter.com/emc04DJf8z
— EVN Report (@evn_report) April 22, 2018
And the Oscar goes… to this man who addressed his wife on live newstream “Ira, I'll be home at 1″.#քայլարա #մերժիսերժին #rejectserj pic.twitter.com/NMcnv7yTFd
— vachagan gratian (@vgratian) April 17, 2018
For an on-the-ground view of the protests check out this report from Global Voices’ partner EurasiaNet.

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


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China Central Television backs Russian version of the Syrian crisis, saying chemical attacks were staged · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Screenshot from the CCTV news report citing Russian media, which claimed that the chemical attacks in Douma were staged.
Days after the United States, the United Kingdom and France launched airstirkes in Syria in response to the suspected use of chemical weapons near Damascus by the Syrian government, Chinese President Xi Jinping called British Prime Minister Theresa May and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stressing the need to cool down the conflict and investigate the chemical attacks.
But China's state-owned media outlets echoed Russia's allegation that the chemical attacks in Douma were staged. Microblogging website Weibo's top search result showed a China Central Television report about a Russian journalist’s interview with a Syrian child who was featured in a video distributed by various Western media outlets:
【俄记者揭露叙“化武袭击”造假视频：小男孩讲述摆拍过程】据俄罗斯媒体报道，英国等西方国家支持的“白头盔”组织人员用食物引诱叙利亚儿童拍摄虚假视频，炮制叙利亚遭所谓化武袭击后的惨状。视频里，人们正在紧急救治所谓“化武袭击”后的11岁男孩哈桑，而哈桑说：“刚一进去就有人把我抓住，开始把水浇到我身上。”
Russian reporter revealed the ‘chemical attack’ video was fake: the Syrian boy explained how the video was staged] According to Russian report, the ‘white helmet’ organization workers, supported by Britain and other Western countries, used food to lure Syrian kids into making the fake video that showed the so-called catastrophe of a chemical attack. The 11-year-old boy, Hassan, who received first aid after the purported chemical attacks, said, ‘People grabbed me and poured water all over me when I entered [the first aid station].’
As anticipated, the CCTV news features attracted a number of nationalistic and anti-imperialist comments, like this one:
一百多年前，美英法入侵中国，烧毁圆明园，今天，它们入侵叙利亚。帝国主义列强的强盗本性一直都没变。
More than one hundred years ago, the U.S., Britain and France invaded China and burned the Old Summer Palace; today they invaded Syria. The nature of imperialists has never changed.
The Syrian civil war broke out after several months of a violent government crackdown against unarmed protesters in 2011; the armed conflict has led to the death of more than half a million people in the country. Despite the subsequent humanitarian crisis, China has often sided with Russia in vetoing United Nations Security Council resolutions on the crisis, claiming that military invention and economic sanctions would derail the issue of political settlement and undermine regional peace and stability. China has supported five of the seven Russian-led vetoes.
After the US-led airstrikes, China again voted in favor of a resolution drafted by Russia to condemn the military interventions. China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, stressed:
As always, we oppose the use of force in international relations and call for respect for other countries’ sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. Any unilateral military action bypassing the Security Council runs contrary to the purpose and principles of the UN charter and violates the principles of international law and the basic norms governing international relations, and will further complicate the Syrian issue.
At the same time, viral commentary circulated on various social media platforms comparing the current Syrian crisis to China's situation during the First and Second World Wars, and arguing that weak countries will always be bullied by strong ones — hence, it is essential for China to become strong.
However, many netizens did not buy the Russian version of the story — although, to be accurate, Russia put forward several accounts of the events, first claiming that the chemical attacks were staged, then that they were real but Assad wasn’t responsible, then that they were indeed staged, but by the UK. Russian state TV even used a set from a movie to emphasize that the attacks were fake.
Judging from the CCTV discussion thread on Weibo, though, it was the “fake news” narrative that stuck, many netizens found it implausible:
谁证明这个不是摆拍的。？谁能证明这个视频的真实性？
Who can prove that this video was not staged? Who can prove that this video is for real?
不要相信俄罗斯
Do not believe Russia.
世界近代史，所有的邪恶都与俄罗斯有关
In contemporary world history, Russia has a role in all evil deeds.
@ComYouthLeague, a political satire social media outlet, mocked China’s propaganda:
【短评】美国此次轰炸叙利亚，中国媒体造谣煽动力度非常大。这侧面说明戳到了中国政府的痛处。此前俄罗斯爹地一再暗示强硬保护阿萨德。结果美国扔了一通导弹，俄罗斯大气不敢出，更别说帮着拦导弹了。这让习近平心里怎么想？俄罗斯爹地怎么不要孩儿们了？说好的再爱我一次呢？ pic.twitter.com/FEMRUtrpIi
— 共青团流亡中央 (@ComYouthLeague) April 17, 2018
[Short commentary] Mainland Chinese media outlets spent great effort in spreading rumors concerning the U.S. airstrikes in Syria. This, in a way, reflected that airstrikes had hurt the Chinese government. The Russian daddy once promised that he would protect Assad. Yet, the US launched airstrikes and Russia could not do anything, let alone block the missiles. How would Xi feel about that? Has the Russian daddy given up on his kids? What has happened to the promise of love?
One key component that is missing from the Chinese social media discussion is the misery of the Syrian people — and it begs the ethical question of why China, if it really is a strong country, keeps voting at the UN against international intervention, under the pretext of state sovereignty. If Western countries are the imperialists as Chinese propaganda authorities and nationalists have suggested, what is China in the arena of international politics?


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Angolan authorities bring journalist Rafael Marques back to court, for investigating corruption · Global Voices
Dércio Tsandzana

The journalist Rafael Marques in a seminar in Stanford in September 2016. Photo: Youtube screenshot/Stanford CDDRL
Angolan journalist Rafael Marques is once again being brought to court for his investigative work.
This time, Marques is facing charges of “insulting public authorities” after having published an article in October 2016 on the independent news website Maka Angola (of which he is the founder and editor) that raised questions over possible corruption against now-former Attorney General João Maria de Souza.
Mariano Lourenço, chief editor of the newspaper O Crime, which published the article in print, is facing the same charges. Marques is also being accused of “offending an organ of sovereignty” for allegedly having offended the ex-president José Eduardo dos Santos in the same piece.
The article reveals the ex-Attorney General’s acquisition of three hectares of land (around four football fields) in 2011, for 600,000 kwanzas (2,500 USD), to construct a residential compound. It is a beach front property in the city of Porto Amboim, around 220 km south of the capital Luanda, according to documents obtained by Maka Angola.
Since gaining independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola has been under the leadership of the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA), the party of the current president João Lourenço, who was elected in August 2017. Lourenço replaced José Eduardo dos Santos, who was in power for over 35 years and headed a government accused of human rights abuses and restrictions on freedom of expression, with journalists and critics frequently harassed.
Souza's attorneys say that the Angolan journalists published the article a year after he lost the land's concession for failing to pay its fees. Rafael Marques’ defense contends that there nevertheless have been irregularities in the land's acquisition.
His lawyer Horácio Junjuvili told Deutsche Welle in March:
“A factualidade apontada pelo Ministério Público incide diretamente sobre a liberdade de imprensa e de expressão. Nestes termos, o que começa por estar em julgamento neste caso é a liberdade de imprensa, designadamente no que tange ao combate à corrupção.”
The facts indicated by the prosecutor directly concern the freedom of the press and of expression. In those terms, what is on trial in this case is the freedom of the press, specifically when it concerns the fight against corruption.
Charges were first brought against Marques in December 2017. The trial finally began on 19 March. The last hearing, scheduled for 16 April, was canceled due to the absence of João Maria de Souza, who argued that, as a retired judge, he could claim immunity from the proceedings and thus decline to be brought before the Provincial Court of Angola.
The judge presiding over the case determined that João Maria de Souza will be compelled to appear on 24 April in one of the rooms of the Public Prosecutor's Office, behind closed doors.
This is not the first time that Marques has faced prosecution for his journalistic work in Angola. In 1999, he spent 42 days in prison, without any formal charge against him, after having published a piece in which he described then-president José Eduardo dos Santos as a “corrupt dictator”.
In 2016, he was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine for publishing the book Blood Diamonds: Torture and Corruption in Angola (Diamantes de Sangue: Tortura e Corrupção em Angola), edited in Portugal in 2011, which denounces human rights abuses in the country’s diamond mines. Marques was accused of libel against mining companies and Angolan army generals involved in the diamond trade.
In May 2016, following pressure by international and civil society organizations, all the accusations against Marques relating to the book were withdrawn by Angola’s authorities.
According to Marques’ then defense lawyer, David Mendes, this trial has seen a series of irregularities, among them the fact that the court declined to hear testimony from experts and witnesses, apart from Marques himself. He told DW at the time:
“Para quem acompanhou o processo, viu-se que não houve discussão da causa. Foi ouvido o réu mas não foi discutida a matéria fática ou seja os factos não foram discutidos. Ouviu-se o réu e as testemunhas e os declarantes foram dispensados. O juiz não pode decidir com aquilo que vem da instrução. Então não havia razão de haver um julgamento. […] O julgamento só serve para o apuramento das razões facticas da justificação ou não dos elementos constituintes do crime. Não foi discutido o crime, não foram discutidas as matérias que teriam levado a convicção do tribunal. De onde o tribunal partiu da convicção para condenar?
For those who followed the trial, they saw that there was no discussion of the case. The defendant was heard but the factual matter was not discussed, that is, the facts were not discussed. The defendant was heard, but witnesses and speakers were dismissed. The judge cannot decide with that what comes from the hearing. Then there was no reason to have a trial […] A trial only serves to verify the factual reasons for the justification or not of the constituent elements of the crime. The crime was not discussed, the issues which would have persuaded the court were not discussed. Where did the court’s certainty come from to pass sentence?
The Portuguese editor of Tinta da China made available a free PDF download of the book Blood Diamonds.
When it comes to people working to uncover human rights violations, Rafael Marques is not the only one to face pressure from the Angolan government.
In one case, known as 15+2, a group of activists was arrested in June 2015 during a group study session on Angolan politics, focusing on the book From Dictatorship to Democracy by the American writer Gene Sharp, which proposes peaceful forms of protest.
In March 2016, the courts gave them prison sentences varying from six months to two years and three months, accused of preparing rebellion and conspiracy. In May 2016, the sentences were reduced to house arrest.
Another activist targeted by authorities is José Marcos Mavungo, founder of the human rights organization, the Mpalabanda Civic Association of Cabinda (Mpalabanda Associação Civica de Cabinda). Mavungo was detained in March 2015, accused of rebellion, and later sentenced to six years in prison. In May 2016 he was freed due to “lack of evidence”.
Cabinda, currently an enclave of Angola north of the River Congo, was a Portuguese protectorate from 1885 to 1956, when the colonial administration decided to govern the region from Angola, but without the agreement of local leaders. Since the 1960s, the region has faced an armed separatist insurgency that intensified after the independence of Angola, which inherited sovereignty over the area from the Portuguese.
The conflict has caused a lot of suffering to Cabinda’s people. Over the years, various international organizations have criticized Angola’s military operations in Cabinda for human rights violations and restrictions on freedom of expression.
In December 2017, 28 activists belonging to the organization Association for the Development of Human Rights Culture (ADCDH) in Cabinda were detained when they were preparing to participate in a peaceful demonstration. They were freed the same day.

author: Dércio Tsandzana


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#SOSNicaragua: At least 25 killed in Nicaragua protests, including one journalist, say human rights groups · Global Voices
Melissa Vida

Protesters killed in Nicaragua, confirmed by independent news site Confidencial. Photo compilation by Confidencial. Individual photos via various social media channels.
In Nicaragua, what began as demonstrations against social security reforms have become a national outcry against corruption, censorship and overall repression.
In just five days of demonstrations, the government has carried out a violent crackdown. While state sources are reporting a death toll of 10, human rights and protest groups estimate that at least 25 people have been killed in protests, with many more injured, and dozens detained or disappeared. One journalist and one police officer are among the dead.
Multiple TV networks have been banned from broadcasting the demonstrations. Access to Confidencial, a local independent news site reporting on the protester death toll, was faltering shortly before this article was published.
On April 18, the government – led by President Daniel Ortega and First Lady Rosario Murillo, who is also the vice president – unilaterally adopted an executive decree reducing the pension allowance by 5% and implementing additional social security taxes to employers and employees.
In response, retirees and students organized peaceful demonstrations to voice their disagreement but were met with anti-riot police forces and members of the Sandinista Youth parastatal group. Chaos erupted from there. Clashes have since turned violent and some protesters have reported that police are using live ammunition.
Video journalist Ángel Gahona was shot dead on April 21 while live broadcasting a protest through Facebook Live.
Nicaraguan journalist Angel Eduardo Gahona spent the last four minutes of his life covering youth protest and incoming riot police tonight in Bluefields. He was streaming live on facebook when he was shot and killed. This was his last broadcast: https://t.co/ixWxQkzCZd pic.twitter.com/4c8eXf0alL
— Sandra Cuffe (@Sandra_Cuffe) April 22, 2018
Other journalists have been attacked and assaulted, and have had their equipment stolen. In parallel, at least three TV channels were banned from reporting on the protests.
In a country where media freedom is fleeting, censorship has not deterred Nicaraguans, who are live broadcasting, tweeting and video blogging about the crisis on the ground.
Hashtags such as #SOSNicaragua, #SOSINSS and #QueSeRindaTuMadre have gone viral on Twitter and Facebook, and raw videos are being uploaded on Dropbox. Through online activism, Nicaraguans are pleading for international support — though they are specifically asking the US not to intervene.
Demonstrators in Managua. Screenshot from Euronews video.
While college students are the face of the movement, Nicaraguans from across the political spectrum are actively supporting them, starting with feminist and peasant groups, retirees, and students’ parents. This is why demonstrators stress they are not linked to a specific political party, but are making demands in the name of human rights and democracy in Nicaragua. The protestors call themselves “the self-organized, self-summoned.”
Journalist Wilfredo Miranda filmed a demonstration where protesters ironically shout “here is the minority,” in reference to Vice-President Murillo's belief that the outcry only represents a minority of Nicaraguans.
“Aquí está la minoría”, le responden a Rosario Murillo #SOSInss pic.twitter.com/QnkTJ3c63h
— Wilfredo Miranda Aburto (@PiruloAr) April 21, 2018
Since students have born the brunt of police killings and aggression, civilians are gathering supplies and medicines for them in universities and in the Managua Cathedral, as the Church backs the upheaval.
In a video posted to Facebook by Franklin Leonel, we see students and doctors caring for the wounded in university halls. In a caption, he writes:
No son pandilleros!!! #SOSNicaragua masacran a nuestros estudiantes!!!
They are not criminals!!! #SOSNicaragua they're killing our students!!!
The government’s official position has been shifting in public statements, but the state-enforced violence seems to continue.
President Ortega publicly ignored the protests for three days, before making an appearance on April 21. Military troops multiplied on the streets thereafter. Later, he declared that he was open to a dialogue with the private sector, who accepted the invitation under certain conditions, such as inviting other sectors of society at the table. President Ortega did not reply and instead repealed the social security reform altogether on April 22.
But the protests now have expanded beyond the cause of the social security reform. Demonstrators are demanding justice for those who have been killed by police and military gunfire, and are demanding an end to government corruption. Some are calling for the overall dissolution of Ortega’s government.
On Facebook, protest supporter Leonor Zúniga posted a video explaining the situation:
…the people are tired. It’s been 11 years that we’ve been in a very authoritarian [state], where we've been constantly repressed, where state decisions are made in secret, where we’re never taken into account.
[…]
I think that [the social security reform] was the last straw.
The now-repealed social security reform was, as Zúniga says, the last straw in a decline of government accountability, economic conditions, environmental degradation (including recent wildfires in the Indio Maíz nature reserve) and democratic institutions at large.
Nicaragua, a country of six million people, lived under the Somoza authoritarian regime until the Sandinista Revolution toppled the government in 1979. In the 1980s, a civil war raged between the Sandinista regime and the “Contras”, opposition fighters financed and armed by the US government. Daniel Ortega, a former guerrillero and member of the Sandinista National Liberal Front (FSLN in Spanish) was elected president in 1985. He remained in office until he lost a reelection bid in 1990, which brought about the end of the civil war.
Ortega was reelected in 2007 and has remained in power ever since. His tenure has been marked by the abolition of presidential term limits, an increasingly muzzled press, opaque business deals, and direct control over the police, the military and both the judiciary and legislative branches of government.

author: Melissa Vida


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What were Global Voices’ readers up to last week? · Global Voices
L. Finch

“The reader” by Flickr user dominique cappronnier. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
At Global Voices, our community researches, writes, edits, and translates stories with a mission to support human rights and build bridges of understanding across countries, cultures, and languages.
We don't publish just to grab clicks or follow a news trend. We do, however, like to keep track of the ways in which our hard work has impact around the world.
To that end, one useful metric is how readers respond to our stories and translations. So let's take a look at who our readers were and what caught their attention during the week of April 16-22, 2018.
Last week, our stories and translations attracted readers from 207 countries! The top 20 countries represented across all of Global Voices’ sites were:
1. United States
2. Brazil
3. Japan
4. Mexico
5. France
6. Spain
7. Peru
8. Colombia
9. Taiwan
10. Argentina
11. United Kingdom
12. Italy
13. Russia
14. Germany
15. Canada
16. Bangladesh
17. India
18. Indonesia
19. Ecuador
20. Chile
But that's only a small slice of the diversity of our readership. Let's use the True Random Number Generator from Random.org and take a look at a few other countries on the list:
69. Cameroon
115. Macau
42. Egypt
83. Vietnam
201. Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
The English-language site is where the majority of original content is first published at Global Voices. The top five most-read stories of last week were:
1. Jamaican dancehall star Buju Banton’s impending release from prison sparks renewed controversy
2. School history assignment stirs up a storm in Jamaica over how slavery should be taught
3. Syria and the anti-imperialism of idiots
4. China Central Television backs Russian version of the Syrian crisis, saying chemical attacks were staged
5. Empty Nets Syndrome: How young fishing families on Cambodia’s Mekong are struggling to survive
Lingua is a project that translates Global Voices stories into languages other than English. There are about 30 active Lingua sites. Below is last week's most-read story or translation on each active language site.

author: L. Finch


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Armenia’s leader resigns amid peaceful mass protests · Global Voices
Eurasianet

The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org written by Joshua Kucera. Republished with permission.
Armenia's longtime leader stepped down April 23, toppled by an overwhelming wave of peaceful, homegrown protests in what had been one of the post-Soviet world's most stagnant states. The move set off a wave of unprecedented celebration in the country and set the stage for what promises to be a dramatic, unpredictable political future.
“I am giving up the post of the country’s prime minister,” Serzh Sargsyan said in a statement. “The movement in the streets is against my tenure. I comply with your demand.”
He also gave credit to the leader of the protests, whose arrest the day before only gave more energy to the movement and made it appear unstoppable: “Nikol Pashinyan was right. I was mistaken. There are a number of solutions in the current situation, but I will not resort to any of them.”
The resignation was the culmination of 10 days of protests in Yerevan and elsewhere in Armenia aiming to force Sargsyan out. Protestors expressed long-held resentment toward Sargsyan, who has led Armenia through a period of economic stagnation and deep, high-level corruption. But they were catalyzed by Sargsyan's announcement two weeks before that he would take over the prime minister position as the country shifted from a presidential to a parliamentary one, thus offering the prospect of his continuing to rule indefinitely.
Armenia has seen a number of large street protest movements throughout the last several years, making most observers skeptical about the efficacy of yet another one. But this time the built-up resentment, combined with the political skills of Pashinyan, created a momentum that the government couldn't stop.
The stunning news of Sargsyan's resignation sent tens of thousands of revelers into the streets of Yerevan, streaming into Republic Square, the geographic center of the protest movement, in utter jubilation.
Groups broke into circle dances, shouted “Victory!” and “Armenia!” Men in track suits gave one another huge bear hugs; one group of civic-minded teenaged girls was even picking up empty plastic bottles on the street. Some just sat quietly in the square, satisfied by being surrounded with their joyous fellow citizens.
“It's like our nation is reborn,” said one of the celebrants, Sona Makasyan.
Asked what she thought awaited Armenia next, Makasyan jumped up and down. “It's gonna be great!” she said. “No, we know that there are struggles ahead, but this is the first step. It's a new Armenia.”
Many of the revelers went out of their way to thank police officers on the scene. Throughout the protests, many Armenians feared that a violent crackdown could be coming, and there were scattered cases of police arresting protesters violently.
But those episodes were forgiven, as the decisive crackdown never came. One twenty-something girl took off the red beret of one of the special police forces, put it on and posed for a selfie with him as he smiled bashfully.
“I hope that now everything is going to be done for the good of the people, that police will serve the people and not the leaders,” said another celebrant, Karen Muradyan.
One nearby red-bereted officer, Karen Hayapetyan, was accepting congratulations from passers-by. He laconically expressed hope that “it will all be better now,” but added that “we have always served the people.”
Sargsyan's resignation was only the last in a series of dramatic developments throughout the weekend. Earlier on Monday, Pashinyan was released from jail, a day after he had been arrested in what proved to be an ill-conceived attempt to behead the protest movement and disorient it. Protesters instead responded by coming out to a massive rally, with a crowd estimated at over 100,000 people.
Pashinyan was released shortly after a group of soldiers was seen, in their uniforms, marching with the protesters in Yerevan. Protesters had been looking for signs of defections from the government, and the sight of the soldiers heartened them. It may also have disheartened Sargsyan.
“First they offered me that Serzh Sargsyan would resign in October, then in two months, then on April 25,” Pashinyan told the crowd in Republic Square in the evening after his release. “I made my offer on behalf of all of you: Serzh Sargsyan must resign within two hours. And that is what happened.”
Pashinyan called for a “people's candidate” to be elected as prime minister within a week, and then new elections as soon as possible.
The dramatic transition opened up a slew of fundamental questions about the country's political future, none of them immediately answerable. The government did announce that Sargsyan's replacement would be Karen Karapetyan, the former prime minister and now a deputy prime minister. It was unclear, however, whether the government saw that as a long-term arrangement or if he would just be a caretaker. Pashinyan said he is scheduled to meet Karapetyan on April 25.
The protesters in the streets were not represented by any significant political movement. Sargsyan's Republican Party and its allies control nearly all seats in parliament, the only exception being the Yelk Alliance, from which many of the protest leaders, including Pashinyan, came. But Yelk holds only nine of the 105 seats in parliament.
The Republicans’ dominance of Armenian politics is due as much as anything to its ability to pressure Armenians, especially government workers, to vote for it, as well as to buy off their votes. One of Pashinyan’s demands has been new, free and fair elections, but it's not clear how that will happen.
The road ahead also is beset with geopolitical pitfalls. Armenia is highly dependent on Russia, and Sargsyan was a relatively loyal ally to the Kremlin. Yelk, meanwhile, has a pro-Western orientation and advocated for leaving the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union. And Russia has long been fearful of popular revolutions in post-Soviet states.
But after Sargsyan resigned, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova issued a surprisingly positive statement: “A people who can even in the most difficult moments in their history not break apart and maintain respect for one another, in spite of categorial disagreements, is a great people. Armenia, Russia is always with you!”
Geopolitics was all left for another day, however. In the evening, as Pashinyan spoke, the streets surrounding the square were filled with impromptu dance parties powered by car-stereo DJs.
“It's impossible to describe our situation now,” one reveler, Marina Muradyan, said. “It's just fantastic.”

author: Eurasianet


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Skopje’s pedestrians call out cars and cafes for dangerously invading their #PublicSpace · Global Voices
Jovan Kovachevski

A collage of the most tweeted photos from the hashtag #ЈавенПростор on Twitter.
With lack of parking space a big issue in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, drivers are frequently encroaching on public space meant for pedestrians, forcing those on foot to take a more dangerous path on the road.
The issue isn't new and seems to have only been getting worse. Drivers have been treating crosswalks, parks, sidewalks, private garage entrances, and playgrounds — anywhere a person can walk — as their own parking lots. Bars and restaurants have also taken over part or all of the sidewalk to create terraces and increase profits.
Their choice can block the way and force people, including more vulnerable populations like mothers with baby carriages or those with disabilities, to walk in the street alongside traffic.
City authorities have largely turned a blind eye to the problem or, on several occasions, reacted only after an accident in which pedestrians were killed by vehicles caused public outcry.
A Twitter user under the name @baljumbaljum created the hashtag #ЈавенПростор (#PublicSpace) to raise awareness around the issue plaguaging citizens of the capital.
Отварам хаштаг #ЈавенПростор и оставам фотографиите да зборуваат сами за себе. Пинг @CityofSkopje pic.twitter.com/TNOyUCPQfk
— 100Le (@baljumbaljum) April 16, 2018
I'm opening #PublicSpace hashtag and I'm letting the photos speak for themselves.
Twitter users were quick to contribute to the hashtag, and online media have begun to pay attention too.
NGOs such as Skopje Smog alarm also joined in. When asked why they are participating if their core work relates to air pollution, they responded that cars contribute about 20% of air pollution.
#ЈавенПростор #Железничка pic.twitter.com/ImvEoyNtKQ
— Skopje Smog Alarm (@SkopjeSmogAlarm) April 18, 2018
#PublicSpace [next to the] #RailwayStation
The reaction has also lead to an online petition titled “Stop parking on the sidewalk” which to date has collected 7,188 signatures. The goal is to force city authorities to stop the practice of parking on walkways.
Some of the examples of tweets using the hashtag include a monument that isn't paid any respect:
#јавенпростор кисела вода pic.twitter.com/iTh75K8uKr
— Les meraques (@LeCaffeine) April 18, 2018
#PublicSpace [in the municipality of] Kisela Voda.
A senior citizen struggling to use the walkway taken up by parked vehicles:
#ЈавенПростор, Никола Парапунов, Карпош 4 pic.twitter.com/YqyMRVVX5N
— Dragica (@nidragica) April 17, 2018
#PublicSpace Nikola Parapunov Street, Karpoš 4 [a district of a municipality in Skopje]
A restaurant that has staked claim on part of the street:
#ЈавенПростор pic.twitter.com/12y6Sm7hzU
— 100Le (@baljumbaljum) April 16, 2018
#PublicSpace
And police who are part of the problem:
Нема доволно полицајци за да пишуваат казни за паркирање на тротоар. Сите се зафатени. pic.twitter.com/ZbI3NIPsTm
— Inicijativa1 (@inicijativa1) April 18, 2018
There are not enough police officers to write tickets for parking on the sidewalk. They are all busy [at a local cafe].
If there's room in front of a building, a car will park:
Мал придонес за #ЈавенПростор pic.twitter.com/x4nkYyf9RL
— Bibs (@gragjankata) April 17, 2018
A small contribution for #PublicSpace
This restaurant has completely occupied the walkway:
2 прашања до Центар и МВР:
1.Што ќе се случи доколку наместо на 100% од ширината на тротоарот, кафаната ја поставивме на 100% од ширината на улицата?
2.Колку време ќе ви треба да ја отстраните од улицата? И зошто не треба исто толку за да ја отстраните од тротоар?#ЈавенПростор pic.twitter.com/IAsTOYm9gM
— Inicijativa1 (@inicijativa1) April 18, 2018
Questions for Centar Municipality and the Ministry of Interior:
1. What would happen if instead of 100% of the width of the sidewalk, the restaurant occupies 100% of the width of the street?
2. How much time would you have needed to remove it from the street? And why don't you use the same amount of time to remove it from the sidewalk?
#PublicSpace
The more expensive the car, the worse the offence:
#ЈавенПростор #ДебарМаало pic.twitter.com/PNlEMOh1Ud
— Skopje Smog Alarm (@SkopjeSmogAlarm) April 18, 2018
#PublicSpace in Debar Maalo, a district in Centar Municipality.
Even hospitals are no exception:
Нема проблем бе, пациентите ќе се снаоѓаат #ЈавенПростор pic.twitter.com/YK7VirDmxL
— Bibs (@gragjankata) April 18, 2018
No problem, pal, the patients will find a way. #PublicSpace
In this case, a public space offender (the vehicle) encroaches on another public space offender (the restaurant):
#ЈавенПростор pic.twitter.com/e53Elkdbi0
— 100Le (@baljumbaljum) April 16, 2018
#PublicSpace
Pictured here is a mother walking her baby on the street due to occupied public space:
#ЈавенПростор #ДебарМаало pic.twitter.com/RCe0CbZK6C
— Skopje Smog Alarm (@SkopjeSmogAlarm) April 19, 2018
#PublicSpace #DebarMaalo
And in this photo a person using a wheelchair travels in the road as the walkway is occupied by parked vehicles:
Спаваш ли мирно Богдановичу Српчу?@OpstinaCentar @CityofSkopje @SDSMakedonija @VladaMK pic.twitter.com/rnIMcGticx
— ТвитеротНаАнаФранк (@box_kiki) April 18, 2018
How do you sleep at night, [Centar Municiplaity Mayor Saša Bogdanović]?
#ЈавенПростор (#PublicSpace) regularly features as one of the most popular hashtags on Macedonian Twitter, according to the Macedonian Trending (@trendingmk) service. Some Twitter users have suggested that its popularity would be better harnessed if more people tag the responsible institutions and officials directly in their tweets, instead of just using the hashtag
Whether it is as effective as it could be or not, #ЈавенПростор is nevertheless an important reminder of civic values in a society where abuse of the commons has become so widespread over the years that it's considered “normal” by many.

author: Jovan Kovachevski


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Why did China take its own propaganda film offline? Netizens point to US tech sanctions · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Amazing China ranked 1.1 out of 10 on IMDb. Screen shot.
Amazing China, a documentary film that displays China’s achievements in science, technology and poverty reduction under the leadership of Xi Jinping, had suddenly been taken offline.
In an April 19 letter to multimedia platform operators, the film's distributor, China film Co. Ltd, wrote:
衷心感謝貴公司對我公司版權業務的大力支持，為營造和諧有序的網絡播出環境，現就《勵害了，我的國》播出規則通知如下：
現接到中宣部領導指示，全部商業視頻網站緊急停止播出。具體上綫日期另行通知，請貴司務必重視及遵守要求，給貴司帶來的不便敬請理解。
We are grateful to your company’s support for our copyright business. In order to nourish a harmonious online environment, we are issuing an announcement about the distribution of “Amazing China”:
We received notice from the leader of the propaganda department instructing all commercial online video platforms to take down [the film] until further notice. Please follow the instruction seriously and please accept our apology for the inconvenience caused.
The documentary film, which was based on a series of feature reports produced by the China Central Television, was released and shown in the cinema on March 2, 2018.
As “Amazing China” is a major propaganda film, a majority of state and party-affiliated organizations and companies were mobilized to watch the documentary. By April 14, the film had earned RMB 465 million yuan [approximately USD $105 million], setting a new record for documentary film earnings in China. Below is a trailer promoting the film.
There is no official explanation for why the film would affect China's “harmonious” online environment. Some have wondered if the take-down was just intended to extend the film's time in theaters.
However, Twitter user “Four seasons commentary” posted the take-down notice and speculated that the film was taken down as a response to the new US sanctions of ZTE, a Chinese telecommunications hardware company:
《厉害了我的国》里说
中国已经研发出量子芯片，
碳纳米管也在今年完成了试验。
这些都是美国也没能研发成功的技术。
而中兴门事件一出，那个宏大的纪录片赶紧全网下架了。
谁害了我的国？ pic.twitter.com/XA5a8uxT8N
— 纵横四季 (@4jZIM2gyFOZADHO) April 23, 2018
“Amazing China” said China has successfully developed quantum semi-conductors and conducted experiments on carbon nanotubes. Even the US has not mastered such advanced technology. Now that the ZTE incident has been exposed, the grand documentary has to be taken down all of a sudden. Who has harmed our country?
The above tweet references the putonghua pronunciation of Amazing China which is Li hai le, wo de guo. This can also mean “You have harmed my country.”
Last week, the US government banned American companies from doing business with China’s ZTE Corp for making false statements during an investigation of the company’s business dealings with Iranian entities.
On Weibo, China's most popular social media platform, many users also see the US-China trade war and the ZTE incident as a heavy blow to China's image as a strong country.
A popular Weibo post said:
中兴被禁售应该能打破一些人“厉害了，我的国”的幻想了吧？中国在贸易战中是处于全面劣势的，目前只能通过限制农产品进口试图削弱特朗普的农业人口票仓，以美国经济的体量来说，这实在是九牛一毛的。而美国在半导体、发动机、光学、生物医药、材料、化工、精密机床等诸多高科技领域都持有技术垄断，随便哪个制裁一下都会给中国的相关产业带来重大打击。
US sanctions on ZTE should have shattered the illusion of “Amazing China”. China was on the weak side in the US-China trade war and could only restrict agriculture imports to press Trump's voters in the agricultural section. But the real impact is small considering the US economy. On the other hand, the US has monopoly status in advanced technology – semiconductors, compression ignition engines, optics, biomedical, new materials, chemical, precision machine tools. Any sanctions on these technological sector products would hit the Chinese industry really hard.
Indeed, the incident has exposed China's vulnerability as a technology innovator. China relies heavily on the import of semiconductors for the manufacturing of computers, mobile phones, aircraft, vehicles and more. Currently, 60 percent of computer chips sold globally go to China every year.
But “Amazing China” tells a different story. The film presents China as a country that once imported chips but has ascended the ranks and now become a major chip exporter. It also suggests that China is leading the world in semiconductor technology.
As anticipated, people reacted to the contradictions between the film propaganda and what appears to be the real story. Twitter user Zhang Yujin said:
我费了不少功夫找到这部《厉害了我的国》的新时代样板戏，真是大制作，看到介绍中国成为芯片出口大国、申请专利最多、运算规模是世界记录五倍的时候我又迷惑了？
中兴通讯怎不找这个导演去买芯片？@妝旌芝 [掩面][掩面]
— 张汝儁 (@LFa35KxktB2WHOX) April 23, 2018
It has taken me some time to get a copy of “Amazing China,” a propaganda film for a new era. This is a grand production in which you see China as a chip export country which holds the largest number of chip patents. The scale of performance has broken the world record, etc. I am so confused. How come ZTE did not buy chips from the film director?


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How an Indian professor is turning plastic trash into highways · Global Voices
Ensia

This post by Todd Reubold was originally published on Ensia.com, a magazine that highlights international environmental solutions in action, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Plastic pollution is one of the greatest challenges facing the world. Just last week, scientists writing in the journal Scientific Reports announced that the weight of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was four to 16 times more than we thought.
All of this means finding ways to recycle and reuse plastic waste are more important than ever.
Enter Rajagopalan Vasudevan, a professor at the Thiagarajar College of Engineering in Madurai, India. After seeing plastic waste was a growing problem throughout the country, he devised a method for converting recycled, shredded plastic waste into flexible, long-lasting roadways:
When I started the work, some of the companies in the United States they came to know that, they were offering a lot of money. They wanted the technology to be given to them, but I said no, we are not giving like that. I'm giving to my country freely.
To date, thousands of kilometers of highways in India have been paved using the process he invented, thereby reducing the amount of plastic waste that might otherwise be released into the environment:
India's got 41 lakhs (4.1 million) kilometers, only 1 lakh is laid. The other roads should be laid. That is the motivation for the whole work.
Budapest, Hungary-based filmmaker Seth Coleman produced, shot and edited this video.

author: Ensia


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The chilling effect of officials discussing Telegram’s imminent ban in Iran · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

A cartoon from the semi-official state news website Fars News, depicting a Iranian user drowning in Telegram. Image published with the intent to redistribute.
Recent discussions surrounding Telegram's imminent censorship amongst Iranian officials have rattled Iran's “filternet,” or its controlled and restricted Internet space, like never before.
The parliamentary National Security Commission announced at the end of March that Telegram would cease to be accessible in Iran by the end of April 2018.
Since 2015, the popular mobile messaging app has become a key communications technology inside of Iran. While internet penetration hovers around 50 million, Telegram users number around 45 million in Iran.
Telegram's exponential growth in Iran has raised key concerns about the privacy of its users and elicited increasing pressure from the Iranian government to try to control the platform.
The issue came to a brief fever pitch during the protests that erupted across the country during December 2017 and January 2018 when the government temporarily censored the app. But Telegram has been a bone of contention for some government officials for years.
The Committee Charged with Determining Offensive Content within the Judiciary has deliberated on Telegram multiple times since October 2015, with concerns over the “immoral” content and misinformation that is rampant on the platform. However, it seems that pushback from moderate and reformist politicians, especially those attached to President Hassan Rouhani's administration, were previously able to prevent the platform from becoming censored.
Although the app has not yet been blocked — by all accounts, it is as usable as ever — statements about Telegram coming from officials within the Iranian government, and from across the spectrum of political factions, nevertheless seem to be driving Iranians to use Telegram less and less.
For example, on March 12, the head of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace (SCC), Seyed Abolhassan Firouzabadi, expressed the following:
البته در این راه خود مردم هم باید بررسی کنند که کسب و کارها و خدمات آموزشی و جدی خود را بر بستر خارجی صورت ندهند. زیرا به هر حال بستر خارجی به دلیل عدم تبعیت از قوانین جمهوری اسلامی هر لحظه امکان دارد که به طور موقت یا دائم فیلتر شود. به همین دلیل توصیه ما این است که مردم و خصوصا پایگاه‌هایی که کاربر زیادی دارند، حتما در یک پیام‌رسان ایرانی ارائه خدمت داشته باشند.
Of course, on this basis people should make sure that their educational and business activities are not dependent on external platforms. These external platforms may be temporarily or permanently filtered at any moment because of their non-compliance with the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran. For this reason, we recommend that people, especially those with sites with lots of users, switch to Iranian messengers.
Many others in power shared his sentiment pushing Iranians away from Telegram–and towards local alternatives–through the fear of censorship.
The most influential statement, however, came from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader and the ultimate arbiter of Iranian politics and policy, who often has the final say in major national policy decisions.
So when on April 18 Khamenei posted on his official Telegram channel that he was ceasing his activity there, many saw it as a definitive sign that Telegram would soon become inaccessible in Iran:
⛔ توقف فعالیت KHAMENEI.IR در تلگرام
?در راستای پاسداشت منافع ملّی و برای رفع انحصار از پیام‌رسان تلگرام، پایگاه اطلاع‌رسانی دفتر حفظ و نشر آثار حضرت آیت‌الله العظمی خامنه‌ای (KHAMENEI.IR) فعالیت خود را در این پیام‌رسان، از این لحظه متوقف می‌کند.
?این اقدام KHAMENEI.IR که پیش از شروع برنامه‌ی رسمی نهادهای کشور در توقف استفاده از تلگرام انجام می‌شود، برای حمایت از پیام‌رسان‌های داخلی و رفع انحصار فضای مجازی از پیام‌رسان‌های غیرایرانی است.
?از این پس اطلاع‌رسانی درباره اخبار و مطالب مربوط به رهبر انقلاب اسلامی در پیام‌رسان‌های زیر انجام خواهد شد:
▫ gap.im/khamenei_ir
▫ sapp.ir/khamenei_ir
▫ iGap.net/khamenei_ir
⛔The end to the activity of the Telegram of KHAMENEI.IR
?In order to protect national interests and to remove the monopoly that Telegram messenger maintains, the office of information for Ayatollah Khamenei will from this moment on stop disseminating his words and publications on this messenger.
?We started this KHAMENEI.IR initiative before the country's institutions launched an official program to support internal messengers and eliminate the monopoly of cyberspace from non-Iranian messengers.
? From now on, information about the news and articles related to the leader of the Islamic Revolution will be made on the following messengers:
▫ gap.im/khamenei_ir
▫ sapp.ir/khamenei_ir
▫ iGap.net/khamenei_ir
Elsewhere, the supreme leader has offered only vague statements on whether he supports the decision to censor Telegram completely by the end of April.
For his part, President Hassan Rouhani expressed opposition to the move to block Telegram in an Instagram post dated April 23. But he also voiced his support for ending Telegram's “monopoly” over Iranian communications:
 رفع انحصار و کمک به تقویت پیام‌رسان‌های داخلی به معنای محدودسازی سایر شبکه‌های اجتماعی نیست. مردم #حق_انتخاب دارند و می‌توانند توأمان در شبکه‌های مختلف اجتماعی فعالیت داشته باشند.  دولت دوازدهم از فضای مجازی و امکان دسترسی و برقراری ارتباط مردم، حراست خواهد کرد.  #فضای_مجازی #شبکه_اجتماعی #پیام_رسان_داخلی #تلگرام #اینستاگرام
A post shared by  Hassan Rouhani  •  حسن روحانی (@hrouhani) on
Instagram caption (and image translation): Removing a monopoly and helping to strengthen local messengers does not mean we have to limit other social networks. People have #the_right_to_choose and can work together to be active on various social networking platforms.
The 12th government will protect cyberspace and people's ability to access and communicate with the public.
In a similar vein, the head of the presidential Strategic Management Center issued a directive to all government institutions to stop using Telegram for official communications.
If Telegram is banned and the move becomes permanent in the same way that Twitter and Facebook were blocked in 2009, it will indeed be a blow to Rouhani's rhetoric about providing a free and open internet for Iranians. In fact, a week before censorship was implemented during the 2017-2018 protests, Rouhani promised that “my minister is here and he promises not to place his finger on the filtering button…the ability for people to communicate with the world will be preserved. We're not looking to filter social networks.”
In many ways, Rouhani's ability to keep foreign social media platforms such as Telegram and Instagram unfiltered has been seen as one of the most significant progressive victories of his administration.
However, the president and the Supreme Leader are aligned in their desire to encourage Iranians to use local platforms, and to thus dismantle the so-called Telegram “monopoly” on mobile messaging in Iran. This follows the logic of the National Information Network (NIN), which the Rouhani administration has been working to establish. NIN is an effort to centralize all data and systems into technical infrastructures that are based inside the country–and therefore controlled by Iranian authorities. Naturally, it means moving away from foreign communications applications hosted outside of the country, like Telegram.
Although the technical censorship has yet to be implemented, these discussions warning of Telegram's imminent blocking have resulted in actual dips in Telegram usage amongst Iranians. Data across more than 700,000 Persian-language Telegram channels collected by the Social Networks Lab at the University of Tehran shows that since the announcement of Telegram's fate, usage has dropped to levels only previously seen when the platform was temporarily censored during the protests.
While only time will tell if authorities follow through on blocking Telegram at the end of this month, what is clear is that the uncertainty surrounding the situation has produced a chilling effect on the app with similar, if not the same, results as outright censorship.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


text:
Netizen Report: Protests in Nicaragua trigger media bans, DDoS attacks and the killing of journalist Angel Gahona · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Protesters in the streets of Managua, Nicaragua's capital, in April 2018. Photo by Voice of America, released to public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
According to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, at least 34 people, including one journalist, have been killed during demonstrations in Nicaragua over the past several days.
What began as a protest against social security reforms has expanded into a broad-based public outcry against the administration of President Daniel Ortega, who has been in office for 11 years but has held political power in the country in various roles since the 1979 Sandinista Revolution. Some are now calling for his resignation.
Multiple TV networks have been taken off air or banned from broadcasting the demonstrations and one radio station was set on fire. Independent local news sites La Prensa and Confidencial suffered what appeared to be distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Both had been reporting the most up-to-date accounts from the ground.
Confidencial was knocked offline for seven hours on April 23. In a tweet confirming the attacks, Editor Carlos Chamorro wrote:
A NUESTROS LECTORES Desde hace 3 horas, está inhabilitado el sitio de Confidencial. Hemos comprobado que la causa es un ataque deliberado de los enemigos de la libertad de prensa. Nuestros técnicos trabajan para restablecerlo pronto. Seguimos informando en nuestras redes sociales
— Carlos F Chamorro (@cefeche) April 23, 2018
TO OUR READERS For the past three hours, the Confidencial website has been out of service. We have determined that the cause is a targeted attack by the enemies of press freedom. Our technical staff are working to reestablish the site connection. We will continue posting updates on our social media channels.
The Inter-American Press Association the website condemned the attacks.
In the city of Bluefields, on Nicaragua’s southern Caribbean coast, video journalist Angel Gahona was shot and killed while filming and broadcasting a confrontation between protesters and police on Facebook Live. Gahona lived with his family and ran a small media outlet called El Meridiano. Multiple witnesses said the police were the only people in the area with weapons powerful enough to shoot and kill a person. Police have yet to release a statement regarding Gahona’s death.
Gahona did not die immediately on impact, and thus managed to capture the moments after he was shot, which have now been seen worldwide via YouTube and news media outlets. In an interview with Univisión, his sister said: “I never imagined that he would film his own death.”
The Organization of American States and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have condemned the media bans and the killing of Angel Gahona. His family members are soliciting support for funeral costs and their future on GoFundMe.
Roberto Mesa, a digital activist in the Spanish island of Tenerife, was arrested by police at his home on April 18 after he posted a message on Facebook suggesting that the Bourbons (the royal family) should go “to the sharks”. In Spanish, the message rhymes: “Los Borbones, a los tiburones.” Supporters anticipate that he will be charged under Spain’s public security law, commonly referred to as the gag law (“Ley Mordaza”), which places multiple prohibitions on public and online protest.
Tanzanian news sharing and discussion platform Jamii Forums was briefly kicked offline this week due to a DDoS attack. Known for intense political discussions and revelations of corruption that take place on its comment and discussion threads, in a style similar to that of Reddit, Jamii is one of the most popular local sites in East Africa. The site’s co-founder and owner Maxence Melo is currently fighting charges under Tanzania’s Cybercrimes Law for refusing police requests for forum members’ personal data.
The social media campaign #IamLGBT pressured China’s information control apparatus to scale back its censorship of LGBT content on social media. But after Weibo announced a three-month crackdown on games, multimedia and LGBT content, the hashtag #IamLGBT was used 500,000 times and had roughly 500 million views. Within days, the Chinese Communist Party publication the People’s Daily published a memorandum announcing LGBT content should not be confused with vulgar, violent or pornographic content, and Weibo announced its three-month crackdown would no longer target LGBT content.
A Russian troll farm with connections to Saint Petersburg’s Internet Research Agency announced its plans to launch a new venture entitled “USA Really” next month. The project, initially reported by EU vs Disinfo, takes a stance consistent with the anti-Western, anti-liberal narrative of previous Internet Research Agency efforts, which grabbed international headlines in 2016, before and after the presidential elections in the United States. The self-described “news organization” RIA FAN announced:
The information flow coming from the US and its allies, which is aimed at discrediting the Russian Federation, should not remain unanswered by the Russian media…The Federal News Agency (FAN) is not going to put up with the hegemony of the US authorities in the information field.
YouTube removed more than 8.2 million videos between October and December 2017, 6.68 million of which had been flagged automatically by systems that are built to identify sexual abuse and violent extremism imagery. The company published this information in its most recent transparency report, marking the first time that a major Silicon Valley company has included this level of detail about content removed from its platform. Who will be next in line?
Facebook took steps toward making its content moderation processes more transparent by publishing most of the internal guidelines its moderators use to enforce its community standards. The company excluded information about issues like terrorism to prevent users from taking advantage of the publication of the guidelines.
The company also announced plans to allow users to appeal the removal of a photo, video or post in addition to the removal of an account or page for certain categories of content. In the future, Facebook says it will give people the opportunity to provide additional context and to allow users to appeal content that is reported and left up.
Afef Abrougui, Renata Avila, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Rohith Jyothish, Oiwan Lam, Karolle Rabarison and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team