Technology & Democracy in China: Twitter, Facebook and Hotmail Go Dark Before Tiananmen Anniversary

Submitted by Melissa Merz on 6/4/09

USA TODAY reports that:

Some of the world's most popular networking services have gone dark in China, apparent victims of government censors in the days leading to a notorious anniversary.

Online users in China said Twitter, Yahoo's Flickr photo site, Microsoft's new Bing search engine and Hotmail, and other services were inaccessible on Tuesday.

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square. Social media experts such as Laura Fitton suspect Chinese authorities may be blocking sites to tamp down discussions of the protest.

This is an issue I touched on recently when the Iranian government shut down Facebook ahead of its June 12 elections as reform candidates appeared to be gaining political ground through spreading word of campaign rallies and getting out messages through the social networking site Facebook.

Mobile technology and new tools to improve health outcomes, drive economic growth and foster democracy are issues that NDN is deeply involved in. As Obama Administration official Tom Kalil wrote for NDN affiliate, the New Policy Institute, in an October 2008 paper, Harnessing the Mobile Revolution:

With a few exceptions, the U.S. government is largely oblivious to the ways in which the rapid diffusion of mobile services (and other new technologies) could be used to improve the human condition. I believe that the next Administration should launch a major new initiative to harness the confluence of new technologies and innovative business models as a key component of its global development agenda. This initiative would be designed to serve as a catalyst for policy reforms in developing countries, promote an increased capacity for innovation by developing country entrepreneurs to meet local needs, and stimulate additional investments by philanthropists, foundations and companies. Such an initiative could reduce poverty, strengthen democratic institutions, and improve global health outcomes. It could also help restore some of the damage to America’s international reputation, boost America’s “soft power,” and position American businesses and workers to benefit from the growth of emerging markets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This initiative would not be limited to mobile services, and might also include decentralized approaches to providing safe drinking water, new vaccines, therapies, point-of-care diagnostics, clean energy, and improved crops that are more productive, nutritious, and drought-resistant.

Kalil has joined the Obama Administration to do exactly what he advocated in his cutting-edge paper. Check back with NDN for more work on mobile technology, improved health outcomes, economic opportunities and new tools used to foster democracy.

In the meantime, read the entire Harnessing the Mobile Revolution here.

Melissa Merz's blog
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Submitted by manofthefuture on 11/30/11.

I couldn`t agree more. I have my e-mail account filled up every single day with subscription news from a lot of socializing platforms, local and central news. I only download content I receive on e-mail when I know who the sender is. Otherwise, I have my spyware installed and working quite fine against anonymous threats I receive. You must pay great care to the applications you allow access to your personal information.

Social media and the other

Submitted by manofthefuture on 11/28/11.

Social media and the other tools helping you enhance your visibility on the internet are the blessings of this new era of technology. You see, pay per click programs will not only facilitate your business into getting more popularity, but will enable you to develop a whole business network and step up to the next level of evolution. I have tried it for myself and it really made a great job. I read facts, I read numbers out of the reports it generates, so every single increase in visibility is as clear as it can get. Now with restricting access to social platforms in this part of the world, I wonder how things will work out.

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