China — the biggest internet market globally with more than 1 billion users — is no stranger to online censorship. For years, authorities in the country have built out a series of techno-policy re
Threads, Meta’s new social networking platform, is quickly gaining ground in China, where Western social apps from Instagram to Facebook are banned. As of Thursday morning Pacific Time, the Twit
Damus, one of the fastest-growing Twitter alternatives, has been pulled from China’s App Store just two days after the app was approved by Apple. The app, which runs atop the Jack Dorsey-backed
The Russian government has blocked another encrypted email provider, according to a Russian digital rights organization and the email provider. Last Wednesday, Roskomsvoboda, which describes itself as
Twitter saw a surge in downloads in China as protests against the country’s stringent COVID restrictions erupted nationwide over the last few days. The social media app ranked 9th amongst all th
A change in the iOS 16.1.1 update for Chinese users is turning some heads. Apple is restricting the “Everyone” option in AirDrop to 10 minutes on iPhones purchased in mainland China, accor
Tools helping China’s netizens to bypass the Great Firewall appear to be facing a fresh round of crackdowns in the run-up to the country’s quinquennial party congress that will see a top l
Update September 30, 2022, 6:48 PM ET: A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch via email that the company has discontinued Google Translate in mainland China “due to low usage.” Perhaps ther
Oracle has begun auditing TikTok’s algorithms and content moderation models, according to a new report from Axios out this morning. Those reviews began last week, and follow TikTok’s June
Jailed Kremlin critic, Alexey Navalny, has hit out at adtech giants Meta and Google for shutting off advertising inside Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine which he argues has bee
While the world continues to wonder what ‘free speech absolutist‘ and gadfly billionaire Elon Musk might mean for the future of Twitter, the European Union has chalked up an early PR win i
On Friday afternoon, former Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey turned to the platform that he co-created to speak about its future, days after the company was bought for $44 billion by Elon Musk. In
Elon Musk joked earlier this month that he hoped buying Twitter won’t be too painful for him. But the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” may indeed be inviting a world of pain
Spotify will discontinue access to its streaming services in Russia in light of the country’s dramatic new restrictions on free speech. In early March, the Russian parliament enacted a new law t
In the latest move by Russia to censor Western internet services since it started a war by invading Ukraine, Google has confirmed that Russians are having problems accessing its news aggregator servic
Russia’s internet giant Yandex has told investors it’s exploring “strategic options” for its media products — including a potential sale of its news aggregator, Yandex Ne
In Russia’s latest swipe at foreign social media giants since it started a land war in Europe by invading Ukraine late last month, the country’s internet censor has fired a warning shot at
The U.K. is speeding up the application of powers that could see tech CEOs sent to prison if their businesses fail to comply with incoming safety-focused internet content legislation, the government c
Twitter’s service continues to be partially accessible in Russia, although the social networking platform confirmed today that it is aware of reports of users in the country having “increa
Twitter has claimed it’s complying with an EU-wide ban on Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik which came into force yesterday as part of the package of sanctions imposed by the bloc on Russia followin
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