censorship

Anti-censorship tools are quietly disappearing into thin air in China

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 app hits Top 5 on Apple’s China App Store despite ban

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 pulled from Apple’s App Store in China after two days

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

Russia is blocking encrypted email startup Skiff

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

Despite ban, Twitter downloads surge in China amid COVID protests

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

Apple limits AirDrop ‘Everyone’ option to 10 minutes in China

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

Popular censorship circumvention tools face fresh blockade by China

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

Google appears to have disabled Google Translate in parts of China

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 now monitoring TikTok’s algorithms and moderation system for manipulation by China’s government

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

Google and Meta closing ads in Russia helped Putin, argues Navalny

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

Elon Musk gives Europe’s speech platform rules the thumbs up

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

Jack Dorsey says he’s against permanent Twitter bans, with an asterisk

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

Will Elon Musk put Twitter on a collision course with global speech regulators?

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 suspend its services in Russia in light of free speech crackdown

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

Alphabet confirms Russia is restricting Google News

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

Russian search giant Yandex tells investors it’s looking for a media exit

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

Russia warns YouTube to stop ‘anti-Russian’ ads

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

Tech CEOs to face faster criminal liability under UK online safety law

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 says it’s trying to fully restore service in Russia

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’s EU-only geoblocks of Russia Today off to a shaky start

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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