· January, 2012

Stories about Digital Activism from January, 2012

Costa Rican Blogs Protest SOPA and PIPA

  18 January 2012

Ticoblogger [es], a network of Costa Rican blogs, has joined the global protests against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect-IP Act (PIPA). Ticoblogger blogs like Ciencia Ficción [es], Carepicha [es], and El Infierno en Costa Rica [es] posted a message against the U.S. bills and “censored” part...

Macedonia: Hoax About Facebook and Google SOPA Blackout

  18 January 2012

Macedonian blogs and independent sites IT.com.mk, Fail.mk, and Radio MOF [all mk] attempt to debunk the misinformation copy-pasted by a number of local commercial media (employing professional journalists) that Facebook, Google, Yahoo and other sites will join SOPA blackout, probably based on incompetent translation of a CBS article stating the...

U.S. Bills Could Threaten the Global Internet

  17 January 2012

Ignoring the warnings of citizens and technologists, United States lawmakers are considering two bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), that are a real and dangerous threat to the openness of the web everywhere in the world. In response, the Global Voices community has decided to join websites such as Wikipedia, Reddit and BoingBoing in “going dark”, and will black out the Global Voices Advocacy site for 12 hours on January 18, and display a banner on other Global Voices sites that provides more information about the proposed laws.

Brazil/Portugal: “Word of Mouth” Launches Online Channel

  17 January 2012

On January 16, Portuguese-Brazilian independent media collective Passa Palavra (Word of Mouth) [pt] launched the website PassaPalavra.tv – an online channel that brings together independently produced audio-visual materials. Through sharing video, audio and image, the website aims to collaboratively report on “social struggles and denounce oppression and abuse by public...

Bulgaria: Protests Against Shale Gas Exploration

  17 January 2012

On Jan. 14, some 15,000 protesters came out in the streets of at least 12 Bulgarian cities, as well as in London, Paris and Copenhagen, to call for a moratorium on shale gas tests through hydraulic fracturing and to demand a new law that would ban this potentially dangerous practice....

Cuba: Citizen Media Workshop

  16 January 2012

Crossing the Barbed Wire blogs about a recent workshop “about the basics of citizen journalism and what could be done with the new information technologies”, adding: “The importance of what we now refer to as ‘citizen journalism’ gives human rights activists, social promoters, and dissidents in general a push…”

Cuba: Tackling Racism

  16 January 2012

Iván's File Cabinet profiles “two of the most lucid and coherent voices on the map of Cuban opposition”, who are fighting for democracy and “racial integration for the those of African origin in all social strata in Cuba.”

Russia: Choosing Blogger of the Year

RuNet Echo  16 January 2012

LiveJournal started online voting [ru] in several nominations trying to identify the most important events in the Russian blogosphere. Voting, however, couldn't avoid controversy, as “Blogger of the Year” nomination [ru] didn't include many activists, Alexey Navalny among others. Sergey Muhammedov decided to start alternative voting [ru] that included much...

Morocco: Activist Rapper Freed

  15 January 2012

Mouad Belghouat "Al Haked" (The Indignant), a 24-year-old Moroccan rap artist and outspoken critic of Morocco's monarchy, was released on Thursday from prison where he had been held since last September. The announcement of Mouad's release spread like fire on Facebook and Twitter as several supporters rushed to the prison to welcome him.

Brazil: Student Protests Against Bus Fare Increases in Piaui

  14 January 2012

Since the beginning of the year, thousands of students have been protesting against the increase in bus fares in the capital of the state of Piaui. The demonstrators are forcefully kept down by the Military Police. They have reacted by setting fire to at least one bus, and dozens of students have been arrested.

Global: Pictures Not for Free

  13 January 2012

Edmond Terakopian, one of the UK's leading press photographers, comments on the tendency for some publications to expect photojournalists to supply images for free or for a token payment. The ethnic-Armenian World Press Photo Award winner is also using a Twitter hashtag, #picturesnotfree.

Cuba: Prison Conditions

  13 January 2012

Pedazos de la Isla posts a letter by dissident Ivonne Malleza who, along with her husband and another citizen, have been imprisoned for over a month, ever since being arrested during a protest.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Time for a Slutwalk?

  13 January 2012

CODE RED calls the comments of the deputy Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines “particularly dangerous in the context of such high levels of violence against women and murders of women…for the millionth time, clothing does not invite nor excuse violence against women.”