Stories from 18 January 2012
Global Online Community Protests U.S. Anti-Piracy Bills
Today, January 18, is an important day for the Internet. Corporate websites, from Google to Twitpic, along with civil society groups and individuals, have all joined together in a common cause: to protest two American bills that could have grave effects for global online free expression.
Russia: Obama's McFaul Sworn in as U.S. Ambassador
President Obama's closest adviser on affairs of state of the Former Soviet Union and architect of the 'reset' in the U.S.-Russia relations, Michael McFaul, has officially replaced President Bush's appointment as the United States' Ambassador to Russia.
Brazil: Crowdfunding Site Celebrates a Year of Life
Catarse, Brazil's biggest crowdfunding site celebrates one year of life this week [pt] – with some interesting visualizations. Catarse has had over 15,000 Brazilians support 278 projects, of which 146 were successful. This raised over R$1.3 million (US$727.4 thousand). Not surprisingly for Brazil, the most successful type of project is...
Macedonia: Hoax About Facebook and Google SOPA Blackout
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...