Stories from July, 2018
What's the story behind the samurai walking a cat, anyway?
The image depicting a shoeless samurai walking an armored cat pops up on social media from time to time.
These were some of the controversies dominating Mexico's online space during the presidential race
The fourth and last installment of the series on the Mexican presidential elections analyzes how the campaigns unfolded on social media.
‘In a lot of the post-colonial world, so much of what really drives us is suppressed’
"The majority of students are black. It’s not so much a colour as the fact that they come with emotional relationships to the rest of the world that are different."
In India, regulators are deciding the fate of sensitive data behind closed doors
In 2017, the Supreme Court of India ruled that privacy of Indian citizens is a fundamental right -- how will that affect the country's national ID system?
First Malaria World Congress explores ways forward as elimination efforts stall
The message from the 1st Malaria World Congress: "We're at a crossroads. We neglect #malaria at our peril."
Nauru bans the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from the Pacific Islands Forum
"If we allow ourselves to get into a situation where our ability to report is predicated on how positive our coverage is, then we can’t do our job."
Questions swirl over Japanese government's response to deadly, unprecedented rains
"As unusual weather becomes the new normal, how are we to protect ourselves?"
Iranian authorities arrest ‘Instagram celebrities’, in effort to assert control over social media
Iranian authorities announce plans to filter Instagram because of the evils of "Instagram celebrities". A few days later, the state broadcaster reveals the arrest of several "Instagram celebrities."
What's happened to digital rights over the past seven years? 300 editions of the Netizen Report will tell you
This week, we're looking back at seven years of covering global digital rights news in celebration of our 300th edition!
Natural resources surrounded by terror: What is behind the attacks in northern Mozambique?
Since October 2017, Cabo Delgado Province -- a region rich with rubies, gas, oil, and wood -- has suffered violent attacks, the motives of which are unclear to local authorities.
The importance of having an Afro-feminist activist in Costa Rica's government
"While Marielle Franco was assassinated in Brazil for being a black, feminist and dissenting voice...Epsy Campbell, a recognized leader of the Afro-Latin American movement, was elected vice president..."
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter set to return to Pakistan to appeal corruption convictions
"This judgment is a major development in the war against corruption, and every corrupt must be brought to the book who has robbed the country."
What were Global Voices’ readers up to last week?
During the week of July 2-8, 2018, our stories and translations attracted readers from 203 countries. Number 19 on the list? Madagascar. And number 114? Timor-Leste.
Chinese mobile phone cameras are not-so-secretly recording users’ activities
This design feature has given Chinese mobile users a tangible sense of exactly when and how they are being monitored.
Kashmiris are once again in mourning after Indian army fires on protesters, killing three
A 16-year-old girl named Andleeb Jan was among the dead.
‘Apartheid couldn’t have happened without that spatial carving up of the landscape’
"In South Africa, certainly, architecture was always complicit in oppression. Apartheid might have been a political and social structure, but it was also a physical one," says architect Lesley Lokko.
Uganda's tax on social media will widen the digital gender gap
"When I interviewed women living in...a slum in Kampala, I learned that for them, WhatsApp and Facebook are the internet...with the new tax, they will be cut off altogether."
Censorship in Uzbekistan: The more things change, the more they stay the same?
We last spoke with Umida Akhmedova before Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov died in 2016. Is life any easier for artists now he is gone?
Ugandans say #NoToSocialMediaTax because it exploits women, youth and the poor
Ugandans are saying #NoToSocialMediaTax because it is unconstitutional, increases poverty, targets youth, and exacerbates the digital divide.
#NoToSocialMediaTax: Join Global Voices for a July 9 tweetathon against Uganda's social media tax
Freedom is free, not taxed. Global Voices supports the #NotoSocialMediaTax campaign in Uganda.
First comprehensive study on child abuse in Madagascar points to alarming level of violence
89% of children report having suffered from domestic abuse at least once and 30% of minors in the island have had a child.