China has sought to keep a diplomatic distance from the war in Ukraine, choosing to abstain in a United Nations (UN) vote condemning Russia's invasion.It is also making concerted efforts to stifle strong views about the conflict on Chinese social-media platforms.It's a fine line to tread.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, some young Americans created scam Instagram accounts that shared videos and photos about the unfolding events. Pretending to be journalists on the ground, they attracted millions of followers and profited from the ads placed on their pages before they were taken down.

A China-style internet gateway scheduled to be imposed in Cambodia this week would grant the government far greater powers to conduct mass surveillance, censor and control the country’s internet, rights groups have warned.Human rights experts and media advocates fear the gateway could be a step towards the kind of censorship enforced through China’s Great Firewall – though some question what technical capacity Cambodia’s systems currently have, and say the process has lacked transparency.Unde

ByteDance, the parent company of the popular social-media platform TikTok, has a not-so-secret weapon. Its powerful algorithms are able to predict users’ preferences with precision and recommend content they actually want to see, thereby keeping them glued to their screens. But ByteDance may soon have to sheathe that weapon – or, at least, dull its blade.

China's #MeToo movement has stumbled in the face of swift internet censors, a patriarchal society and a legal system that places a heavy burden on the claimant.Explosive claims this month by tennis star Peng Shuai that a former top Communist Party politician had sexually assaulted her marked the first time allegations have hit the top layer of government.But her accusations were swiftly scrubbed from the Chinese internet, and she has not been seen publicly since.Others have faced the sam

Internet users in a record number of countries have faced arrest and physical attacks for their posts over the past year, a report said on Tuesday, painting a grim picture of digital freedoms in 2021.The annual "Freedom on the Net" report said internet shutdowns in Myanmar and Belarus had proved particular low points as online rights declined globally for the 11th year in a row.Compiled by United States (US) think-tank Freedom House, the survey gives countries a score out of 100 for

A big quake may be headed towards California. No, it is not the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that Californians have been worried about. This has only a 31 percent chance of happening. And that too from now to 30 years. Of a higher probability is the quake-causing reforms United States (US) President Joe Biden is sending the way of Big Tech in northern California.The tech giants are surely going to feel the earth move under their feet.

Facebook and Google are planning two new undersea internet cables to connect Southeast Asia to North America.The project with regional telecoms companies aims to supply faster internet speeds to Singapore and Indonesia.This comes after Facebook withdrew three projects to connect the United States (US) to Hong Kong with similar cables, following government concerns over spying.The cables require regulatory approval from the national governments involved.“Named Echo and Bifrost, those

Spreading at least as quickly as the COVID-19 virus, an ‘infodemic’ has infected large swaths of media and information exchange across ASEAN. Massive amounts of information, including rumours, misinformation and disinformation have reached millions of people who are hoping to understand how to stay safe until the pandemic has been controlled.

Cambodia's government moved to exert near-total control over the country's online life Wednesday, setting up a national internet gateway which activists say will stifle freedom of expression and block content via a China-style firewall.Cambodia has seen a rapid increase in internet use in recent years, and Premier Hun Sen's government - which dissolved the main opposition party in 2017 - has intensified a crackdown on online dissent.A government spokesman dismissed concerns ove