Tag: HUMANRIGHTS

Having trouble with your Gmail in China? Google politely requests that you blame the government, not the company. For several weeks now, users in China have been complaining about glitches within the popular mail program. When Google's engineers looked into the issues, they discovered that the Chinese government was the source of the problem. "Relating to Google there is no issue on our side... ...

In December 2009, Syrian security forces detained 19-year-old high school student and blogger Tal al-Mallohi without ever justifying their decision. For the next nine months, Syrian authorities prohibited the girl from communicating with her family, and never even offered an explanation for why they targeted her in the first place. On September 1st, al-Mallohi's mother finally issued a plea to ...

Burning-laser tag, anyone? At the Pitchess Detention Center on Friday, guards from the Castaic complex of the Los Angeles County Jail demonstrated their very own Assault Intervention Device, a 7.5-foot-tall laser weapon that produces burning pain at whomever it's directed. The beam emitted by the device can reach up to 100 feet, and is about as big around as a CD. Prison officials hope that the ...

The Chinese government has never really cozied up to the concept of individual liberty -- especially not on the Internet. A newly disclosed report, however, suggests that the People's Republic may be considering an even more draconian approach to policing its online populace. Back in April, the director of China's State Council Information Office, Wang Chen, gave a speech in which he implored ...

Americans might be on the fence about whether or not health care is a right or a privilege, but they seem to be in agreement with the vast majority of the world's population when it comes to the question of Internet access being a fundamental right. An international survey, conducted by the BBC World Service, found that 79-percent of respondents thought that having access to the Web was a basic ...

When Google launched its service in China back in 2006, the search giant came under intense criticism for caving to government demands to filter and censor search results. Google originally defended its decision by saying that the benefits of granting access to a wealth of information outweighed the the company's discomfort with being forced to censor the results. But something has changed. ...

In a move sure to raise more than a few eyebrows, authorities who manage a former Nazi concentration camp have set up a Facebook page for the infamous establishment. Auschwitz, now a Polish state museum, was the site of over 1 million murders at the hands of the Nazi regime, and now has its very own Facebook presence, the BBC reports. Officials set up the page in an effort to raise awareness and ...

The movie 'Blood Diamond' helped alert the world to the horrors of the illegal diamond trade, which predominately occurs in war-torn African countries where the proceeds benefit terrorists and militias. Eve Ensler, a playwright most widely known for 'The Vagina Monologues,' is now trying to warn the world of another product produced amid conflict and strife. Ensler contended during an interview ...