Cyberculture agenda: French (and probably other) governments are after Encryption software…
A leaked memo from the Ministry sets out new bills it would like to see introduced into the French Parliament as early as next month, setting out an ambitious plan to block privacy tools, something only technically possible by recreating China’s Great Firewall in a European democracy, spying on all networked activity to prevent the use of Tor. (more…)
The Internet in France may soon look quite different.
Looking back at the highs and lows of 2015 makes you realize it really was a year marred by tragedy. From the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris at the start of the year to the horrific mass shooting in San Bernardino, California at the end. However, what’s most interesting about the 2015 roundups of social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram is the positivity of people’s responses. Trolls might have also made it into the headlines this year, but the overriding message on social media has been one of unity.
Pirate Bay’s .org Domain Suspended Pending ICANN Verification
The Pirate Bay’s original .org domain name has stopped working due to an administrative problem.
Brazilian group turns racist online comments into billboards in commenters’ neighborhoods
A group in Brazil has taken racist comments and turned them into billboards to raise awareness of the real-world impacts, reports Visual News. The campaign, “Virtual racism, real consequences” was created by advocacy group Criola to encourage people to speak out and report racism on social networks. The group collects comments from Facebook or Twitter and uses geolocation tools to find out where the people who have posted them live. They then buy billboard space nearby and post the comments, although names and photos are pixelated. “Those people [who post abuse online] think they can sit in the comfort of…
Oldweb.today lets you revisit how painfully slow and ugly the Web used to be
If you’ve ever wanted to see how far Web browsing has come over the years, I’ve got the perfect site for you.
Really, there’s no good reason for devs to not adopt HTTPS certification. The added protection makes you and your users safer, and ensures that you can guarantee that your website doesn’t inject malicious malware, tracking or unwanted ads onto your user experience. The Electronic Frontier Foundation developed its ‘Let’s Encrypt’ tool to make HTTPS certification faster, easier and free for anyone to use. Developed with sponsorship from Mozilla, the University of Michigan, Cisco, Akamai and others, the tool is now in Public Beta, which means that anyone with a website can set up the automated process to get an HTTPS…
Today marks a major milestone for the encrypted Web. Let’s Encrypt, the free and automated certificate authority, has entered Public Beta. That means it’s easier than ever for websites to adopt HTTPS encryption. A huge percentage of the world’s daily Internet usage currently takes place over unecrypted HTTP, exposing people to illegal surveillance and injection of unwanted ads, malware, and tracking headers into the websites they visit. EFF’s Encrypt the Web project aims to fix that, and Let’s Encrypt—a collaboration with Mozilla, the University of Michigan, Cisco, Akamai and many other sponsoring organizations—should be a huge step forward.
Google is helping to power a new search engine built on a daily scan of the whole Internet.
So it seems we are cheesier than we think. For the third year in a row, #love has dominated on Instagram and taken the top spot for 2015 with over 800 million posts using the hashtag.