Online censorship back in Tunisia?

Is online censorship back in Tunisia?

On the Nawaat web site, net user Adam Jerbi is demanding « give me back my porn !». He’s reacting to a Tunisian court’s decision to block all pornographic websites after three lawyers filed a suit, arguing that these sites go against Muslim values and are a danger to young people.
It has been reported that since cyber censorship was lifted in Tunisia, seven porn sites have appeared among the 100 most visited sites in the country.
Local web users are unhappy with the court’s decision which has raised fresh fears over censorship in the country. On this collaborative blog which was set up following the Tunisian revolution, one web user thinks it could be the start of a new type of dictatorship.
Last month, several Facebook profiles were blocked on the orders of a military tribunal;
the pages were deemed too critical of the military institution. The blogger Slim Amamou, resigned from his position as Secretary of State for Sport and Youth in protest.
The Tunisian Internet Agency is refusing to continue filtering and has appealed the court ruling to block all pornographic sites. Director of the TIA, Moez Chakchouk spoke to NGO Reporters without Borders to explain why.
The next court hearing will be on the Fourth of July. And in the meantime, the debate
continues to rage on the web.

Obama 2012: the campaign is underway

Over the past few weeks, it appears Barack Obama’s campaign team has been ramping up efforts to see the current US President reelected for a second term in 2012, with the web as their main campaign tool.
In this recently uploaded video, Mitch Stewart, who is charge of marshaling activists, explains the recruitment strategy for local campaign teams. The aim is to start laying the groundwork now so that by September 2012, they will be ready to carry our vital campaigning work across the United States. Citizens can sign up to become active volunteers’ via the official Barack Obama web site and join the campaign for his reelection next year.
Social media will once again play an important role in the campaign. Twitter and Facebook will be used to engage in dialogue with citizens. And the White House has announced that Barack Obama himself will regularly post messages on the micro blogging site for his eight and a half million supporters. And the president’s team has also been making changes to his official Facebook page. It has gone from simply displaying all his activities to a veritable tool for real time updates on the campaign.
And although the focus has been on building teams of volunteers, the campaign team is also working on communicating the main campaign themes, the most predominant of which is the economy. Progressive organization “Move On” which backs Barack Obama has uploaded this video in which former US Labour Secretary under Bill Clinton, Robert Reich gives a short lesson and explain what he thinks is wrong with the US economy.

France: a disabled man alerts authorities online about his living conditions

Last week, Louis van Proosdij, a 43 year old disabled man from France alerted the
government’s attention to his living conditions by posting an article on his blog in which
he criticized the nursing and care he was being given. His daily shower for example had been reduced to a weekly wash down. Web users were moved by his words and alerted the authorities. Taken to task on Twitter, several ministers have now got involved in this case and will be meeting with Louis van Proosdij.

Google adds reverse image search

They say a picture is worth a thousand words; Google has taken this on board and developed a new image search device. So web users can now conduct searches using online images or even use one of their own holiday snaps. The American giant is also developing a voice search tool.

Video of the day
Photographer Joe Ayala and his friend Larry Chen were stranded overnight in a Dallas
airport, so they killed time as best they could and set themselves a series of unusual
challenges. The partners in crime had an unforgettable time and immortalized their nighttime exploits in this video. The US airport authorities have seen the video and will be launching an investigation into the total lack of security staff in certain parts of the airport.