Brazil was named "the social media capital of the universe" by the Wall Street Journal. Brazil is a country that has a lot of potential for social media. According the the Wall Street Journal, "Twitter Inc. says Brazil has become one of the micro blogging company's top-five active user groups...People in Brazil are spending increasing amounts of time connected to social-media sites. Globally, the average time spent on Facebook dropped 2% to 361 average minutes per user per month by September 2012, compared with a year earlier, according to comScore research." Brazilians are very into keeping up with social media,... Continue reading

It was recently revealed by the Wall Street Journal, that the social media capital of the world is Brazil. Brazil has surpassed the United States and Europe, even though Brazil is on top, it still has potential for growth to become even bigger. The reason Brazil is able to be on top and continue to grow versus a country like China is because; according to Polly Becker a blogger on the wall "the [Chinese] state imposes many restrictions on what can and can't go on, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are currently blocked." Brazil is able to surpass countries such as... Continue reading

Should an army be tweeting about a planned attack? Well that's what the Israeli Defense Force was doing. Before they attacked the Gaza Strip, they were tweeting about it. This should not be a way that the government communicates, it allows too many outsiders to be able to see too much information. According to All Things Digital, "reports have also claimed that YouTube is suspending videos from the IDF's official channel, but one video that was "removed mistakenly" was reinstated by the site within hours." While the Israeli Defense Force should not be using social media to communicate about private... Continue reading

Every country has to take precautions, however Israel, has to take more than most. Israel is located centrally to all of their enemies. Israel is a Jewish country that is surrounded by Islamic and Arab countries, this creates a major issue since they share borders. The Israeli government has to be very careful with what they allow their citizens to post on the internet. According to Tikun Olam, the Israeli Army has begun to take drastic measures to monitor what is posted on social media sites, they are comparing this to "Big Brother". According to Richard Silverstein, "..as it begins... Continue reading

While the Afghanistan government has banned the use of YouTube to their citizens. The Afghanistan government felt that they did not want their citizens to have the freedom to view the kind of material that is available on YouTube. According to the New York Times, "While officials say they hope to lift the block “as soon as possible,” they have offered only a vague sense of what must happen before that can be done." The Afghan government is worried that their younger population will have access to view information that they do not want them to see, according to an... Continue reading

While in the United States we have the freedom to have access to everything on the Internet, in Pakistan, they are not so lucky. In Pakistan, the government blocked the use of twitter for their citizens. In Pakistan, the government blocked the usage of twitter. They did this because the ministry did not like that twitter would not, not post certain topics. According to the Ministry of Information Technology, "twitter was blocked because it failed to respond and take action regarding the publishing of blasphemous content." While the Pakistani government may not want their citizens being exposed to certain things,... Continue reading

Why are movies banned when the printed version is not? In China this is not unusual. The Chinese government will ban a movie but allow for the book to sell on stores. Why does the government feel that the movie is worse? According to Yu Hua of the New York Times, the reason for this is there are many publishing houses in China so the book has multiple chances to be picked up and published where as all of the movies have to pass through the government for approval before being approved. However, television is less closely monitored until it... Continue reading

The internet in China is very different then it is in the United States. China's government censors their internet access heavily. According the the New York Times, "Internet censorship in China is among the most stringent in the world." The Chinese government has went to great lengths to make sure that anti-government posts on the internet are not seen by anyone and are taken down immediately. The Chinese government is very into not being disrespected. However, this intensity of censorship is not limited to just the internet, they also monitor all electronic interactions. "[..][T]he Chinese government tightened its grip on... Continue reading

In the past few years a law was passed in Hungary stating that media outlets that are bias and do not have fair coverage on all sides are subject to a fine. "Hungary's Parliament passed a law which threatens fines on media who engage in "unbalanced coverage"." Many of the media outlets in Hungary were only covering one view point of a story, this causes Hungarian citizens to not have all of the information and it can cause them to think in a certain way if they only have one side of a story. According to IFLA, "The act, comprising... Continue reading

While the internet in Hungary was at one time censored, it no longer is. In 2011 The Hungarian government passed a law that allowed them to control and censor the internet for the Hungarian citizens. Censoring the internet takes away many rights from them, including thinking for themselves. if you are only given a certain kind of information, that is all that you can base your opinion on. According to a new article from 2012, foreign officials reported that the Hungarian government is no longer censoring internet access. The internet not being censored means that Hungarian's have the same access... Continue reading

Fox News posted an article with information from a twitter feed where it was discussed that a Google street view car may have run over a donkey that was in the street. I think that if Google actually did run over and kill the donkey like indicated, it needs to be brought to more peoples attention. This is not something that the drivers of the car should get away with. It was a hit and run accident. "Twitter user @TheRealSheldonC tweeted a picture yesterday of a donkey -- presumably dead -- lying on the road in Botswana. The Google Maps... Continue reading