Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2012 January 31

31 January 2012

Daily archive · 2 posts

Stories from 31 January 2012

Spanish-Speaking Twittersphere Fumes Over Announcement

Written by Juan Arellano · Translated by L. Finch · Western Europe, Latin America

Twitter's announcement that it will restrict certain user content according to the laws of individual countries immediately caused a negative reaction in the Spanish-speaking Twittersphere. Twitter users widely employed the hashtags #CensuramestaTwitter and #TwitterCensored to display their anger with the social networking site.

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Moldova: Anti-Government Protests Receive Little Endorsement From Netizens

Written by Diana Lungu · Eastern & Central Europe

For the past two weeks Moldovans have been out in the streets, protesting. These protests, however, have received very little endorsement from Moldova's online community. Diana Lungu explains why.

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Updates from 31 January 2012

Puerto Rico (U.S.)

Julieta Muñoz interviews artist Carola Cintrón Moscoso for Revista Cruce [es] on the art of sound: “There was light, but something was missing: sound!,” says Carola who works with audio in her pieces. Please check out the video in which Carola talks about her art, and herself, in an interview as part of a recent presentation in Barcelona.

• Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Cuba

Lilianne Ruíz, blogging at Translating Cuba, compares a television spot “that shows a series of watercolors of butterflies from one of the five officials of the Interior Ministry imprisoned in the United States…with the stories that are told of Cuban jails, especially for political prisoners who, ever since their detention, have been victims of socialist legality whose first act is to pretend to ignore human rights.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Russia

Facebook pages of some Russian media outlets (e.g., Afisha, Bolshoi Gorod, Esquire Russia, Channel 1, MTV Russia) were deluged with copy-pasted comments [ru, ar] from users who appeared to be supporters of the Syrian opposition earlier today. An excerpt from a typical comment [ru, ar]: “Syria's regime is killing people with the Russian weapons. If it hadn't been for the Russian veto, the killing of the people in Syria would have been stopped a few months ago. […]” On President Medvedev's and PM Putin's Facebook pages there are comments [en, ru, ar] from both the opponents and supporters of the Syrian regime (e.g., here and here).

• Veronica Khokhlova

Puerto Rico (U.S.)

Dondequiera says of a US $20 million ad campaign to promote tourism: “If we could only use 1/4 of that money to police and clean our beaches, maintain the bathrooms…. I just thought you'd like to know how your hard earned tax dollars were being spent. The whole thing just disgusts me.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuba

The latest Cuban media campaign “is directed against the [expensive] mobile vendors, those sellers of fruits and vegetables who transport their goods on a tricycle or other wheeled device” - Generation Y says: “Although this is a problem that hurts us all, I don’t think we will solve it with appeals to the vendors’ conscience.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Bermuda

“The Premier is saying that she will pass more good governance laws. That’s positive,” says Vexed Bermoothes. But he still can't help but wonder: “You need laws to control the actions of your own inner circle? Seriously?”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Iran

This video shares insights for Persian first-language speakers who wish to improve their pronunciation, word stress, and intonation in American English.

• Fred Petrossian

Jamaica

Annie Paul posts an article she wrote about Vybz Kartel and the skin bleaching phenomenon.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Governance

Iran police has announced [fa] the official launch of Iran cyber police in Tehran, Iran capital. The deputy commander of this cyber police says that 40 percent of cyber crimes take place in Tehran.

• Hadi Nili

Panama

“President Martinelli received [es] a draft of a new constitution from a special commission working on the subject,” reports Bloggings by boz. Boz looks at two of the biggest issues regarding the reform: reelection and the creation of a Constitutional Court within the Supreme Court.

• Silvia Viñas