Latin America

ONI Blog: Venezuelan news site accused of "attacking constitutional order" and "supporting a coup d’état"
On Sunday, Hugo Chávez ordered a federal investigation of one of the nation’s most widely read online news sources, Noticiero Digital. On his live, weekly television program, Aló Presidente, Chávez accused Noticiero Digital of “attacking constitutional order” and “supporting a...
ONI Blog: Cuba and Venezuela connect through socialism, fiber optic cable
Telecommunications workers began sounding tests along Cuba’s southeastern coastline last week, marking the first phase of plans to lay a submarine fiber optic cable connecting Venezuela, Cuba, and Jamaica. If successful, Cuban news site Cubadebate reports that the cable’s 640 gigabytes would...
ONI Blog: More than half a billion Internet users are being filtered worldwide
The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) has been monitoring Internet filtering around the world since 2002. Currently, more than 40 countries are filtering the Internet to varying degrees, while a number of others, including Australia, Iraq, and Spain, are considering enacting filtering policies....
ONI Blog: Venezuela Aims to Crack Down on "Media Crimes"
In ONI's in-depth 2007 study of Internet filtering and controls in Venezuela, we declared Internet use to be "not subject to extensive content restrictions" but remarked upon concerns that the "Chávez administration could institute Internet filtering in the near future." It would...
ONI Blog: WordPress blocked in Guatemala
Guatemala's ongoing political crisis, which began with the murder of lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg and has been fueled largely by YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and blogs, reached a new level over the weekend when several ISPs began blocking access to WordPress.com. ...
ONI Blog: Is Internet Use a Superfluous Expense?
By Renata Ávila and Firuzeh Shokooh Valle On March 25, 2009 the Government of Venezuela issued a decree (Decree 6649) that implements measures to reduce the superfluous or luxurious expenses of the government. The decree establishes that “superfluous or luxury spending is...
ONI Blog: “Financial Panic” and Online Censorship in Guatemala
The headlines in Guatemala's top newspaper, as well as on internationally popular site Boing Boing reported that a Twitter user was arrested by Guatemalan authorities, facing charges of “intent to incite financial panic." The last couple of weeks have been complicated...
ONI Blog: The Worst Places to be a Blogger
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has just released a list of the ten worst countries in which to blog. Topping the list is Burma, followed closely by Iran, Syria, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Tunisia, China, Turkmenistan, and Egypt. In determining...
ONI Blog: The Internet and Political Censorship in Mexico
By Firuzeh Shokooh Valle and Renata Ávila In the past few months, an interesting debate has emerged in Mexico regarding the upcoming federal congressional elections after the electoral reform (a constitutional amendment) of 2007. According to various news reports, ...

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