Didi Rankovic
Didi Rankovic is an experienced online journalist, editor, and translator, with a career spanning over ten years writing for major a English-language website in Serbia, and previously working as translator for international organizations and peacekeepers in the Balkans. Rankovic is passionate about free and open source tech and is a head contributor for Reclaim The Net, focusing on lead stories. [email protected]
A new Russian bill could see the start of Runet, Russia’s own private internet, cut off from the World Wide Web
Moscow rejects the notion that their model is similar to China’s Great Firewall.
Instagram moves to shadowban “borderline” content
The Instagram move is seen as one in a series Facebook has recently made in a bid to get back in the good graces of regulators.
Axel Springer thinks you can sue adblockers for…copyright infringement?
Previously, AdBlock had been sued unsuccessfully in Germany as “undermining Axel Springer’s business model” – only for this be thrown out by the country’s courts.
Campus police chief placed on administrative leave after “liking” President’s Trump’s tweets
This was then interpreted by the students in question as Hect supporting “hateful regimes and organizations.”
Facebook’s new patent is a privacy-invading nightmare
The company has been granted a patent for a method to automatically scan photos uploaded by users to recognize any products that might appear in them.
Austria wants to remove anonymity online to combat, wants citizens to register their name, address and phone number in case they want to prosecute you for “hate speech”
Their identity, including names and addresses, will be known to media and social platforms, and by extension, to the authorities.
India proposes “the most sophisticated ID program” on the planet, to include a citizen’s Facebook, Twitter and biometric data
An unnamed government official has been cited as saying that the goal of the reported initiative was “to maintain the balance between an individual’s need for privacy while ensuring we don’t encourage negative things on the internet.”
The music, TV, movies, and gaming industries are at an all time high thanks to the internet
The only drop in consumer spending when it comes to entertainment industry had to do with the 2008 financial crisis.
PayPal now wants sellers to pay a fee, even if the transaction gets refunded
PayPal has said that anyone who disagrees with any of their new terms is free to close their account.
China considers an end to Bitcoin mining
Apparently, they’re concerned of wasting too many natural resources (read: electricity), and thus polluting the environment.
Even the UK’s own data watchdog doesn’t abide by GDPR rules, new report says
ICO’s privacy notice remains “under construction.”