Welcome to Net Prophet, a blog tracking new media and tech developments across Central Europe and Eurasia
Tajikistan cuts access to Facebook, again
Authorities in Tajikistan have blocked access to Facebook for the second time this year, saying citizens are too tired of the "mud and slander" emanating from the site, according to Reuters. The blockade is one of several measures seen as aimed at dampening public dissent as the country looks ahead to a presidential election in 2013. Read More »
Kyrgyzstan MP seeks ban on “SMS divorces”
Turushnbai Bakir-Uulu, a member of the Kyrgyz Parliament, has called for the country’s grand mufti to ban “SMS divorce,” Radio Free Europe reports. In the Sunni Muslim tradition, a man can say “talaq” to his wife one to three times and divorce her. The debate is now centered on whether or not sending “talaq” via SMS is valid. Read More »
Interactive map charts Russia’s environmental problem areas
The Russian Geographic Society and news agency RIA Novosti have created a map of ecological hot spots in Russia, The St. Petersburg Times reports. Read More »
Belarusian language finds refuge in online community
Belarus is a country with two state languages: Belarusian and Russian. While the first one stands higher in the national constitution, that's only because B comes earlier than R in the alphabet. As of the 2009 national census, fewer than 2/3 of the population call Belarusian their native language but not even 1/4 reported speaking it. In comparison, more than 80 percent claimed Belarusian as their native language in the 1999 census. Read More »
Kyrgyz election candidates timidly test social media waters
As local government election campaigns heat up around Kyrgyzstan, some candidates are looking to social media as an additional platform for political battle and drawing voter attention. Candidates and parties in Kyrgyzstan have begun to recognize the power of social networks following the 2010 revolution. But so far, it seems few candidates are willing to embrace Facebook and Twitter as a campaign tool and dive in head first. Read More »
Azerbaijan: How to Measure Free Speech on the Internet?
Originally published by EurasiaNet.org.
Civil society activists in Azerbaijan are trying to push back against government efforts to restrict space for public debate. And they’re hoping a recent global Internet forum in Baku will expand international support for their cause.
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Macedonian Schools Face the Shock of the New
SKOPJE | In the past five years Macedonian classrooms have seen many changes. An additional year of mandatory education; “interactive” teaching in place of the rote learning of the past; new textbooks; a computer for every pupil – it all foretold a radical transformation of what most agreed was a woefully obsolete school system. Read More »
Post-IGF results from Baku
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2012 finished in Baku and many results have come to reality. The forum included all kind of meetings about the Internet and included topics ranging from the technical to freedom of speech. Read More »
The Kremlin’s 21st-century thought police
Earlier this month, Russia’s controversial new Internet blacklist law went into effect, raising serious concerns from bloggers, activists, and human rights watchers. The law, with the particularly Orwellian name “On Amendments to Federal Law On Protecting Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development and Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation”, officially gives Kremlin agencies the legal right for deep surveillance of its citizenry. Read More »
EU official blasts Azerbaijan after troubling Baku visit
European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes had particularly tough criticism for Azerbaijan following an eventful trip to Baku for the U.N.-sponsored Internet Governance Forum, where she said she was barred from visiting a prison hospital and her staff’s computers were hacked into. Read More »
Kremlin tells top officials to tone down their tweets
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for establishing a new set of rules for Russian officials when they use social network websites, RIA Novosti reports. Read More »
The uses and abuses of fighting extremism on RuNet
The Internet is becoming ever more accessible in Russia, offering unlimited possibilities for the distribution of every kind of content. Cyberspace is also censored very minimally. This gives everyone an opportunity to speak their minds and cyber-antagonism is widespread in the Russian Internet community. Read More »
Blogger provides look into Russian war on terror
The anonymous LiveJournal blog hardingush [ru] was created on September 15, 2012. Now, less than two months later, the blog, subtitled Spetsnaz Ingushetii (Ingush Special Forces), is number 425th [ru] in LJ's general user rating. Netizens have left over 4,000 comments on its various posts. Four of these posts also made it into the October top-25 list [ru] of North Caucasus bloggers (a monthly rating compiled by Moscow-based blogger timag82 [ru]). Read More »
Bulgarian Facebook group helps police the police
A new Facebook group, called “Photograph a Policeman” is making waves in the Bulgarian media. Read More »
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- Cossacks Go Green, Romanian Priests Spread Regime’s Good NewsPlus, Armenians will feel the Russian gas pinch and Moldova has a new prime minister, maybe. […]
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- Russia Launches Public TV, Romanian Soccer Boss Jailed
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About Us
Net Prophet is a blog supported by Transitions Online tracking new media and tech developments across Central Europe and Eurasia.
Transitions Online is an online magazine that covers political, social, cultural, and economic issues in the former communist countries of Europe and Central Asia. The magazine has a strong network of local contributors, who provide valuable insight into events in the region’s 29 countries.
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Recent Posts
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Elva, crowd-sourcing conflict in the South Caucasus
May 22, 2013 -
Karimova gets schooled in Twitter debate
May 17, 2013 -
Hungary: Government limits FOIA transparency law
May 10, 2013 -
U.S. calls Ukraine the pirate king
May 8, 2013 -
Azerbaijan legislating civil web discourse
May 3, 2013
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