The Moscow Mayor’s mischievous viral marketing

Throughout the Moscow mayor’s race, Alexey Navalny’s campaign has taken a beating from all sides on questions about financing, nationalism, and even transparency. Read More »

Teen suicides put Latvia’s Ask.fm under scrutiny

The parents of the Latvian founders of a social media platform involved in a British suicide row are defending their sons, the Daily Mail writes. Latvian entrepreneurs and founders of Ask.fm, Ilja Terebin, 34, and Mark Terebin, 29, have come under fire from relatives of teens who have committed suicide after being cyber-bullied. Read More »

IT guys pinpoint exact location of Spamalot

Belarus has grabbed the dubious honor of being the biggest worldwide source of spam per capita, according to the BBC. Data from the Cloudmark security firm flagged 27 percent of Belarusian IP addresses as known sources of spam, with Romania in second place at 22 percent.

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The terrifying potential of a post-Navalny Russia

On the eve of being sentenced to a five-year term in a penal colony, Alexey Navalny blogged about puffer fish. The Russian opposition would be remiss to think of itself as a school of small fish being pursued by a big predatory fish (i.e. the Kremlin), he wrote on his blog. The predator was simply putting on an act to conceal its weakness.

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Kazakhstan suffers cyber attack

Kazakh citizens are under cyber attack. The attack in question is delivered through phishing emails, and is thought to be driven by an advanced persistent threat (APT) organisation, via software called NetTraveler.

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Revealing e-book shares Azerbaijan’s political secrets

An e-book produced by the ‘International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ (ICIJ) has been made freely available online and is aimed at pinpointing corruption in offshore accounts. In an effort to spread this information and to shed light on those involved, including a Kazakh banking tycoon and Russian corporate executive, the e-book details cases of corruption as well as providing summaries on those involved, and the information is spreading. Read More »

Disaster-mapping project helps spread reports of the Czech floods

The Krizová mapa Česka, or Crisis Map Czech, an online disaster-mapping project created by a Czech television channel, has provided Czech citizens with up-to-date information about the flooding in the Czech Republic.
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Tajikistan’s recent YouTube block highlights a fickle friendship with the Web

To friend or to unfriend?  Tajikistan cannot make up its mind about the Internet.   Read More »

Karimova gets schooled in Twitter debate

How does she manage it all?

Even though her schedule must be packed, Gulnara Karimova, an ambassador to the UN and daughter of Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov, still seems to find time to lecture human rights activists, though not too successfully. Read More »

Estonia’s Winny Puhh makes 1 million new Internet friends

The members of Estonian rock band Winny Puhh bear (ahem) little resemblance to the red-shirted, honey-loving cartoon character, but they’ve managed to win over Internet audiences with a 2013 Eurovision-qualifying performance regardless.
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Makers of Grozny-fire spoof video will help in cleanup

Two men who allegedly posted online a video making light of a skyscraper fire in Chechnya last week got a taste of the fury of the Russian republic’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, Radio Free Europe reports.   Read More »

Meteorite pelts Russia with tweets, memes, and scams

The meteorite that fell near the Russian industrial city of Chelyabinsk on 15 February sent shock waves around the RuNet and social networks worldwide. Read More »

Hunting black swans with big data

In times of worldwide economic crisis, natural disasters, and political turmoil, one often wonders if such events couldn’t have been mitigated or avoided altogether with the help of the latest technological developments. The United Nations Development Programme offers a potential answer in the form of a software that allows better data visualization and detection of irregular patterns.

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‘Carousel Voting’ Goes Viral in Kyrgyz Elections

Nearly three months of intrusive and irksome electoral campaigns in Kyrgyzstan came to an end as votes were counted for the five municipal elections held on November 25. But with the results in, a scandalous piece of citizen media has left a sour taste in the mouth. Read More »