Sudan
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The internet has become a tool for authoritarian repression
While the internet revolution may have empowered activists, it has also handed new tools to despots for stamping out dissent through digital surveillance, disinformation and internet access to their people.
President Trump plans to order a new travel ban next week
President Donald Trump said he will sign an executive order next week that updates his contentious January 27th ban on travelers and refugees from seven majority-Muslim countries. Last week, a federal appeals court ruled to keep a stay on the president's travel ban, which has been openly opposed by leaders in the technology industry including Google and Facebook. The new executive order will address the legal pitfalls that have paused the first travel ban, Trump said at a press conference today. "The new order is going to be very much tailored to what I consider to be a very bad decision," he said. "But we can tailor the order to that decision and get just about everything, in some ways more, but we're tailoring it now to the decision."
Lawmakers demand answers from White House over Yahoo emails
Four dozen members of the US House of Representatives, acting as a bipartisan bloc, have requested that the Obama Administration brief them on allegations that Yahoo improperly scanned user emails at the behest of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Sudanese protesters use crowdmapping to get around internet shutdowns
Like past regimes, Sudan's government is trying to silence protests by periodically shutting off internet access. Activists have found a way to keep everyone informed, however, by launching the Abena Crowd Map. The tool sends SMS-based reports of demonstrations and other events to a crowdmapping platform where contributors verify, locate and post stories. Observers can both filter the report stream and get alerts when incidents take place within a given area. The map won't always help protesters on the ground, but it will share their ordeal with the outside world -- and prevent Sudan's rulers from controlling the narrative.
