Calls for new laws as tech fuels “explosion” of online sex abuse
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation As a schoolgirl, Sarah Cooper became close to an online buddy called “J”, bonding over a love of pop singers like Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj, and confiding about problems at home. Some two years later he sold her into sexual slavery. Cooper, from the US city of Boston, told how […]
Sight Helpdesk: ‘What is my IP address?’ Explaining one of the world’s most Googled questions
Academics PAUL HASKELL-DOWLAND and BOGDAN GHITA, in an article first published on The Conversation, explain what an IP is (and how to quickly look it up)…
Luxury to essential: Latin America boosts internet access in pandemic
ANASTASIA MOLONEY and FABIO TEIXEIRA, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, report on how the pandemic exposed a deep digital divide across Latin America and the Caribbean – and what is being done to address it…
100 hours in the dark: How an election internet blackout hit poor Ugandans
Nairobi, Kenya/Kampala, UgandaThomson Reuters Foundation When Uganda ordered an internet shutdown on the eve of the presidential election, groundnut seller Susan Tafumba’s trade collapsed. The 34-year-old sells groundnuts at Kampala’s Nakawa market, but much of her business now comes through a mobile phone app that customers use to order goods to be delivered to them […]
Debt to personal data: Five threats to digital rights in Africa in 2020
Johannesburg, South Africa/Nairobi, KenyaThomson Reuters Foundation From internet blackouts to contact tracing apps, digital rights across Africa were spotlighted in 2020 as millions of people were forced online to work, study and socialise amid lockdowns to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. Rights advocates and research groups raised concerns that measures enacted to curb […]
Women bear brunt of online abuse as world goes digital in pandemic
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Women bear the brunt of digital abuse – threatened with rape and exploited for porn – as the coronavirus pandemic drives ever more people online, media experts said on Wednesday. Through salacious claims and viral memes, Brazilian journalist Patricia Campos Mello said she has repeatedly faced attack online for reporting on […]
Carlo Acutis, Millennial candidate for Catholic sainthood, draws 41,000 to Assisi church
Vatican CityRNS The Catholic Church’s most recent candidate for sainthood is also its most modern. Lying in a glass-sided casket in jeans and a track jacket, the body of Carlo Acutis, an internet enthusiast who died in 2006 of leukemia at the age of 15, was venerated by some 41,000 visitors during a 19-day-long celebration […]
Coronavirus curbs seen taking heavy toll on people without internet
Tbilisi, GeorgiaThomson Reuters Foundation Coronavirus lockdowns mean poor people without internet access are being further marginalised, researchers and rights groups said on Tuesday, urging governments and telecommunications companies to do more to get them online. From schooling to looking for jobs and applying for state aid, lockdown measures have shifted many key activities online while […]
Sight-Seeing: Present tense – Worshipping and performing in the digital age
TARA ISABELLA BURTON, in an article first published on Religion News Service, looks at how the coronavirus lockdown is leading people to look at art – and worship – in a different way…
Essay: How to build community while worshipping online
In an article first published on The Conversation, HEIDI A CAMPBELL, US academic and author of ‘Exploring Religious Community Online’, looks at what her research shows about taking Christian communities online…