Stories about South Asia from August, 2018
Netizen Report: It’s not just Myanmar — ethnic hate speech runs rampant on social media in Cameroon, India
The Advox Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world.
The ‘Khan Meter’ will assess the new Pakistani prime minister's performance
"It’s time to start monitoring our government, discuss where they went wrong as well as appreciate what they did right. It helps us think logically about the new government’s performance..."
Netizens flood the internet with support for monsoon victims in Kerala, India
"Kerala is striving together...to overcome the catastrophic flood. However...some are trying to malign this great effort with misinformation in the form of fake messages on social media."
Kerala floods: Tech-savvy Indian citizens mobilize to minimize the damage
"The spirit of unity, willpower, compassion, and dedication of thousands of volunteers belonging to state and non-state agencies in Kerala are indescribable."
Fearing reprimand, student protesters in Bangladesh go silent
The government has blamed social media users and activists for trying to create unrest by sharing provocative posts and content on Facebook.
In Pakistan's elections, animals were tortured for the sake of political stunts
"A donkey beaten to pulp, punched in the face and abdomen several times, nose broken, kicked all over his body until he collapsed."
Netizen Report: Bangladesh protests trigger mobile network cuts, journalist arrest
Venezuela goes after journalists' cameras after drone attack, Iran re-routes Telegram (to government servers) and Google tries to go back to China.
India's biometric ID system takes more heat, after Google admits it coded helpline numbers into Android phones
With a growing list of incidents of system malfunctions and personal data leaks, Aadhaar has failed to gain public trust.
“What followed horrified us beyond our wildest imaginations”: an eyewitness account of the Bangladesh student protests
"Young Bangladeshis like me are tired of fearing for our lives on the roads—fearing being run over simply because the driver values making money more than human lives."
Bangladeshi photojournalist Shahidul Alam detained over student protest coverage
"...there were people with machetes in their hands chasing unarmed students. And the police are standing by watching it happen."
Students occupy Dhaka streets demanding road safety in Bangladesh
"The students have turned around a car of a minister who was traveling on the wrong side of the road ... What an unimaginable event!"
Officials blame WhatsApp for spike in mob killings, but Indians say vicious party politics are at fault
"Mob lynching is a political tool being used to polarise society....The idea is to create a fear psychosis by unleashing the mobs on a certain community."