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3 minutes with: Rebecca Enonchong

Founder/CEO AppsTech 🇨🇲

Facebook is still censoring groups fighting the military coup in Myanmar

The social media giant said it would support free expression in Myanmar, then kept right on silencing rebel groups

The Korean Chatroulette-style dating app quietly taking over the world

In February, Match Group agreed to buy Azar’s parent company for $1.7 billion.

Mauritius’s slow slide into authoritarianism

The move to decrypt all social media — including private messages — appears to target government criticism and social issues rather than online abuse.

Need a vaccine? In India, knowing how to code helps

While some are building code to hack the country’s online vaccine portal, many in the country struggle to get online.

TikTok is blocking alpaca influencers from livestreaming in China

The video app is mistaking the pets for “protected animals.”

CHELM, POLAND - OCTOBER 11: Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) political party, departs after attending a PiS election rally on the last day of campaigning on October 11, 2019 in Chelm, Poland. Poland is due to hold parliamentary elections on October 13 and so far Law and Justice has a strong lead with approximately 44% in pre-election polls. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Inside the rise of ‘Free Speech’ anti-Facebook platforms across Central Europe

New social media platforms in Poland and Hungary are appealing to the far right.

By Emily Schultheis

A person looks at a piece by Hoxxoh during a press preview on March 25, 2021 of the grand opening of Superchief Gallery NFT, a physical gallery dedicated exclusively to NFT (non-fungible tokens) artwork in New York. - Sotheby's and Phillips launched so-called NFT auctions on April 12, 2021, a month after Christie's sold a digital artwork for $69.3 million, as traditional auction houses seek to capitalize on the craze shaking up the art market. Three months ago, barely anyone had heard of a non-fungible token (NFT), a digital object such as a drawing, animation, piece of music, photo, or video with a certificate of authenticity created by blockchain technology.
- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION - TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION - TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION / TO GO WITH AFP STORY by Thomas URBAIN -

Inside Brazil’s DIY, eco-friendly NFT art marketplace

A rapidly growing Brazilian NFT market is offering creators a sustainable way to make a living.

By Claire Evans

Seattle, Washington - May 5, 2021:

Sarah Gunn, a Korean adoptee from Wyoming, was seen video calling with Kailee OÕMahony, a Korean adoptee from San Francisco, in her apartment in Seattle, Washington on May 5, 2021.

Photo: Christopher Lee for Rest of World

Korean adoptees felt isolated and alone for decades. Then Facebook brought them together.

“I really, really believe that I would be dead without it.”

Fact-checking Modi’s post-truth India

As the pandemic rages across the country, one team of fact-checkers contends with a post-truth dystopia.

By Sonia Faleiro

Global

Why more countries want Twitter and Facebook to hire local staff

Governments around the world are considering legislation designed to provide greater control over social media.

By Vittoria Elliott

Police and migrants argue back and forth as the caravan continues to push into the wall of riot shields in pitch black darkness.

How migrant caravans are organized—and scammed—via Facebook and WhatsApp

Every year, thousands of people try to emigrate to the U.S. Not only do they have to deal with border guards and bad weather, they must also decide who to trust.

Jay Aeba (right) appears on a panel at the 2020 Conservative Political Action Conference with Matt Schlapp (left), the chairman of the American Conservative Union and a close associate of the Trump administration.

How a fringe Japanese religion built a pro-Trump social media empire

Happy Science has adopted American far-right ideology for its own gain, just like Falun Gong.

Myanmar’s coup threatens to wipe out a generation of vloggers, influencers and entrepreneurs

Myanmar’s coup threatens to wipe out a generation of vloggers, influencers and tech entrepreneurs.

Kerim, a Turkish national who works at Teleperformance in Greece. “I decided to move to Europe to have a better opportunity, to have a better job, to have a better life,” says Kerim. “It was a failure for me.”

“For them you’re not a human being”: Answering phones for Big Tech

After moving to Greece to work for call center giant Teleperformance, workers say they were exploited.

By Moira Lavelle

Features >

Deep dives into technology and human behavior

Seattle, Washington - May 5, 2021:

Sarah Gunn, a Korean adoptee from Wyoming, was seen video calling with Kailee OÕMahony, a Korean adoptee from San Francisco, in her apartment in Seattle, Washington on May 5, 2021.

Photo: Christopher Lee for Rest of World

Korean adoptees felt isolated and alone for decades. Then Facebook brought them together.

“I really, really believe that I would be dead without it.”

Fact-checking Modi’s post-truth India

As the pandemic rages across the country, one team of fact-checkers contends with a post-truth dystopia.

By Sonia Faleiro

Myanmar’s coup threatens to wipe out a generation of vloggers, influencers and entrepreneurs

Myanmar’s coup threatens to wipe out a generation of vloggers, influencers and tech entrepreneurs.

Meet our photographers >

Go behind the lens with some of Rest of World’s photojournalists

Aisha BG, 28, brushes off her shoulders as she prays in her rented mud house in the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria, April 29, 2019. When Boko Haram attacked her village in Bama Local Government in 2014, they killed her husband and kidnapped two children. She walked to the Sambisa Forest to save her children, but ended up getting married to a commander for survival. Two and half years later, she was joined by her children as the commander died and she refused to marry another fighter by claiming she had contracted HIV. She is pregnant again with a member of civilian joint task force; however, she refused to marry him and he has disappeared. She expects to give birth in June.

Photographer Jean Chung’s life on the road

The South Korean photojournalist on why she tells stories from the perspective of the underdog.

By Leo Schwartz

Dreams multiexposire project

Learn how photographer Oksana Parafeniuk looks to reclaim the narrative

The Ukrainian photojournalist on how she has navigated the fine line between documentarian and citizen in her country’s conflict.

By Leo Schwartz

A man drying his clothes is photographed through a sari (a clothing worn by women) along the Sangam (believed to be the confluence of three rivers - Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati) during the Mahakumbh Mela in Allahabad, India, February 23, 2013.

How photographer Saumya Khandelwal finds the humanity in grief

The Indian photojournalist on how she seeks out the nuance in complex stories.

By Leo Schwartz

Ideas >

Arguments, opinions and essays from a global perspective

A protester stands on top of a car during a demonstration calling for the government to resign over the MV Wakashio oil spill in 2020.

Mauritius’s slow slide into authoritarianism

The move to decrypt all social media — including private messages — appears to target government criticism and social issues rather than online abuse.

By Ariel Saramandi

In May 2019, an officer from the National Integrated Identity Management system took photo of Mr. Charles Chepkwony to process his biometric data during Kenyas nationwide campaign to merge personal information into a single electronic document called Huduma Namba.

National digital ID initiatives have a trust problem

The move toward digitizing identity and biometrics will only make existing systemic bias harder to crack.

By Nanjala Nyabola

I was a call center worker in the Philippines. The racism was unbearable

As a Filipino call center worker, I experienced racism in nearly every shift.

By Arnel F. Murga

Africa

3 minutes with: Rebecca Enonchong

National digital ID initiatives have a trust problem

Four ways governments disrupt internet access

South Asia

Why more countries want Twitter and Facebook to hire local staff

Need a vaccine? In India, knowing how to code helps

Fact-checking Modi’s post-truth India

Latin America

A person looks at a piece by Hoxxoh during a press preview on March 25, 2021 of the grand opening of Superchief Gallery NFT, a physical gallery dedicated exclusively to NFT (non-fungible tokens) artwork in New York. - Sotheby's and Phillips launched so-called NFT auctions on April 12, 2021, a month after Christie's sold a digital artwork for $69.3 million, as traditional auction houses seek to capitalize on the craze shaking up the art market. Three months ago, barely anyone had heard of a non-fungible token (NFT), a digital object such as a drawing, animation, piece of music, photo, or video with a certificate of authenticity created by blockchain technology.
- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION - TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION - TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION / TO GO WITH AFP STORY by Thomas URBAIN -

Inside Brazil’s DIY, eco-friendly NFT art marketplace

El Salvador’s president is remaking the government’s social media in his image

Cuban technologists worry politics gets in the way of opening up the internet

Middle East & North Africa

In MBS’s Saudi Arabia, tech, not oil, is the hot new thing

What working from home looks like around the world

Inside Israel’s lucrative — and secretive —cybersurveillance industry

Asia

YANGON, MYANMAR - 2021/02/07: Protesters make the three finger salute while holding a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi in front of the Sula Pagoda during a demonstration against the military coup.

Facebook is still censoring groups fighting the military coup in Myanmar

The Korean Chatroulette-style dating app quietly taking over the world

Korean adoptees felt isolated and alone for decades. Then Facebook brought them together.

Eastern Europe

Dreams multiexposire project

Learn how photographer Oksana Parafeniuk looks to reclaim the narrative

With the Kremlin’s blessing, Russian companies embrace biometric ambitions

Fighting brain drain and creeping authoritarianism in Russia’s techno-utopian village