100,000 Social Media Influencers Accounts Leaked On Dark Web after Preen.Me Hack

With influencer marketing and sponsored content being on the rise, more and more content creators, some even as young as 13, are actively trying to pursue a career in social media. Now, this highly lucrative modern-day career while having all the bells and whistles also has its share of pitfalls. Being at the forefront of …

Social media taxes may widen digital divide between those with and those without digital skills

Today, Africa lags behind other continents in internet connectivity. One of the greatest barriers to getting people online in Africa is cost, with individuals paying an average of 9 percent of monthly income for 1GB of data, compared with 5 percent globally. These high costs are being exacerbated in East and Southern Africa where some …

Study: How Social Media Shed Light on Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis

Over the past two years conflict has escalated in North West and South West Cameroon. Cameroon is a bilingual country (English and French) and these two regions are the country’s English-speaking areas. The conflict started when lawyers and teachers held strikes over the increasing use of French in English courts and schools. Since then, what …

Defunct sold social media ‘likes’ and ‘followers seller Devumi settles with US Authorities.

Devumi, a company that sold social media ‘likes’ and ‘followers,’ settled its legal case with the New York’s Attorney General Office in the first-ever criminal investigation of its kind. The company, Devumi LLC, operated the now-defunct devumi.com website, where it sold likes and views on YouTube, Vimeo, and SoundCloud, endorsements on LinkedIn, pins on Pinterest, …

Furious Ugandans resort to VPN’s to dodge outrageous social media tax

Ugandans are resorting to Virtual Private Network (VPN) to bypass paying the daily excise duty charge on Over-The-Top (OTT) services to evade the infamous social media tax that came into effect at midnight, July 1, 2018. According to a random survey on social media done by the Daily Monitor, several people had resorted to V …

Chad has shutdown of social media platforms and messaging services

Paris, April 5, 2018: Internet Without Borders is alarmed by the current shutdown of social media platforms and messaging services including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber and important news website such as BBC, in Chad. This new case of censorship comes just a few days after Internet Without Borders and partners submitted a report to the UN Human …

Iran Blocks the Internet, Social Media sites shut down

As protests over economic instability and government censorship persist in Iran, the Hassan Rouhani government has reportedly wielded its favorite suppression tactic: blocking the internet. Multiple reports say the government was blocking internet on mobile networks starting on Dec. 30, including social media services like Instagram and messaging services like Telegram, to try and stop …

OurMine hacks HBO social media accounts in latest breach

A group called OurMine appears to have taken control of the main HBO accounts, as well as those for the network’s shows including Game of Thrones. One post said “OurMine are here. we are just testing your security”. OurMine is notorious for hacking high-profile social media handles, and has in the past managed to compromise …

50 organizations condemn DHS requirement to disclose social media passwords to enter U.S

The Internet Society, along with 50 organizations and trade associations and nearly 90 individual experts have written a statement to express deep concerns over the proposal that U.S. Department of Homeland Security may require individuals to disclose their social media account passwords as a condition of entry into the United States.  Last week, the new …