Australia became the world's first country to ban social media for children under 16 in December 2025. The ban blocks children from using Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, and Kick, while WhatsApp and YouTube Kids are excluded.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced plans to restrict social media use by age starting on January 1, 2027, citing concerns such as problems sleeping, increasing anxiety, and social media platforms' addictive designs.
Apple removed Bitchat from the China App Store on February 28, 2026, citing local legal violations. The Cyberspace Administration of China claims Bitchat violates Article 3 of its security assessment provisions.
The Supreme Court's ruling stated that Memorial and its supporters are 'clearly anti-Russian in nature and are aimed at destroying the basic foundations of Russian statehood, violating its territorial integrity, and eroding historical, cultural, spiritual, and moral values.'
The film follows Talankin in his job at a school in the poor mining town of Karabash in the Chelyabinsk region, showing how the Russian government indoctrinates students with pro-war messages.
As missiles strike across Israel and Iran, what are we really allowed to see? With strict censorship and limited access, journalists and the public are seeing only part of the story: Who decides what information gets out, and what does that mean for truth in a war affecting millions?
Around 2013 in Taiwan's context, when Facebook started to take over the digital ecosystem in Taiwan, many local independent bulletin boards that had been formed for sexual minorities were shut down because they had no income from advertisements, and people were pushed into mainstream platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Meta, whatever, Twitter now X where sexual expression was usually reported or flagged.
Iran's media landscape is divided between outlets closely affiliated with the state and those considered reformist. State-aligned outlets include organizations such as Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Tasnim, Fars News, and Mehr News. These conservative outlets often promote narratives that support Iran's ruling clerical establishment.
Telegram users in Russia may begin noticing service disruptions on Tuesday after Russia's communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, reportedly moved to slow down and restrict access to the app, as reported by Russian news outlet . Roskomnadzor said in a statement to RBC, translated using machine translation, that it "will continue to introduce successive restrictions" on Telegram, claiming the app is not taking adequate steps to prevent fraud and criminal activity.
Iranian security forces have arrested several figures from the country's reformist movement, local media reported on Monday, as Tehran's crackdown on dissent continues to widen. Those arrested include Azar Mansouri, the head of the Reformist Front, which represents several factions, former diplomat Mohsen Aminzadeh and Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, who was part of the group that stormed the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979.
Two independent journalists were detained by Chinese officials after they published a report alleging corruption by a local official in southwestern China, rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Tuesday, condemning the incident. Police in Chengdu said they were investigating a 50-year-old man surnamed Liu and a 34-year-old surnamed Wu on suspicion of making "false accusations" and conducting "illegal business operations." Authorities said they were placed under "criminal coercive measures," a term typically referring to detention.
Trying to isolate over 100 million users from private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia. We continue to do everything we can to keep users connected. The move fits into the Kremlin's aim to achieve a sovereign internet an online space cut off from western technology and foreign influence, and more vulnerable to state control.
