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Free Basics in Real Life: Six Case Studies on Facebook’s Internet “on Ramp” Initiative from Africa, Asia and Latin America

Amsterdam: Global Voices (2017), 35 pp.

According to the executive summary "Facebook’s Free Basics program aims to help bridge the digital divide through a mobile-based platform that allows users to connect to a handful of online services free of charge [...] This paper highlights the following findings: Language: Free Basics does not m ... more

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Freedom on the Net 2017: Manipulating Social Media to Undermine Democracy
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Sanja Kelly, Mai Truong, Adrian Shahbaz, Madeline Earp, Jessica White (eds.)

Washington, DC; New York: Freedom House (2017), 1060 pp.

"Governments around the world have dramatically increased their efforts to manipulate information on social media over the past year. The Chinese and Russian regimes pioneered the use of surreptitious methods to distort online discussions and suppress dissent more than a decade ago, but the practice ... more

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Media Use in the Middle East: A Seven-Nation Survey
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Everette E. Dennis, Justin D. Martin, Robb Wood

Qatar: Northwestern University in Qatar;Harris Interactive (2017), 139 pp.

"Compared to five years ago, internet penetration rose in all six countries surveyed and most dramatically in Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia. Smartphone ownership tracks closely with internet use in the six surveyed countries. Nearly all nationals in Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE own a sma ... more

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Compromising Connectivity: Information Dynamics Between the State and Society in a Digitizing North Korea

Nat Kretchun, Catherine Lee, Seamus Tuohy

Washington, DC: Intermedia (2017), 97 pp.

"The information and media environment in North Korea continues to evolve quickly. This report demonstrates that the depth and diversity of information and media access channels have grown markedly since the release of A Quiet Opening in 2012. More North Koreans have greater access to a larger varie ... more

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Beyond Access: Addressing Digital Inequality in Africa

Alison Gillwald

Waterloo, Ontario: Centre for International Governance Innovation (2017), 17 pp.

"Although most Africans remain disconnected from the Internet, and access to broadband services continues to be a central policy issue, the increased availability of broadband services alone will not reduce digital inequality on the continent. While the provision of access to the Internet remains a ... more

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Redes comunitarias en América Latina: Desafíos, regulaciones y soluciones

Carlos Baca, Luca Belli, Erick Huerta, Karla Velasco

Internet Society;Association for Progressive Communications (APC);FGV Direito Rio (2017), 45, xxviii pp.

"[...] El objetivo de este estudio no es solamente destacar el potencial de las redes comunitarias en términos de expansión de conectividad y sus externalidades positivas en materia social, cultural y económica; sino también destacar los elementos regulatorios que podrían optimizar su desarroll ... more

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Internet Use Barriers and User Strategies: Perspectives from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Rwanda

Margaret Nyambura, Fola Odufuwa, Albert Nsengiyumva, Lwando Mdleleni, Mpho Moyo, Sinethemba Mthimkhulu

Research ICT Africa;Mozilla Foundation (2017), 40 pp.

"The study tested the following hypotheses: the use of subsidised services only forms part of data use; people do not move beyond the use of subsidised services; using the internet first through subsidised services leaves people with less of an understanding of the Internet. Using subsidised data fo ... more

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Ascendant India, Digital India: How Net Neutrality Advocates Defeated Facebook’s Free Basics

Revati Prasad

Media, Culture & Society, volume 40, issue 3 (2017), pp. 415-431

"This article analyzes the 2015 campaign by net neutrality advocates against Facebook’s Free Basics service in India, and argues that their victory can be best understood by analyzing their privileged place in an India that imagines itself high tech and global. The advocates, predominantly tech wo ... more

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Digital Resistance in the Middle East: New Media Activism in Everyday Life

Deborah L. Wheeler

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2017), xi, 194 pp.

"This book argues that Internet diffusion and use in the Middle East enables meaningful micro-changes in citizens’ lives, even in states where no Arab Spring revolution occurred. Using ethnographic evidence and taking a comparative perspective, it presents a grass roots look at how new media use f ... more

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Measuring the Information Society Report 2017. Vol.1

Geneva: ITU (2017), xi, 154 pp.

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Afghan Information Ecosystems: A Design Research Approach

Internews;Sayara Research (2017), 82 pp.

"Afghanistan has made great strides in establishing media and communications outlets. However, very little is known about the ways in which Afghans actually engage in information exchange. To inform work with the media and effectively enhance access to information in Afghanistan, Internews commissio ... more

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Bolivia digital: 15 miradas acerca de internet y sociedad en Bolivia

Eliana Quiroz Gutiérrez (coord.)

La Paz: Vicepresidencia del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia;Centro de Investigaciones Sociales (CIS) (2016), 536 pp.

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Citoyenneté numérique: Ce que l’Afrique prépare. Bénin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, République démocratique du Congo, Ghana, Madagascar, Sénégal

Cédric Kalonji, Philippe Couve, Julien Le Bot

Paris: CFI Coopération Médias (2016), 39 pp.

"L’approfondissement des pratiques démocratiques dans les pays étudiés passe non seulement par le renforcement des capacités des médias et des journalistes, pour qu’ils puissent s’emparer pleinement des outils numériques, mais aussi par la montée en puissance d’un grand nombre de nouv ... more

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Freedom on the Net 2016. Silencing the Messenger: Communication Apps Under Pressure
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Sanja Kelly, Mai Truong, Adrian Shahbaz, Madeline Earp (eds.)

Washington, DC; New York: Freedom House (2016), 1021 pp.

"Internet freedom has declined for the sixth consecutive year, with more governments than ever before targeting social media and communication apps as a means of halting the rapid dissemination of information, particularly during antigovernment protests. Public-facing social media platforms like Fac ... more

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Last Mile Connectivity in Emerging Markets

Developing Telecoms (2016), 28 pp.

"This report focuses on the difficulties faced by operators in emerging markets looking to deliver data bandwidth cost effectively to challenging locations, including remote communities and busy cities. While the challenges are myriad, improvements in technology are increasingly making the business ... more

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Measuring the Information Society Report 2016

Geneva: ITU (2016), 256 pp.

"This annual report presents a global and regional overview of the latest developments regarding information and communication technologies (ICTs), based on internationally comparable data and agreed methodologies. It aims to stimulate the ICT policy debate in ITU Member States by providing an objec ... more

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Digital Access in Africa

Chris Locke, Jonathan Donner, Bryan Pon, Savita Bailur, Francis Hook, Ambacontributors Kak

Farnham (UK): Caribou Digital Publishing (2016), 60 pp.

"The mobile industry has, for the past 15 years or so, done a phenomenal job of connecting users in emerging markets to voice, SMS and Internet access services. But as we strive to reach the remaining unconnected users, we may need new models of connectivity to reach them. In the first section of th ... is document we discuss the need for new Internet access models, and ask the question of what we mean by “Internet Access” and why it’s important to understand what the impacts of limited service and capability are. We then move on to look at the barriers to scaling Internet access, and why, despite the availability and affordability of mobile phones, Internet access remains sub-scale. On the supply side, we discuss the issues around the costs of delivery access, and the difficulty of making connectivity affordable. Many attempts to reduce the cost have been tried, with varying levels of success. From Universal Service Funds delivered at a policy level, to zero-rated services from the private sector, it is important to understand the considerations around subsidizing access for poor or hard-to-reach users. The debate around this is nuanced, as the recent decision by the TRAI to ban Facebook Free Basics in India has shown. Supply side barriers are not easily solvable, and some mix of new industry business models and policy efforts to make regulation fit for purpose is required. Providing affordable—or free—Internet access will require negotiating the original principles of the Internet, the desire for an open and fair architecture, with the real costs of delivering this vision. From a user perspective, even when the available infrastructure enables connectivity, it doesn’t always drive adoption. Users require a reason to go online. A certain amount of this can be demand driven by access to essential government services, but a carrot as well as a stick is required. We have previously researched the digital lives of users in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda, and have shown how users come online for non-instrumental reasons (social media, games, etc.) but then often use these platforms for instrumental activities such as self-directed education, searching for employment, or sourcing essential information.3 User research can show us how these needs can be balanced, and we discuss this within this report." (Introduction, page 4-5) more

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Media Freedom on the Internet: An OSCE Guidebook

Yaman Akdeniz

Vienna: OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (2016), 110 pp.

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Panorama de los medios en Ecuador: Sistema informativo y actores implicados

Mirjam Gehrke, Nelsy Lizarazo, Patricia Noboa, David Olmos, Oliver Pieper

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2016), 62 pp.

"En Ecuador escasean tanto los análisis de los medios de comunicación privados, públicos o comunitarios, como del consumo mediático o de la formación periodística. Los pocos datos disponibles han impedido que se puedan realizar estudios complejos y exhaustivos. El presente informe se centra en ... more

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Digital Discrimination: Political Bias in Internet Service Provision Across Ethnic Groups

Nils B. Weidmann, Suso Benitez-Baleato, Philipp Hunziker, Eduard Glatz, Xenofontas Dimitropoulos

Science, volume 353, issue 6304 (2016), pp. 1151-1155

"The global expansion of the Internet is frequently associated with increased government transparency, political rights, and democracy. However, this assumption depends on marginalized groups getting access in the first place. Here we document a strong and persistent political bias in the allocation ... more

Freedom on the Net 2017: Manipulating Social Media to Undermine Democracy Top Insights

Media Use in the Middle East: A Seven-Nation Survey Top Insights

Freedom on the Net 2016. Silencing the Messenger: Communication Apps Under Pressure Top Insights

Freedom on the Net 2017: Manipulating Social Media to Undermine Democracy
Top Insights

Media Use in the Middle East: A Seven-Nation Survey
Top Insights

Freedom on the Net 2016. Silencing the Messenger: Communication Apps Under Pressure
Top Insights