Disappear | ARTE.tv Documentary

Jun 16, 2024 | In Berlin, Max, a young performer, wants to escape the tracking of Big Tech by convincing artists and clubs to use an alternative platform to Facebook. In Hong Kong, a researcher targeted by the CCP tries to disappear online. Finally, investigative journalists do their best to protect their sources, rattled by Julian Assange's extradition trial to the United States.

Billion Dollar Fraud on the Internet | DW Documentary

Nov 24, 2023 | Interest-based investment portals on the Internet are one of the biggest scams of our time. People sign up, hoping to invest. Instead, they are cheated out of billions. In Germany alone, thousands of victims have fallen victim to their own gullibility.

Filmmakers Niklas Resch and Caroline Uhl meet with victims and investigators, then track down some of the perpetrators behind the scams. They discover that trying to put a stop to this kind of fraud is like tilting at windmills. Moreover: Victims and perpetrators may have more in common than they think.

Ulrike Schneider was cheated out of a lot of money. Ironically, she lost over 10,000 euros because she tried to do a good job investing her savings. She invested money with an online financial portal called TradeInvest90 because it promised good profits in a short time. What Schneider did not suspect: The portal was run by an international gang of fraudsters.

In the film, we also meet Adrian. In his late 20s, he was living in Kosovo with hardly any money. So when he received an offer for a well-paid call center job, he jumped at it. But he quickly realized that his job was illegal. His job was to pretend to be a financial market expert for portals such as TradeInvest90 - and thus to take money from German-speaking investors such as Ulrike Schneider over the phone.

Adrian and his colleagues bilked their victims out of millions - and earned enormous sums themselves. The head of this gang of fraudsters has become a multi-millionaire. He shamelessly squanders the savings of his victims.

The fraud continued for several years until investigators from the State Criminal Police Office in Saarbrücken put a stop to the gang - following a complex investigation. But others continue to steal vast sums of money using the same scam to this day.

The filmmakers have succeeded in providing a deep insight into the innermost workings of a highly organized gang of fraudsters. For the first time, the film shows original material from inside the call center. The documentary contrasts the views and motives of victims, perpetrators and investigators - and shows the psychological mechanisms at work in both the deceived and the deceivers.

India Expands Digitization amid Worrying Trends | DW News

Nov 1, 2022 | India’s digital footprint has tripled in less than a decade. 60 percent of Indians now have access to the internet. This digital expansion has changed the lives of millions of people across the country. We take a closer look at how that growth clashes with government attempts regulate the internet.

Russia Disconnects from the Global Internet I ARTE.tv Documentary

Mar 17, 2022 • Vladimir Putin is accelerating his country's disconnection from global information flows: The Russian government is now blocking Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well as threatening 15 years in prison for those who spread "false information". This brings Russia closer in line with countries like China and North Korea.

Russia Tightens Its Grip on the Internet

BLOOMBERG: Google’s decision to pull a protest election app from Russia before the election is significant in some surprising ways

No nation asks Google to scrub more from the internet than Russia. Over the past decade, Russian officials have requested the removal of nearly 1 million web pages, documents, apps and videos, mostly for reasons Google categorizes as "copyright" or "national security."

Last week, Russia made another request. Russian officials demanded Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Apple Inc. pull a voting app from Alexey Navalny, a jailed politician, that recommends a slate of candidates opposing President Vladimir Putin. A Russian court had ruled Navalny's app was "extremist" and requested its removal from app stores in the country. The companies complied.

It was an unprecedented intervention, and an alarming one for those who see Russia as a growing threat to internet freedoms. Armed men reportedlyspent "several hours" inside Google's Moscow office last week to enforce the order, which came with a threat to arrest Russian staff if the company didn't comply. Some Google employees protested the decision. Historically, Google officials have often spoken out about attacks on the open web—and the company's position as its defender—but Google has said nothing officially about the recent Russian incident.

Also quiet is the person from Google’s history who once had strong opinions on the topic: Sergey Brin. » | Mark Bergen | Thursday, September 23, 2021

La Russie renforce son contrôle d'Internet

Les entreprises pourront continuer d'utiliser les VPN, à condition qu'elles ne violent pas la loi. DENIS BALIBOUSE / POOL / AFP
LE FIGARO : Le pays vient de bloquer six VPN, ces logiciels permettant d'accéder à des sites interdits en Russie, comme ceux liés à l'opposant Alexeï Navalny.

Le gendarme russe des télécoms, Roskomnadzor, a annoncé le blocage de six logiciels très utilisés de réseaux privés virtuels (VPN) permettant d'avoir accès à des sites internet interdits en Russie. Le service fédéral a estimé que l'utilisation de ces VPN permettait de consulter des «contenus interdits» et encourageait des «activités illégales comme la promotion des drogues, de la pédopornographie, de l'extrémisme et des tendances suicidaires».

Ce blocage concerne les programmes Hola!VPN, ExpressVPN, KeepSolid VPN Unlimited, Nord VPN, Speedify VPN et IPVanish VPN, a précisé Roskomnadzor dans un communiqué. Pourtant, Nord VPN semble toujours fonctionner actuellement. Roskomnadzor a précisé qu'il autorisera des entreprises russes utilisant ces VPN dans leurs technologies informatiques de continuer à le faire, s'il est établi que ces sociétés ne violent pas la loi. » | Par Le Figaro avec AFP | vendredi 3 septembre 2021

FCC Moves to Gut Net Neutrality, Ignoring Public Support & Laws Upholding Equal Internet Access

Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai issued a major order Tuesday in which he outlined his plan to dismantle landmark regulations that ensure equal access to the internet. Pai wants to repeal net neutrality rules that bar internet service providers from stopping or slowing down the delivery of websites and stop companies from charging extra fees for high-quality streaming. A formal vote on the plan is set for December 14th. We speak with Tim Karr, Senior Director of Strategy for Free Press, which is organizing support to keep the rules in place ahead of the vote.

British Government Wants to Criminalize Web Use

The British Government is set to expand terrorism offenses to include the act of viewing content online. Jim Killock of Open Rights Group says the move amounts to criminalizing thought

Donald Trump Says We Need To Shut Down The Entire Internet

In response to an attack in London, Donald Trump is once again calling for the entire internet to be shut down so that radicalized people can’t use it as a recruiting tool. Not only is this a major over-reaction to what happened, but it would serve the dual purpose of silencing many Trump critics, which is likely Trump’s motive. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains.

Should Internet Be Regulated in Effort to Prevent Terror?

Jun. 05, 2017 - 4:08 - Debate gets heated on 'Outnumbered'

US - The Internet Goes Wild Following a Crazy Tweet by Donald Trump!

Theresa May to Create New Internet That Would Be Controlled and Regulated by Government

THE INDEPENDENT: The proposals come soon after the government won the right to collect everyone's browsing history

Theresa May is planning to introduce huge regulations on the way the internet works, allowing the government to decide what is said online.

Particular focus has been drawn to the end of the manifesto, which makes clear that the Tories want to introduce huge changes to the way the internet works.

"Some people say that it is not for government to regulate when it comes to technology and the internet," it states. "We disagree."

Senior Tories confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the phrasing indicates that the government intends to introduce huge restrictions on what people can post, share and publish online.

The plans will allow Britain to become "the global leader in the regulation of the use of personal data and the internet", the manifesto claims. » | Andrew Griffin | Friday, May 19, 2017

Meet The Man Who Might Kill The Internet

The internet as we know may end soon, and this will be the guy to do it. Cenk Uygur, the host of The Young Turks, introduces you to Ajit Pai.

WikiLeaks: Julian Assange Cut Off from Internet

Oct. 17, 2016 - 3:19 - Ed Henry reports from Washington, D.C.

Fremdenfeindlichkeit im Netz: EU soll Hasskommentare löschen lassen

FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Die europäischen Justizminister wollen die Europäische Union zu einem Vorgehen gegen Hasskommentare im Internet bewegen. Sie sollen nicht nur gelöscht, sondern die Verfasser auch strafrechtlich verfolgt werden.

Die EU will entschlossen gegen Hassbotschaften in sozialen Netzwerken vorgehen. Europas Justizminister forderten am Freitag die EU-Kommission auf, Gespräche mit Internet-Anbietern über ein abgestimmtes Vorgehen zu führen, um die Botschaften schnell zu löschen. Die luxemburgische EU-Ratspräsidentschaft forderte die Mitgliedstaaten zudem auf, strafrechtlich entschlossener gegen Verfasser vorzugehen.

Fremdenfeindliche Hassbotschaften seien „nicht hinnehmbar“, sagte Luxemburgs Justizminister Félix Braz, dessen Land derzeit den EU-Vorsitz hat. Die Justizminister nähmen die Hassbotschaften „sehr ernst“ und würden sich abermals im Dezember mit dem Thema befassen. » | Quelle: AFP | Samstag, 10. Oktober 2015

Rove: 'Chickens Coming Home to Roost' on Obama

Mar. 25, 2014 - 10:36 - Former Bush senior advisor: President and US world stature paying for his 'hands off' foreign policy, US giving up Internet control seen as weak, Putin 'played Obama for a sucker'

Listening Post: Erdoğan: Control, Conflict, Conglomerates

In a special edition, we unpack the Turkish prime minister's relationship with the media landscape in which he operates.

US Government Giving Up Control of Internet

Mar. 17, 2014 - 3:12 - James Rosen reports from Washington, D.C.

La Russie bloque plusieurs sites qui critiquaient le gouvernement

LA PRESSE: La Russie a bloqué jeudi plusieurs sites internet connus pour leurs critiques du gouvernement et un blogue tenu par l'un des leaders de l'opposition, Alexeï Navalny, alors que le Kremlin intensifie sa répression contre les médias indépendants en pleine crise avec l'Ukraine. » | Associated Press | Moscou | jeudi 13 mars 2014

Inside Story: World Wide Web: Global Force for Good?

We celebrate and analyse the 25th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee's landmark invention.