Communities

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Zanzibar’s project to put itself on Google Street View has angered a legion of European video game streamers

pubsub.do.nohost.me / Rest of World · Thursday, 8 April, 2021 - 12:00

Over the past few months, driven perhaps by an increase in travel nostalgia during the pandemic, the online trivia game GeoGuessr has exploded in popularity. Launched by a Swedish developer...

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How Koo became India’s Hindu nationalist–approved Twitter alternative

pubsub.do.nohost.me / Rest of World · Friday, 19 February, 2021 - 01:00

It hasn’t been a quiet few weeks on Twitter in India. The country’s capital city has seen over four months of protest after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government enacted agricultural laws that would adversely affect farmers across India. The farmer protests, as the movement has come to be known, has taken to social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to make the cause heard globally...

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Technology and solidarity won’t save Myanmar’s protesters

pubsub.do.nohost.me / Rest of World · Thursday, 18 February, 2021 - 23:00

The first Saturday evening after the coup, Nandar sat in her Yangon apartment playing the guitar. At 8 p.m., the streets resonated with the sound of thousands of pots and pans being banged in unison, a ritual of exorcism that has become a nightly tradition since the Burmese military took power in the early hours of February 1. Sometime later, there was a new clamor, clapping and cheering...

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Four countries, one Clubhouse

pubsub.do.nohost.me / Rest of World · Thursday, 18 February, 2021 - 12:00

What happens when a buzzy app pegged as a digital soapbox for tech bros suddenly lands on the global stage? Since December, people have joined Clubhouse, a fast-growing audio platform reportedly valued at $1 billion, from countries including Ghana, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand. The app, which is currently invite-only, has been installed more than 5.5 million times, with 16% of those downloads in...

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Donde funcionan las cámaras de vigilancia pero la justicia no

pubsub.do.nohost.me / Rest of World · Tuesday, 16 February, 2021 - 16:54

La noche del 9 de octubre de 2013, Laura Ramírez, una profesora de primaria de 50 años, murió atropellada por un coche en la avenida Dr. Vértiz, cerca del centro de la Ciudad de México. El automovilista escapó de la escena del crimen. Las autoridades se pusieron en contacto con la única familiar cercana de Ramírez: su hija Verónica, que en aquel momento era una estudiante de 22 años.

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The influencer politicians are coming

pubsub.do.nohost.me / Rest of World · Monday, 15 February, 2021 - 11:00

Santa Claus stands at the center of an Instagram photo wearing a big red cowboy hat to promote the music video for a campaign jingle. The song was commissioned by the politician standing to Santa’s right, Samuel García, who is running to be the next governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo León. Mariana Rodríguez uploaded the photo to her 1.2 million followers on Instagram. Instagram But the picture...

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The digital afterlife industry is here to help you plan your death

pubsub.do.nohost.me / Rest of World · Sunday, 14 February, 2021 - 23:30

It was a steamy Thursday night in mid-June when my 90-year-old father-in-law phoned from Sydney. He was in the hospital and called to wish us, his family in Hong Kong, “good luck” with our lives. He died on Saturday morning, and the service was set for Tuesday. It was too complicated to go to Australia, and even if we’d been able to fly to Sydney, the funeral home wouldn’t have let us in because...

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Why Uruguay’s “miracle” Covid-19 app failed to deliver

pubsub.do.nohost.me / Rest of World · Friday, 12 February, 2021 - 11:00

In March 2020, Uruguay reported its first Covid-19 case. Software engineer Laura Aguiar immediately called Gastón Milano, CTO of the Montevideo-based software development firm GeneXus. Aguiar offered to help in creating a digital solution to combat the virus, but Milano was already one step ahead of her. In the days prior, he had coordinated hundreds of the country’s technologists around the...

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Social media influencers in the Gulf are breaking their silence

pubsub.do.nohost.me / Rest of World · Friday, 12 February, 2021 - 00:25

Xeina Al-Musallam took a deep breath and hit RECORD. “Okay, this is probably take 30, I think,” she said, looking around at the deep-green room papered in flower print, like a dollhouse. The art director and content creator was ready to speak up. Al-Musallam’s feed typically feels like a mood board for a glossy fashion magazine: cascading walls of tropical plants, decadent outdoor tea parties...

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