Bangladesh shuts down mobile internet to tackle teen protests

DHAKA - Bangladesh authorities have shut down mobile internet across swathes of the country, officials and local media said Sunday, as the authorities try to quell massive student protests that have spiraled into violence.

For the last week students have brought parts of the capital Dhaka to a standstill with a protest against poor road safety after 2 teenagers were killed by a speeding bus.

On Saturday the protests took a violent turn in Dhaka's Jigatala neighborhood with more than 100 people injured. 

Witnesses said police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators and that alleged pro-government activists attacked youngsters, including some of those rushing to nearby hospitals for treatment.

The country's highest circulated newspaper Prothom Alo said 3G and 4G internet services have been shut down for 24 hours since late Saturday, shortly after the violence broke out.

Social media has been filled with comments from Bangladeshis unable to access the internet via their phones, although wireless and wired networks appear to be unhindered.

Jahirul Haq, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), told AFP they received a "decision" from the government. But he did not clarify what was the government order was. He said he would comment further on the situation later Sunday.

A senior telecoms official who asked for anonymity said: "The BTRC has slowed down the internet at the order of the government."

The move may be an attempt to try and limit the ability of students to mobilize or spread growing online outrage over how the government has handled the protests, hours after police and unidentified men wielding sticks and stones clashed with students. 

Images and photos of the attacks on students allegedly by the ruling party activists have flooded the social media, prompting renewed outrage.

Police denied they fired rubber bullets or tear gas at the protesters. However hospital staff said dozens of people had been injured, some seriously, sporting injuries consistent with rubber bullets.

The ruling Awami League party has also denied allegations its cadres beat students up. 

Bangladesh's transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated and dangerous, and as news of the teenagers' deaths spread rapidly on social media they became a catalyst for an outpouring of anger against the government.

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009, but in recent months it has been shaken by mass protests demanding an end to a decades-old system of discriminatory civil service recruitment. 

Several powerful ministers have pleaded with students to return to their classes, amid worries the unprecedented teen outrage could turn into widespread anti-government protests ahead of general elections due later this year.

But their pleas have had little effect.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

How safe is free public Wi-Fi?

President Rodrigo Duterte recently enacted a law providing free internet access in public places nationwide.

The law, which requires a mandated minimum internet speed per user of two megabits per second (2 Mbps) is expected to get more Filipinos online. However, logging in to a free Wi-Fi access may carry security risks.

Cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab has identified free Wi-Fi as one of the biggest security risks for computer and mobile internet users.

A 2016 survey of the firm revealed that 71 percent of respondents said they use unsecured public Wi-Fi in bars and fastfood restaurants.

Meanwhile, 15 percent use free public Wi-Fi for bank transactions and online payments.

Department of Information Communication Technology (DICT) Asst. Sec. Allan Cabanlong admitted that although there are risks in using free public Wi-Fi services, the government ensured that its project is safe for public use.

"We made sure that the free Wi-Fi of the DICT is only 100 mbps... For the hacker to use it, it may be questionable because 100 mbps is not enough to hack someone," he said.

Cabanlong advised the public to be wary of the public Wi-Fi providers by checking the names and spellings.

-ANC Future Perfect, August 09, 2017

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Snapchat finds its niche with disappearing messages

SAN FRANCISCO - For 13-year-old Coral Fairchild, Snapchat trumps old-style text messaging as the way to socialize with friends in the mobile Internet age.

The northern California girl adds mustaches to faces in pictures or speech bubbles using touch-screen features that allow people to draw on Snapchat images being sent.

"You can take a regular selfie and customize it into a princess or a unicorn or whatever you want," she explained. "It's just a more fun way to communicate."

But if the message turns out to be too embarrassing, no problem. It will disappear in seconds.

The Southern California-based service has gained notoriety for the app that lets people send smartphone photos or video snippets timed to self-destruct 10 seconds or less after being opened.

Snapchat has rocketed to popularity since the initial app was released in September of 2011. Its growth initially sparked fears that, in a world of selfies, it would provide a false sense of security for teenagers thinking of sexting risque photos.

That concern appears unfounded, according to Matthew Johnson, director of education at Canadian not-for-profit digital literacy organization MediaSmarts.

"There is no evidence that Snapchat is being used any more recklessly than any other message service," Johnson said.

"Young people expect their friends and peers to do the right thing and rely on social pressure when it goes wrong," he continued, citing research done by MediaSmarts.

"In general, their instincts are very good, and they have in many ways a better handle on the social and emotional aspects of these technologies than we tend to think."

Conversations based on ephemeral images also reduce the potential for misunderstanding by providing expressions and other visual cues absent in email or basic text messages, according to Johnson.

"Many adults can relate to reading an email and not knowing whether the person who sent it was being angry or sarcastic," he said.

"Move that to text messaging where there is a limit to the number of characters you can use and the back-and-forth is faster, and there is always the possibility of something exploding because someone misunderstands something."

Along with providing pictures, typically selfies showing expressions, the mere fact someone is using Snapchat usually sends a signal that they are being playful and not serious, according to Johnson.

"Snapchat is essentially one big Smiley," he said, referring to a well-known happy-face emoticon.

The startup made news when the Wall Street Journal reported it rejected a $3 billion offer from Facebook, presumably because its founders believed it would be worth more than that.

And other reports said Snapchat delivers some 400 million photos or videos daily from users, although the number is believed to count each time a recipient opens a file, possibly counting some messages more than once.

Snapchat skews young due to the fact it is aimed at people who prefer messaging from mobile gadgets.

Snapchat chief Evan Spiegel was recently quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying that 70 percent of Snapchat users are women.

The company's in-house sociology researcher, Nathan Jurgenson, sees the service as a natural place for pictures that won't return to haunt people.

"It's easy to underestimate the significance of injecting more ephemerality into social media," Jurgenson said in a blog post.

"Part of the Snapchat appeal is that it serves as a social cue that something shouldn't be saved, not that it can't," he said.

"Young people say they will use it for something silly or a little embarrassing that they still want to share just with friends."

Jurgenson said the fact that the messages are timed to destruct means people will give them more attention: "When you look fast, you look hard."

Snapchat recently added a "Stories" feature that strings together a series of "snaps" to create a narrative that is available for repeated viewing by recipients for 24 hours.

But even with though the messages disappear, it is quite easy to copy Snapchat messages or pictures before they vanish, and research shows that young people are aware of that, according to Johnson.

Johnson expected the merging of pictures and text to become the new standard in messaging, while Coral Fairchild portrayed Snapchat as the "great next step" in mobile communications.

"I don't Snapchat anyone I don't know; that would be weird," Coral Fairchild said, noting she would make an exception for Harry Styles of mega-popular boy band One Direction.

"He wouldn't get my ugly faces, unless we were best friends."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Why smartphone-carrying Pinoys flock to wifi zones

MANILA -- "Expensive" prices of mobile Internet and weak telecommunications infrastructure restrict the growth in the usage of such feature in smartphones in the country, TNS said on Tuesday.

In its Mobile Life 2013 survey, TNS found that 51% of Philippine respondents perceive mobile data rates as "still too expensive", Joseph Webb, head of digital at TNS Greater China, said in a briefing in Makati.

"There's actually quite a big gap between those who can afford to access the Internet when they want to and those who are very careful about it," Webb said.

"It doesn't mean they don't do anything [on their smartphones]...It just means they do a little bit less than they would otherwise," he continued.

Thus, Filipinos owning smartphones are more keen in using public wi-fi due to high prices of mobile Internet and as the telco infrastructure are also found to be lacking, Webb said.

"Fifty-seven percent [of Filipino respondents] said free wi-fi has encouraged them to use data to communicate," Webb said.

The study showed 53% of Filipinos own a smartphone, mostly used for sending text messages, listening to music, taking photos and videos, and playing games.

"Some people, they do more entertainment activities... particularly because they don't have a separate camera or separate game console," Webb explained.

Looking at the Philippines, a key trend seen is the shift to using "Internet on the go", Webb said.

"Mobile is still the world's must-have device...This is a huge opportunity for branded services and gives you new ways to engage," he recounted.

TNS Mobile Life 2013 surveyed 38,000 respondents, 500 of which were from Metro Manila. Data gathering was done between November last year to January this year.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com