Tag - internet

 
Menu
Search
 
July 04, 2026
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

INTERNET

Russia is pushing its Max social media platform in a heavy-handed rollout that has raised concerns that Moscow will use the app to surveil its citizens and further cut digital links to the West.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 24, 2026
Russia’s Max: The unencrypted super-app being forced on citizens
Max is being rolled out with a massive promotion campaign and the simultaneous blocking of Whatsapp and Telegram, the country’s two most popular messenger apps.
People outside St. Basil's Cathedral in central Moscow on Monday. Over the past week, mobile internet has been completely down every day in parts of central Moscow, St. Petersburg and other major cities.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Mar 20, 2026
‘Great crackdown’: Russia tightens the screws on the internet
The government is restricting messaging services Telegram and WhatsApp and taking down dozens of VPNs that can be used to swerve bans on sites and apps.
A woman uses her phone as smoke rises following an explosion in Tehran on March 7. Despite an internet blackout, people are still finding ways to send and receive information in Iran.
WORLD / EXPLAINER
Mar 16, 2026
How Iranians are communicating through internet blackout
An internet blackout that one connectivity monitor says is government imposed hasn’t stopped information from getting in and out of Iran.
Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant speaks during an interview in Sydney on Dec. 10.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 9, 2026
Australians reach for VPNs and find porn sites blocked as age restrictions take effect
Last December, Australia became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media.
A U.S. Marine F-35C Lightning II prepares to launch from the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in support of the Operation Epic Fury attack on Iran from an undisclosed location on March 2.
WORLD
Mar 9, 2026
SpongeBob, Iron Man and Call of Duty: Inside the U.S. meme war against Iran
While past administrations have used public relations to explain why the U.S. has gone to war, this time around it’s about how the U.S. has gone to war — with an air of bravado.
Around 44.0% of survey respondents said they used newspapers and magazines as well as television and radio programs to confirm the authenticity of information.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2026
Nearly 70% of Japanese suspect disinformation is spreading online
The result suggests that concern about the manipulation of information by foreign countries is growing in the country.
The Cultural Affairs Agency will introduce a new system in April that compels users to pay copyright fees even in cases in which the creator or the copyright holder is not known.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2026
Culture agency to charge fees for use of works by unknown authors
From April, copyright holders of previously unattributed works who come forward after the agency grants usage permission for them can obtain compensation from it.
A government report shows that high school students spend an average of 6 hours and 44 minutes online per day.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2026
Nearly half of Japanese high school students use AI, report shows
The child agency survey found that students are spending more time online, with some experiencing disruptions in their sleep schedules or studies.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara speaks during a news conference at the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2026
Several local government websites become inaccessible
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a news conference Wednesday that the central government and others are gathering information to identify the cause of the problem.
Europe's approach to free speech differs ​from the U.S., where the Constitution protects virtually all expression.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 19, 2026
U.S. plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere
The move, which Washington views as a way to counter censorship, would allow access to alleged hate speech and terrorist propaganda.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off carrying Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on May 14, 2025.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 15, 2026
Vietnam licenses Musk’s satellite internet firm Starlink
Nearly 80% of Vietnam’s around 100 million people are internet users but gaps in service remain in rural and mountainous areas.
David J. Farber in May 2008
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2026
Pioneering computer scientist and Keio professor dies at 91
David J. Farber was a central figure in the development of early research networks that evolved into today’s internet.
An error message appears on the Instagram app in Australia, whose government recently banned youth from social media in 2025. Brazil is now considering similar restrictions on online gambling and pornography.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 10, 2026
Brazil moves to ban teen access to online gambling and pornography
The move will make Brazil the latest nation to take significant measures meant to address concerns about toxic content, exploitation and other harms.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi enters the Prime Minister's Office between election campaign activities in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 7, 2026
Takaichi overwhelming rivals in social media battle to go viral
An analysis showed that Takaichi had made 65 posts during the reporting period, garnering an average of about 5,200 reposts each.
Vehicles drive past a burnt billboard in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Jan. 19.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 5, 2026
Countries using internet blackouts to boost censorship, privacy firm warns
Governments in countries like Iran and Myanmar are emerging from internet shutdowns with a supercharged ability to censor internet access.
Kunihiro Nitta, a pharmacist at the Sukoyaka pharmacy in Naha, gives medication instructions to a resident on Minamidaito Island in Okinawa Prefecture via a video call in September.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Feb 2, 2026
Pharmacy in Okinawa goes online to reach residents on remote islands
Sukoyaka pharmacy stepped up after two local pharmacies on Minamidaito Island and Yonaguni Island hundreds of kilometers away were shuttered.
Tokyo police have arrested a 61-year-old part-time worker from Kawachinagano, Osaka Prefecture, on suspicion of registering a fake address to rent an internet server. Investigators have also linked him to a blog that alludes to child prostitution in Laos.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 30, 2026
Police arrest man over suspected involvement in Laos child prostitution blog
According to Tokyo police, the blog in question contained text and photos suggestive of child prostitution in the Southeast Asian country.
A member of the Finnish Border Guard's Special Intervention Unit takes part in an exercise on an offshore patrol vessel, Turva, near Helsinki on the Baltic Sea, Finland, on Monday.
WORLD
Jan 27, 2026
Finland hopes to prevent cable damage with new surveillance center
The Baltic Sea region has been on ‍high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Fiction writing, commercial photography, radio, music and — most ominously — journalism face a reckoning with artificial intelligence. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2026
The takeover of all media by artificial intelligence is coming
Not only is AI already upending the filmmaking industry, but Hollywood is just one example of how the technology will cause enormous social and economic pain.
The office of ByteDance, which owns TikTok, in Singapore in January 2023
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jan 24, 2026
TikTok in the U.S. goes American, but questions remain
Whether the 200 million users in the United States will notice any difference in their online experience remains unclear.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
Japanese-language education is at a turning point
The country is gradually transforming Japanese-language education from a volunteer-driven system into a professional, government-supported network to better serve its growing foreign population. 
More facilities in Japan placing sanitary bins in men’s restrooms
A sanitary bin with an awareness sticker placed in a men's restroom in the Nagasaki Municipal Government building
Japan plans to sharply raise fees for residence permits from October
Foreign tourists walk on the path leading to the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in May.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Digital marketer Netyear zeros in on generative AI
Digital marketer Netyear zeros in on generative AI

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER