Will Cathcart

Este archivo solo abarca los artículos del autor incorporados a este sitio a partir del 1 de octubre de 2006. Para fechas anteriores realice una búsqueda entrecomillando su nombre.

A protester holds an EU and Georgian flag in front of riot police at a demonstration against the proposed 'foreign agents' law in the capital Tbilisi, on May 14. Zurab Tsertsvadze/AP

MundoCáucaso

Riot police in gas masks and balaclavas emerge like a dystopian infantry in the haze of tear gas that envelops Rustaveli Avenue, the Georgian capital’s main thoroughfare. They snatch protesters from the crowd and drag them back into a mass of black uniforms. Inside their ranks, the beatings continue.

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across Georgia in recent weeks to protest the government’s adoption of a Kremlin-inspired “foreign agents” bill. The legislation is a primer for autocracy.

The bill requires NGOs and media organizations who receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence”.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesNuevas Tecnologías

End-to-end encryption is the process of scrambling messages, images and calls so they can only be seen or listened to by the intended recipient. WhatsApp played an important role in democratising access to it and many others have since followed, including Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct Messages, which are in the process of expanding their use of end-to-end encryption.

First invented before the computer age, this technology is now relied upon by billions of people to keep their communications, and themselves, safe. End-to-end encryption protects journalists and their sources, conversations between doctors and patients, and everyone’s personal exchanges from the ever-growing online threats posed by hackers, spyware companies, imposter apps, malware and hostile foreign governments.…  Seguir leyendo »

Protesters brandishing a European Union flag brace as they are sprayed by a water canon during clashes with riot police near the Georgian parliament in Tbilisi on March 7. AFP/Getty Images

MundoCáucaso

When Georgian lawmakers backed a controversial Kremlin-esque bill late Tuesday night, mayhem erupted outside Parliament. As the crowd of protesters grew larger and larger, riot police gathered at their flanks. All hell broke loose.

The riot police fired tear gas canisters into the crowd. They used batons and water cannons. The images were remarkable. In one, a woman waving a European Union flag takes on a fire hose — an apt metaphor for Georgian democracy.

By Thursday morning those protests had proved a success. The ruling party retracted its “foreign influence” bill, which would have required organizations receiving 20% or more of their annual income from abroad to register as “foreign agents” or face heavy fines.…  Seguir leyendo »