This uneven distribution of connectivity will hinder civil society organizations seeking to recruit new members from demographics different from their existing base.

Part of our "Protest in Democracy" #GVSpotlight: globalvoices.org/2026/08/24...

DoD’s public document describes Alibaba as indirectly affiliated with China State Council's supervision body, and a “military-civil fusion contributor to the Chinese defense industrial base”.

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The growing importance of subsea cables in military and economic policy offers an entrypoint into understanding the corrosive, yet dependent, relationship between AI and oil infrastructure.

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Don’t let global stories disappear.
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The government changed. Anyone can see that. Whether July’s promises took root in the institutions and power structures underneath it, that accounting isn’t finished.

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Young activists are reshaping protest into something accessible, individual, and nonhierarchical in Japan.

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One of the driving forces behind GV has long been the questions of digital authoritarianism. In October’s #GVSpotlight, we want to update and reinforce our coverage of this dynamic with reporting and insights from all of our regions.

In 2024 the African Commission itself adopted a resolution on internet shutdowns during elections. The resolution treats a shutdown as a harm to expression and access to information.
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For over 20 years, Global Voices has amplified stories from communities the world too often ignores. This work is powered by volunteers, readers, and you.
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Independent media is shrinking.
Voices from the Global South are being silenced.
Global Voices is resisting that silence — and we need your help.

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Chinese officials are positioning the Uyghur region as a land-based gateway through which China’s digital infrastructure, computing capacity, data systems and technical standards can extend into Central Asia and the wider Eurasian market.
#GVSpotlight

Distinguishing the farmers’ protest from its online amplification, and the amplification from any deliberate political instrumentalisation, is not a footnote to understanding what happened in Victoriei Square. It is the story.
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Nigeria’s campaigners proved in 2018 that young people can rewrite the rules. The harder test, in Dakar and far beyond it, is whether anyone will rewrite the price.

This story was part of our Protest in Democracy #GVSpotlight: globalvoices.org/2026/10/05...

Media blackouts. Political pressure. Shrinking spaces. Independent platforms like Global Voices are more than important — they’re essential. Help us survive and thrive.

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"Today, new political protest music is rarer, not for lack of grievances but because the list of actors capable of punishing a song has grown, and the cost of being heard has risen with it."

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The Phnom Penh freedom park became crucial for opposition groups to stage protests in 2013 and 2014. A new freedom park was named in 2017, but this was far from the city center and surrounded by warehouses and industrial buildings.
#GVSpotlight

Over 1,180 Facebook posts and 100 TikTok videos analyzed showed how a genuine farmers’ protest was inflated by clusters of accounts sharing identical messages, then folded into anti-government, anti-EU and pro-Kremlin narratives.
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Young people are old enough to vote and old enough to protest but are often told they need experience before they can hold political office.

This story was part of our Protest in Democracy #GVSpotlight: globalvoices.org/2026/10/05...

Some of the most crucial stories in the world come from places undercovered by global media.
That’s where we step in.

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Following the criminalization of protest also means looking at the less visible shifts in how courts draw the boundaries of democratic dissent.

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