Agonizing lockdown tests the limits of China’s propaganda
Immediately after Beijing said it had detected a new coronavirus outbreak, officials hurried to assure residents there was no reason to panic. Food was plentiful,...
When Nokia pulled out of Russia, a vast surveillance system remained
The Finnish company Nokia played a key role in enabling Russia's cyberspying, documents show, raising questions of corporate responsibility.
Beijing silenced Peng Shuai in 20 minutes, then spent weeks on damage control
China began a multifaceted propaganda campaign against Peng Shuai that was at once sophisticated and clumsy. Officials scrubbed online references to her sexual assault accusation...
With coercion and black boxes, Russia installs a digital Iron Curtain
Russia’s boldest moves to censor the internet began in the most mundane of ways — with a series of bureaucratic emails and forms.
Spies for hire: China’s new breed of hackers blends espionage and entrepreneurship
China’s premier spy agency is increasingly reaching beyond its own ranks to recruit from a vast pool of private-sector talent. This new group of hackers...
China punishes Microsoft’s LinkedIn over lax censorship
LinkedIn has been the lone major American social network allowed to operate in China. To do so, the Microsoft-owned service for professionals censors the posts...
With hacks and cameras, Beijing’s electronic dragnet closes on Hong Kong
Hong Kong security forces are using harsher tactics to close a digital dragnet on activists, pro-democracy politicians and media leaders. The moves bear similarities to...
In coronavirus fight, China gives citizens a color code, with red flags
A new system uses software to dictate quarantines — and appears to send personal data to police, in a troubling precedent for automated social control.