Keyword: social media

For Pakistan's Elite, Facebook Turns Into a Political Battleground Ahead of Election

Supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) or the
Policy

Ahead of the May 11 election, Facebook has become an unlikely virtual platform that allows Pakistan's more liberal-secular sector to remain actively engaged in political campaigning.

Video: Chinese TV Show Tests Foreigners on China Savvy

Flags for the opening of the National People's Congress 2010 at the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China. (Remko Tanis/flickr)
Multimedia

For the convening of the "Two Sessions" in China this week, a state-run newspaper sent reporters into the streets to test Beijing's expats on basic knowledge of China’s politics, with entertaining results.

Photos: Our Favorite Lunar New Year Food Pics (So Far)

Multimedia

A look at what our readers have been eating for Lunar New Year 2013 from around the world.

Interview: How Social Media Helped Imran Khan Dominate Our Year-End Poll

This image uploaded to an Imran Khan Facebook page helped the Pakistani politician run away with Asia Society's 'Asia's Person of the Year' reader poll.
Policy

"Khan and his supporters have been using this medium as a core tool from the beginning. For other politicians it is an afterthought," says Dr. Awab Alvi, head of social media for Imran Khan's political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

Video: 'Internet is the Answer' Declares Ai Weiwei in Newly Launched Blog

In the first video posted on his new blog, Ai Weiwei speaks on the role of digital media in today's China. (YouTube)
Arts

The indefatigable artist and activist's first post is a video in which he argues for the role of the internet in establishing a civil society under authoritarian rule.

China's Online Community Reacts to Mo Yan's Nobel Prize

Chinese author and 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Mo Yan arrives for a press conference at a hotel in Gaomi in China’s Shandong province, October 12, 2012. (Ed Jones/AFP/GettyImages).
Arts

Mo Yan's Nobel Prize inspires mixed responses among China's internet community.

An Absent Presence: How China's Netizens Commemorated an Important Anniversary

 A particularly empty image of Beijing's Chang'an Avenue. (Sina Weibo)
Lifestyle

Popular social media websites like Sina Weibo have become the frontline of a virtual showdown between censors and aggrieved netizens every June 4 in China, writes Sun Yunfan.

Top Tweets: Ridiculing the Latest Ban in Pakistan

A Pakistani resident uses a computer to browse a newspaper website in Quetta on May 20, 2012, after the country's government blocked social networking website Twitter. (Banaras Khan/AFP/GettyImages)
Lifestyle

In 140 characters or less, Pakistanis react with scorn and satire when their government briefly blocks access to Twitter.

Top Tweets: Twitter Users React to Censorship Announcement

Policy

Twitter announced on Thursday that it will reserve the right to "reactively withhold" tweets on a country-to-country basis. "As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression," declared the official Twitter blog.

2011: The Year of Social Media in Pakistan

A Pakistani man browses the internet in a net cafe in Karachi on May 31, 2010. (Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images)
Lifestyle

Social media has been the single most important platform for the silent Pakistani majority to share its rejection of terrorism, writes Ayesha Haroon.