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Zimbabwe To Implement China-Style Internet Censorship Regime

By Elin Box on April 11, 2016

Global Marketing News – 11th April 2016

Zimbabwe to implement China-style internet censorship regime

Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe has expressed a desire to introduce Chinese-style internet censorship rules to the country.

In a speech that praised the usefulness of the internet for news and education purposes, he also warned of the “abuse” that occurs online, saying that “some people use the internet in bad ways”.

He described China’s internet censorship laws as simply “security measures”, seemingly unworried about censorship’s stranglehold on information and freedom of speech.

He did not give a timeframe for when any internet censorship rules would be introduced in Zimbabwe by.

China has some of the strictest internet censorship laws in the world. Pornographic and other “offensive” content are banned, including “the spreading of rumours”.

In 2014, China made it a criminal offence to broadcast any defamatory content online. A perpetrator can face up to 3 years imprisonment if the information has been viewed by 5,000 people or re-posted 500 times.

Facebook adds new  features to live video tool

Facebook has added new features to its live video tool.

Since the beginning of the year, Facebook has allowed some users to broadcast live videos.

Before going live, users can select the audience who will be able to view the video and write a short description to describe the video content.

Once the user is broadcasting live, they will be able to see the number of people watching the video and any live comments that viewers are posting.

After filming has finished, the video can either be deleted or kept and posted on the person or Page’s timeline.

The new features allow users to use filters on their live videos, such as black and white and sepia, and also allow viewers to react using all six new reactions: like, love, wow, haha, sad and angry.

When a viewer reacts or leaves a comment, this will now display on the actual video to give a clearer context to the broadcaster’s actions for people who choose to watch the video later.

Facebook commented on the new features, saying: “the updates are in the spirit of making Live a more permanent part of Facebook that’s hopefully something people end up liking… We are really trying to focus on what’s helpful to people.”

Broadcast TV is most popular advertising medium in Brazil

Broadcast TV is the most popular advertising medium in Brazil, according to research from Kantar Ibope Media and Grupo de Mídia São Paulo.

Out of the 35 billion Brazilian reals spent on advertising in Brazil in 2015, 63% was spend on broadcast TV advertising.

Pay TV came in second place at 9%, with newspapers coming in third place at 8%.

Internet advertising only accounted for 9.7%, with display advertising being slightly more popular than search advertising.

Study examines TV and film viewing on smartphones in the US

A study by 451 Research has revealed how often Americans watch TV shows and films on their smartphones.

It found that almost a quarter did so daily, with a further 15% doing so weekly and 7% doing so monthly.

17% said they had tried it once or twice and 36% said they had never done so.

A separate study by Yahoo found that the main reasons given for not watching longer videos on their smartphones were screen size, limited battery time and buffering time.

Alibaba creates AI to predict winner of Chinese reality TV show

And finally, the Chinese tech giant Alibaba has created an artificial intelligence to predict the winner of a reality TV show.

I’m A Singer is an extremely popular Chinese singing contest and the AI will use big data to try to predict the winner of the final.

It will use data such as chatter on social media, the singer’s voice pitch and energy, the live response of the studio audience and choice of song.

Some commentators are confused about why the AI is being used for such a seemingly trivial purpose, but Alibaba has said it is treating the event as more of a proof-of-concept than anything else.

Webcertain’s global marketing news bulletins are daily 5-minute videos, providing marketers with the latest international digital marketing news in an easy-to-digest format.

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Elin Box

Content Marketing Manager at Webcertain
Elin is a Content Marketing Manager at Webcertain. She is responsible for Webcertain’s Self-learning platform, producing in-depth guides on a range of international digital marketing topics. She also helps run the Webcertain blog and is the writer of the Webcertain search and social report, an annual report summarising digital marketing best practices in over 50 countries. She is passionate about educating and empowering people to make the best decisions for their business and is proud to help share Webcertain’s wealth of digital marketing knowledge with the world. Elin is from the UK.

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