Signal is reportedly under attack from Iranian authorities as interest is surging amid speculation the government already has access to users’ information on other popular messaging apps. According to Al Jazeera, many users of the privacy-focused messaging app in Iran have reported being unable to connect since Signal took the top position at the Google Play Store in the country this month. The app has already been removed from Iranian app stores Cafe Bazaar and Myket. In a tweet, Signal claimed it was “#1 on the Iranian government's block list” and working to get around the country’s attempts at censorship. …

A change to WhatsApp’s terms of service has triggered a mass exodus from the messaging platform to more private and independent rivals like Telegram and Signal, which have registered millions of new users over the last week. Rather than agreeing to new terms specifying the app’s right to share user data with Facebook, millions of WhatsApp users simply gave up using the platform, abandoning it for less-intrusive competitors. Telegram alone has been downloaded 25 million times in the last 72 hours. Telegram surpassed 500 million active users. 25 million new users joined in the last 72 hours: 38% came from …

On Friday, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden led a panel discussion as part of a fundraiser for the Tor Project. Joining Snowden were three experts in internet privacy and human rights. The four focused on global protests over the past year, whether they were in Minsk or Portland. Founder of the Library Freedom Project Alison Macrina said that: “What we saw a lot this summer with the BLM protests across the country and the world was [..] law enforcement monitoring social media of activists.” She continued to notes that protestors have gotten cagier to the fact that law enforcement are using …

Blockchain analytics platform BlockSeer has launched the private beta version of a new Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool — Blockseer Mining Pool — that censors transactions from blacklisted wallets. The pool will use BlockSeer and Walletscore’s labeling data, among other verified sources such as the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, blacklist for crypto to identify BTC transactions it does not wish to process. The pool also requires all miners to pass Know-Your-Customer protocols. DMG’s chief operating officer, Sheldon Bennett, stated: “The pool is focused on being devoid of transactions from known nefarious wallets which use this medium …

In a hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee on Friday, the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, a veritable firing squad in what has become bipartisan hatred based on partisan reasons. But while Republicans and Democrats have different gripes with the platforms, all are clearly out for blood. Today’s hearing, theoretically, set out to focus on Section 230, a component of the Communications Decency Act that has historically served to protect online content hosts from the responsibilities that publishers take on. However, the actual questioning ended up being primarily political dunking. Many members commented on the speed …

Alternative social media platform Minds is now letting users permanently save their content on the Arweave platform, which ensures that nobody can ever delete it once published. Minds users can choose to publish their content on the “permaweb” with no payment or additional setup required. After several minutes, the content can be viewed on the Arweave block explorer and it is expected to remain there forever — or at least for as long as Arweave exists, Minds CEO Bill Ottman told Cointelegraph. This marks the first major integration of blockchain — or a "blockweave," in Arweave terminology — in the …

Unstoppable Domains co-founder Bradley Kam believes that neither the anti-encryption bills nor the technology giants present a real threat to the future of the Internet. In his opinion, both, the governments and the giant platforms are helping to usher the era of the decentralized web, he told Cointelegraph: “There was a narrative in a popular narrative that the Internet was working pretty well, I think even a few years ago, and I thought that narrative is almost completely gone now. And there's a lot of things there's the anti-encryption laws you mentioned or Barack Obama getting hacked on Twitter. So …

Earlier today, the domain 'sex.crypto' sold for 230 ETH, or approximately $90,000 at press time. The domain extension .crypto is generated by Unstoppable Domains and is censorship-resistant. The transaction, which occurred on OpenSea's token marketplace, was completed by a user named Maxstealth. Currently, he owns 196 .crypto domains in total. This individual or entity appears to be an Ethereum (ETH) whale, as the Ethereum address from which the payment was sent has received over 10,000 ETH. Currently, the account has only 1.75 ETH left, according to data from CrystalBlockchain. The buyer most likely believes in the future of decentralized domains …

A political crisis, mass detention of peaceful citizens and internet blocking in Belarus are hitting the country’s IT sector hard. Amid this social turmoil, some companies are moving their offices and servers abroad, others are using VPN services, while some are advising their customers to buy cryptocurrencies. What is happening in Belarus, a country that just a couple of years ago was considered to be a favorable jurisdiction for IT and cryptocurrency projects? And how is digital technology helping its people regain their social and economic freedom? A failed Silicon Valley? Belarus is home to numerous IT companies, many of …

Latin American crypto exchange Airtm has been appointed to redistribute $18 million seized by U.S. authorities to 62,000 healthcare workers. These funds were taken in relation to a corruption case involving Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela. According to Matt Ahlborg, data scientist at UsefulTulips, Coinbase-backed Airtm is well-known for being a censorship-resistant P2P exchange. He noted that Venezuelan users have long accounted for a significant part of Airtm’s customer database. Juan Guaidó, recognized by several countries as Venezuela’s rightful leader, also recognized Airtm for their efforts in the fight against government censorship. Guaidó then outlined his own plans for …

Are there decentralized file sharing use cases already in operation? Two examples where IPFS has been used are with Wikipedia and the Android version of the Opera browser. The Turkish government previously attempted to ban Wikipedia, citing it as a national security threat. Hacktivists uploaded a version of Turkish Wikipedia and posted it using IPFS as a way of circumventing the ban. IPFS has also been integrated into the Android version of the Opera web browser as part of its bid to introduce Web 3.0 capabilities. BTFS is integrated into decentralized video streaming network DLive, enabling fast and censorship-resistant livestreaming. …

UPDATE: Bitcoin.com’s account has now been unsuspended and can be accessed. According to YouTube, the channel was “terminated in error.” YouTube has shut down the official channel of cryptocurrency news-focused website Bitcoin.com for “a violation of YouTube's Terms of Service.” As Bitcoin.com executive chairman Roger Ver told Cointelegraph, YouTube notified them about the ban around 2:17AM EST June 13. The account had over 40 thousand subscribers at the time it was suspended. Bitcoin.com then sent an appeal to YouTube within “a few hours”. Two days later, at 8:59 AM EST June 15, Youtube notified Bitcoin.com that their channel had been …