Each week, The Heritage Foundation features one of its nearly 250,000 Facebook Fans on its “Featured Fan” page. This week’s fan is Nathan Lamborn, a medical student from Denver, Colorado. Read his story, below, and be sure to become a fan on Facebook! As a second-year medical school student, Nathan Lamborn knows the health care field will be vastly different by the time he graduates. But like most aspiring physicians too busy studying medicine to digest two thousand pages of big government prose, it’s difficult for the 24-year-old student to …
Internet freedom could well be the defining issue of the 21st century, the issue on which authoritarian regimes stand or fall. Authoritarian regimes are only too well aware that the greatest threat they face today is less from an outside military force than from populations empowered by information about their own country and by the ability to communicate and organize via new cell phone technologies. As reported Monday by The New York Times, China is arming itself in this communications battle, trying to get a handle on the host of …
Internet outreach is the hottest new item in the U.S. government’s array of public diplomacy tools. While international broadcasting is in disarray, the focus has moved to Internet outreach through social networking and websites to promote America and its allies abroad. The Internet can be a great tool for the advancement of freedom and the empowerment of individuals. Yet it is not immune to the designs of state actors, nor does it exist in a policy vacuum. After having tangled with China over its internet censorship policy, Secretary of State …
New media is playing a critical important role in the rush to save Haiti. Almost immediately after the earthquake struck the White House and State Department appealed the American people to donate $10 by texting HAITI to 90999 on their cell phones. Even celebrities such as Haitian born rapper Wyclef Jean are setting up text messaging services accepting donations. In Jean’s case, cell phone users can text YELE to 501501 to make a donation that goes to his Yele Foundation for reconstruction. So far, more people have given money in the first …
Considering the atrocious abuses of human rights committed by the Iranian government against those who speak out against its tyranny, it comes as no surprise that Iran, according to a Wall Street Journal investigative report, “has been conducting a campaign of harassing and intimidating members of its diaspora world-wide.” Farnaz Fassihi reports that Iranians living abroad, have received ominous emails from Iranian security forces, warning that their families will be in danger, if their actions against the regime persist. Many Iranian citizens have been detained at airports and interrogated as …
We would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to our redesigned blog, The Foundry, now available at www.foundry.org. The Foundry is the conservative policy news blog that offers the latest and greatest from The Heritage Foundation. Every day, Heritage experts and analysts provide insight into the day’s news, using well-crafted research, data, charts and analysis. You’ll also find commentary on breaking news, national policy, congressional events and the White House. If you’ve been a regular reader of The Foundry, you know about the great content we have to …
Since the rise in the use of new media, authoritarian regimes have been confronted by a wave of opposition. The surge of digital, computerized and networked information as well as communication technologies has facilitated those seeking to shed light on government oppression. Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as well as countless others have catalyzed protest movements in elections across the globe. From Iran, to Moldova and even local elections in Russia, the public has utilized these resources to shed light on fraud and abuse.
Early this morning we asked a question on the Heritage Foundation’s Twitter and Facebook pages: What were Obama’s best and worst moments in his 1st 100 days, in your opinion? The response was overwhelming. We had 130 comments on Facebook and over 100 replies/messages on Twitter. Although there were many responses, the theme was constant. The majority thought that the President’s best moment came when the Navy was able to ward off the Pirates and send Capt. Richard Phillips home safely. We wrote about that event, praising the Navy Seals who performed the rescue. It was …
