Impostor!

February 27, 2013Posted inDemocracy, Media14 Comments
Impersonating anyone on social media is easy. All that's needed is to create an account using that person's name, photo and other relevant information. And the impersonator is in business. We've seen one person impersonate the prime minister on Twitter. And another person, also on Twitter, has been going around as MP Tshering Penjor. More recently, someone has opened a Facebook page pretending to be me. I don't mind impersonators on social media, especially if their purpose is to expose and make fun of the stupidity and excesses of public officials. This type of satire could generate much-needed laughter,…

Illegal censorship

February 19, 2013Posted inMedia19 Comments
Bhutanomics is a political satire blog set up by "Bhutan analyzers" who are committed to keeping a check on the "ballooning egos of the powerful so that they don’t forget the people are watching." The blog was launched in March, last year. And within no time, they attracted a large and faithful following which seemed to keep growing. Traffic to the blog was so high that the administrators were forced to upgrade and expand their website infrastructure several times. Then, all of a sudden, on 12 January, Bhutanomics went dead. Their website was inaccessible. In fact, users of Tashi's or Samden's ISPs…