Twitter was blocked in Nigeria from 5 June 2021 to 13 January 2022. The government imposed a ban on the social network after it deleted tweets made by, and temporarily suspended, the Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, warning the southeastern people of Nigeria, predominantly Igbo people, of a potential repeat of the 1967 Nigerian Civil War due to the ongoing insurgency in Southeastern Nigeria. The Nigerian government claimed that the deletion of the president's tweets factored into their decision, but it was ultimately based on "a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences", citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate existence. In January 2022, Nigeria lifted its blocking of Twitter after the platform agreed to establish a legal entity within the country sometime in the first quarter of 2022. == Background == On 1 June 2021, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari posted a tweet threatening a crackdown on regional separatists "in the language they understand". The next day, Twitter deleted the tweet, claiming it was in violation of Twitter rules, but gave no further details. Nigeria's Information Minister Lai Mohammed said that Twitter's actions were part of an unfair double standard, as Twitter had not banned incitement tweets from other groups. During the Nigerian Civil War a majority of deaths resulted from the blockade of Biafra which caused the deaths of millions of civilians from starvation, a fact that was not alluded to in the tweet. The Nigerian government has long held concerns over the use of Twitter in the country. The ongoing local End SARS protest began on Twitter and got amplified in 2020 when it had 48 million tweets in ten days. Buhari's government floated the idea of social media regulation on different occasions prior to banning Twitter. Attempts to pass an anti-social media bill in the past have failed majorly due to massive outcry on Twitter. Days before the ban, the country's minister of information called Twitter's activities in Nigeria suspicious, citing its influence on the End SARS protests. == Aftermath == Three days after Twitter was suspended, it was reported that the move had cost the country over 6 billion naira and would also contribute to the worsening unemployment in the country. ExpressVPN reported an over 200 percent increase in web traffic and searches for VPN spiked across the country. In response, Nigeria's Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation Abubakar Malami at first openly threatened to prosecute citizens who bypass the ban using a VPN but then denied saying so after a screenshot of a Twitter deactivation notification he shared on Facebook showed a VPN logo. Nigeria's cultural minister Lai Mohammed stated the ban would be lifted once Twitter submitted to locally licensing, registration and conditions. "It will be licensed by the broadcasting commission, and must agree not to allow its platform to be used by those who are promoting activities that are inimical to the corporate existence of Nigeria." In late June 2021, Twitter announced it would enter talks with the Nigerian government over the platform's suspension. The talks began in July 2021. On 15 September 2021, Mohammed said the Nigerian government will lift the ban on Twitter in a "few days." The Minister said Twitter gave a progress report of their talks with them, adding that it has been productive and quite respectful. On 1 October 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari in his Independence Day broadcast said Twitter must meet the Nigerian government's five conditions before the suspension of the social media platform will be lifted. The conditions are: Respect for national security and cohesion; registration, physical presence and representation in Nigeria; fair taxation; dispute resolution; local content. == Reactions == The ban was condemned by Amnesty International, the British, Canadian and Swedish diplomatic missions to Nigeria, as well as the United States and the European Union in a joint statement. Two domestic organizations, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and the Nigerian Bar Association, indicated intent to challenge the ban in court. Twitter itself called the ban "deeply concerning". Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who was permanently suspended from Twitter following the United States Capitol attack in January, praised the ban, stating "Congratulations to the country of Nigeria, who just banned Twitter because they banned their President", and also called on other countries to ban Twitter and Facebook due to "not allowing free and open speech." == Lifting of the ban == On 12 January 2022, the Nigerian Government lifted the ban after Twitter agreed to pay an "applicable tax" and establish "a legal entity in Nigeria during the first quarter of 2022".
Caffe (software)
Caffe (Convolutional Architecture for Fast Feature Embedding) is a deep learning framework, originally developed at University of California, Berkeley. It is open source, under a BSD license. It is written in C++, with a Python interface. == History == Yangqing Jia created the Caffe project during his PhD at UC Berkeley, while working the lab of Trevor Darrell. The first version, called "DeCAF", made its first appearance in Spring 2013 when it was used for the ILSVRC challenge (later called ImageNet). The library was named Caffe and released to the public in December 2013. It reached end-of-support in 2018. It is hosted on GitHub. == Features == Caffe supports many different types of deep learning architectures geared towards image classification and image segmentation. It supports CNN, RCNN, LSTM and fully-connected neural network designs. Caffe supports GPU- and CPU-based acceleration computational kernel libraries such as Nvidia cuDNN and Intel MKL. == Applications == Caffe is being used in academic research projects, startup prototypes, and even large-scale industrial applications in vision, speech, and multimedia. Yahoo! has also integrated Caffe with Apache Spark to create CaffeOnSpark, a distributed deep learning framework. == Caffe2 == In April 2017, Facebook announced Caffe2, which included new features such as recurrent neural network (RNN). At the end of March 2018, Caffe2 was merged into PyTorch.
Daylight Computer Co.
Daylight Computer Co. is a Public Benefit Company that designs and manufactures devices that do not emit blue light or flicker. Anjan Katta, the company's founder and CEO, stated that he started the company to reduce his personal eyestrain and the distraction that came with conventional devices. The first device that the company released is the Daylight DC-1, a tablet using a monochrome transflective liquid-crystal display designed for outdoor use, while also being usable indoors with an amber backlight. The company's goal is to create a "healthy computer." == History == In June 2018, Anjan Katta began the process of designing a device that did not emit blue light or flicker. He was inspired by the Kindle stating that he wanted to create a device that was, "an analog object that happens to have digital magical capabilities.” By 2020, he created his first scientific prototype and created the first proof-of-concept prototype in 2021. In the early research and development stages of the device, Katta had spent $300,000 of his own money. Eventually, Katta obtained a $12 million investment from current and former executives of companies such as Oculus, Pinterest, and Dropbox. In 2024, the company held a launch party at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park for the Daylight DC1, the company's first device. The event had roughly 200 attendees. Later that year, Daylight sold out its first run of 5,000 devices. The Daylight DC1 is a 1.2 pound tablet that runs its own operating system, SolOS, based on Android 13. It has a refresh rate of 60 Hz, fast enough to process video. In 2025, the product was demonstrated by Danny Jones on the Joe Rogan Experience. The company has been described by outlets such as Wired and VentureBeat as a "returning computing to hippie ideals" and being a product for "techno-hippies." The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Full30
Full30 was an American online video-sharing platform primarily dedicated to firearms and shooting sports-related content. The service was established in 2014 by Tim Harmsen and Mark Hammonds as a result of YouTube's increasing restrictions on gun-related videos. == History == After the 2018 Parkland high school shooting, many companies attempted to distance themselves from any association with the firearms industry. As a result, YouTube began demonetizing and sometimes outright deleting firearms-related videos, and in one case, popular YouTube poster Hickok45's channel was completely deleted but later restored. In response, Harmsen, who operates the Military Arms Channel on YouTube, decided to create his own video-hosting website to allow himself and other firearms content creators a platform free from such restrictions; he named the website Full30 — a reference to the popular 30-round STANAG magazine. In July 2020, site representatives announced the site had new ownership. By the end of 2022, the site began to be redirected to a series of other websites. By 2025, it was largely deactivated with the front page replaced by a form to be filled out to receive "updates", with no other explanation. == Contributors == Hickok45 Military Arms Channel Forgotten Weapons Bavarian Shooter Liberty Doll CloverTac
SD-WAN
A Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) is a wide area network that uses software-defined networking technology, such as communicating over the Internet using overlay tunnels which are encrypted when destined for internal organization locations. If standard tunnel setup and configuration messages are supported by all of the network hardware vendors, SD-WAN simplifies the management and operation of a WAN by decoupling the networking hardware from its control mechanism. This concept is similar to how software-defined networking implements virtualization technology to improve data center management and operation. In practice, proprietary protocols are used to set up and manage an SD-WAN, meaning there is no decoupling of the hardware and its control mechanism. A key application of SD-WAN is to allow companies to build higher-performance WANs using lower-cost and commercially available Internet access, enabling businesses to partially or wholly replace more expensive private WANs connection technologies such as MPLS. When SD-WAN traffic is carried over the Internet, there are no end-to-end performance guarantees. Carrier MPLS VPN WAN services are not carried as Internet traffic, but rather over carefully controlled carrier capacity, and do come with an end-to-end performance guarantee. == History == WANs were very important for the development of networking in general and for a long time one of the most important applications of networks both for military and enterprise applications. The ability to communicate data over long distances was one of the main driving factors for the development of data communications, as it made it possible to overcome the distance limitations, as well as shortening the time necessary to exchange messages with other parties. Legacy WANs allowed communication over circuits connecting two or more endpoints. Earlier networking supported point-to-point communication over a slow speed circuit, usually between two fixed locations. As networking progressed, WAN circuits became faster and more flexible. Innovations like circuit and packet switching (in the form of X.25, ATM and later Internet Protocol or Multiprotocol Label Switching) allowed communication to become more dynamic, supporting ever-growing networks. The need for strict control, security and quality of service (QOS) meant that multinational corporations were very conservative in leasing and operating their WANs. National regulations restricted the companies that could provide local service in each country, and complex arrangements were necessary to establish truly global networks. All that changed with the growth of the Internet, which permitted entities around the world to connect to each other. However, over the first years, the uncontrolled nature of the Internet was not considered adequate or safe for private corporate use. Independent of safety concerns, connectivity to the Internet became a necessity to the point where every branch required Internet access. At first, due to safety concerns, private communications were still done via WAN, and communication with other entities (including customers and partners) moved to the Internet. As the Internet grew in reach and maturity, companies started to evaluate how to leverage it for private corporate communications. During the early 2000s, application delivery over the WAN became an important topic of research and commercial innovation. Over the next decade, increasing computing power made it possible to create software-based appliances that were able to analyze traffic and make informed decisions without delays, making it possible to create large-scale overlay networks over the public Internet that could replicate all the functionality of legacy WANs, at a fraction of the cost. SD-WAN combines several networking aspects to create full-fledged private networks, with the ability to dynamically share network bandwidth across the connection points. Additional enhancements include central controllers, zero-touch provisioning, integrated analytics and on-demand circuit provisioning, with some network intelligence based in the cloud, allowing centralized policy management and security. Networking publications started using the term SD-WAN to describe this new networking trend as early as 2014. With the rapid shift to remote work as a result of lockdowns and stay at home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic, SD-WAN grew in popularity as a way of connecting remote workers. == Overview == WANs allow companies to extend their computer networks over large distances, connecting remote branch offices to data centers and to each other, and delivering applications and services required to perform business functions. Due to the physical constraints imposed by the propagation time over large distances, and the need to integrate multiple service providers to cover global geographies (often crossing nation boundaries), WANs face important operational challenges, including network congestion, packet delay variation, packet loss, and even service outages. Modern applications such as VoIP calling, videoconferencing, streaming media, and virtualized applications and desktops require low latency. Bandwidth requirements are also increasing, especially for applications featuring high-definition video. It can be expensive and difficult to expand WAN capability, with corresponding difficulties related to network management and troubleshooting. SD-WAN products are designed to address these network problems. By enhancing or even replacing traditional branch routers with virtualization appliances that can control application-level policies and offer a network overlay, less expensive consumer-grade Internet links can act more like a dedicated circuit. This simplifies the setup process for branch personnel. SD-WAN products can be physical appliances or software based only. === Components === The MEF Forum has defined an SD-WAN architecture consisting of an SD-WAN edge, SD-WAN gateway, SD-WAN controller and SD-WAN orchestrator. ==== SD-WAN edge ==== The SD-WAN edge is a physical or virtual network function that is placed at an organization's branch/regional/central office site, data center, and in public or private cloud platforms. MEF Forum has published the first SD-WAN service standard, MEF 70 which defines the fundamental characteristics of an SD-WAN service plus service requirements and attributes. ==== SD-WAN gateway ==== SD-WAN gateways provide access to the SD-WAN service in order to shorten the distance to cloud-based services or the user, and reduce service interruptions. A distributed network of gateways may be included in an SD-WAN service by the vendor or setup and maintained by the organization using the service. By sitting outside the headquarters in the cloud, the gateway also reduces headquarters traffic. ==== SD-WAN orchestrator ==== The SD-WAN orchestrator is a cloud hosted or on-premises web management tool that allows configuration, provisioning and other functions when operating an SD-WAN. It simplifies application traffic management by allowing central implementation of an organization's business policies. ==== SD-WAN controller ==== The SD-WAN controller functionality, which can be placed in the orchestrator or in an SD-WAN gateway, is used to make forwarding decisions for application flows. Application flows are IP packets that have been classified to determine their user application or grouping of applications to which they are associated. The grouping of application flows based on a common type, e.g., conferencing applications, is referred to as an Application Flow Group in MEF 70. Per MEF 70, the SD-WAN Edge classifies incoming IP packets at the SD-WAN UNI (SD-WAN user network interface), determines, via OSI Layer 2 through Layer 7 classification, which application flow the IP packets belong to, and then applies the policies to block the application flow or allow the application flows to be forwarded based on the availability of a route to the destination SD-WAN UNI on a remote SD-WAN Edge. This helps ensure that application performance meets service level agreements (SLAs). == Required characteristics == The Gartner research firm has defined an SD-WAN as having four required characteristics: The ability to support multiple connection types, such as MPLS, last mile fiber optic network or through high speed cellular networks e.g. 4G LTE and 5G wireless technologies The ability to do dynamic path selection, for load sharing and resiliency purposes A simple interface that is easy to configure and manage The ability to support VPNs, and third party services such as WAN optimization controllers, firewalls and web gateways == Features == Features of SD-WANs include resilience, quality of service (QoS), security, and performance, with flexible deployment options; simplified administration and troubleshooting; and online traffic engineering. === Resilience === A resilient SD-WAN reduces network downtime. To
NRD Cyber Security
NRD Cyber Security is a Lithuanian company that provides cybersecurity solutions, consulting, and other services. The organization specializes in CSIRT and SOC creation, modernization and training. It has helped to establish national and sectorial CSIRTs around the world, including countries, such as Bangladesh, Egypt, Bhutan, Kosovo, Malawi and others. NRD Cyber Security was found in 2013 to provide quality cybersecurity services to nations and organizations. In 2018 it was included in The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 in Europe list. In 2024 it was awarded the #98 place in MSSP Alert Top 250 world's managed security service providers. The company is a member of various cybersecurity organizations, such as Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), The Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE), Unicrons Lt. It is a strategic partner of The Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre (GCSCC) at University of Oxford.
Digital media service
A digital media service (DMS) is an online service provider that sells access to digital library of content such as films, software, games, images, literature, etc. While no transfer of property is made, a nearly perfect duplicate of the data (song movie, etc.) is made on a customer's computer. Content is either primarily hosted on a dedicated server, which is owned by the service provider, or it is hosted primarily on the hard drives of its customers using a P2P protocol with, perhaps, a dedicated server to supplement. == History == One example of the older business model is the iTunes Store, which still markets and prices data as individual retail products. There are no examples of the latter business model in operation yet, but one is currently in development by Global Gaming Factory X and expected to begin operation some time after they acquire The Pirate Bay domain on August 27, 2009. A key difference between the two models is that the model which relies on its customer base for offering their bandwidth for other customers to access customer hosted data can operate at significantly lower costs than a company that seeks to limit data access to a per-download fee in order to supplement the cost of using its own hosting and bandwidth. The P2P model holds the potential for companies to offer unlimited access to the largest data library in the history of the internet to its customers for a reasonably low membership rate that is relevant to the cost of operation. While the market is virtually untouched, the P2P supplemented model will need entrepreneurs who are able to overcome a series of challenges in order to compete with the older business model as well as that which is offered for free (and often against the wishes of copyright holders) by hundreds of P2P communities on the internet. These challenges include, but are not limited to: Offering better data quality, speed, convenience and ease of use, protocol, sense of security, indexing and search organization, site up time, data library size, customer support, advertising, artist/copyright holder incentives and compensation, incentives and compensation for customers hosting data and providing bandwidth, guaranteed seeding (available access to indexed data at all times), than competitors.