A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced seven cyber activists to between five to 10 years in prison for inciting protests, mainly by using Facebook. The men were arrested in September last year, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), and their trial began in April.

Deng Fei, a renowned Chinese journalist and social activist, is conducting an interesting survey over Sina Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter. He’s asked a simple question: “What is the river like in your hometown? While celebrating Chinese New Year at home, please take a photo of your river and upload it to Weibo for us to see.”

The current strain in U.S. relations with Russia sums up the challenges of dealing with authoritarian rulers...The time has come to formally review U.S. relations with authoritarian regimes around the globe and identify ways to support human rights and democracy activists while continuing cooperation on common security and economic interests... Senior U.S. officials and diplomats should conduct vigorous public diplomacy to communicate the values of freedom directly to people living under authoritarian rule.