The Best of Rest of World
20+ most popular Rest of World articles, as voted by our community.
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When digital nomads come to town
Cities from Canggu to Medellín are welcoming tech workers, but locals complain they’re being priced out.
AI is taking the jobs of Kenyans who write essays for U.S. college students
Ghostwriters say the meteoric rise of ChatGPT has coincided with a drop in income.
Africa fell in love with crypto. Now, it’s complicated
Trust is fading, startups are shutting down, and Web3 workers are reconsidering their career choices.
The winners of Rest of World’s first photography contest
From images of solar cooking to snake radio telemetry, we received 548 entries from around the world.
The secret ingredient to hustle culture: A virtual assistant in the Philippines
How the office grind is being outsourced from Silicon Valley to Manila.
Rest of World on Business
Inside three turbulent months at Foxconn’s iPhone factory
Workers describe a peak production season marred by labor protests and Covid-19 chaos, right as Apple reconsiders its China supply chain.
Meet the most powerful Uber driver in India
Shaik Salauddin: the Indian driver-turned-union leader who is brushing shoulders with top politicians and giving ride-hailing firms a run for their money.
Rest of World on Digital Life
In the dark: the internet sparked a revolution, then it was turned off
Seven years, 60 countries, 935 internet shutdowns: How authoritarian regimes found an off switch for dissent.
China’s queer internet is being erased
LGBTQI groups found rare freedoms online, but this year, many were shut by censors. It feels like slowly being sanded down, said one member.
Rest of World on Electric Vehicles
The future of electric cars isn’t Tesla. It’s golf carts.
Millions of people in China are buying off-brand electric cars, which are cheap, tiny, barely regulated, and extremely useful.
Rest of World on India
Welcome to the Ambaniverse: How one billionaire dominates every aspect of life in India
From food to gadgets to sports, explore how the business empire of one of the world’s richest men touches the everyday lives of millions in India.
India’s religious AI chatbots are speaking in the voice of god — and condoning violence
Claiming wisdom based on the Bhagavad Gita, the bots frequently go way off script.
Rest of World on Open Source
Amateur open-source researchers went viral unpacking the war in Ukraine
From college sophomores to 9-to-5 IT workers, hobbyist OSINT accounts are reconstructing events on the ground.
Rest of World on Technology
Tech’s very bad year, in numbers
Reduced investment and large-scale layoffs have created dark times for tech globally.
Global Tech’s Very Bad Year
After years of robust investment and hiring in the tech sector during the Covid-19 pandemic, 2022 brought with it a sharp downturn. Here’s how the tough times are impacting tech companies and workers…
Rest of World on Tiktok
What the U.S. can learn from India’s TikTok ban
A permanent split with Chinese apps was less disruptive than many expected.
Ideas | She drew millions of TikTok followers selling a fantasy of rural China. Politics intervened
Li Ziqi’s fans span from the U.S. to Bangladesh. But behind the camera, she is just another player in China’s platform economy.
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Singapore’s tech-utopia dream is turning into a surveillance state nightmare
In the “smart nation,” robot dogs enforce social distancing and an app can claim to neutralize racism. The reality is very different.
«It has a global reputation as one of the safest cities in the world, but Singapore’s national narrative is one of profound and enduring insecurity.»
Inside the global gig economy of werewolf erotica
Platforms are hiring gig workers around the world to write steamy romance novels for English-speaking readers.
Meet the people fighting to keep a language alive online
For decades, it was nearly impossible to type in Urdu. Some are working to bring the script into a digital future.
«of the more than 7,000 languages used around the world — 2,500 of which are considered endangered — less than 5% were becoming fully functioning languages in the online realm. The expansion of the internet, in other words, is precipitating a massive linguistic extinction. »
Coding in a war zone: Ukraine’s tech industry adapts to a new normal
Displacement, attacks, and air raid alerts are daily life for Ukraine’s disrupted tech workforce.
They built a Minecraft crypto empire. Then it all came crashing down
Kids in the Philippines were earning hundreds of dollars from a play-to-earn Minecraft game, until new rules sent the community into a tailspin.
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Rest of World on Social Media
The mysterious reappearance of China’s missing mega-influencer
When China’s top livestreaming salesman, Austin Li, vanished over a tank-shaped ice cream cake, many fans thought he was gone for good.
Smash hits: How viral memes conquered piñata design
Forget tradition. Social media trends are now driving piñata sales in Mexico.