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Pakistan blocks Twitter over 'blasphemy'
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20 May 2012
Pakistani media said there was no indication as to how long the site would be down [AP]
Pakistan has blocked the micro-blogging website Twitter because it refused to remove material considered offensive to Islam, said one of the country's top telecommunications officials.
The material was promoting a competition on Facebook to post images of the Prophet Muhammad, Mohammad Yaseen, chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication's Authority, said on Sunday.
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Facebook IPO: the key players and what they are worth
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18 May 2012
Dominic Rushe
Photograph: Paul Sakuma/AP
Friday is probably the biggest day of Zuckerberg's career since he launched what was then The Facebook at Harvard in February 2004. Facebook has gone on to be a global phenomena, a Silicon Valley legend and even an Oscar-winning movie. Zuckerberg's co-founders have fallen by the wayside (and into piles of cash), and today he rules over the empire as chief executive officer and the firm's largest shareholder. When the company goes public Zuckerberg will face new levels of pressures and scrutiny. Only time will tell if he's the new Bill Gates or the next Jerry Yang.
Wealth-X, a consultancy that specialises in high networth individuals, estimates his net pre-IPO fortune at $18.95bn. When, and if, Facebook's shares take off Friday, expect that number to soar. Some are expecting it to double, catapulting the already astronomically wealthy Zuckerberg into the very top tier of the super wealthy.
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While targeting online repression in Syria and Iran, democracy in the US may be stepping backwards by adopting CISPA
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28 April 2012
Jillian York is director for International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.
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Obama's recent executive order does not go far enough - it only targets Iran and Syria [REUTERS]
San Francisco, CA - For months, journalists and activists alike have been highlighting the dangers to online safety and freedom posed to authoritarian regimes by the sale of certain technologies - roughly referred to as "spyware". In Syria, Iran, Bahrain, and elsewhere around the world, such technologies have been used to entrap activists and bloggers, and, in some cases, it has led to their arrest and torture.
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Facebook snaps up Instagram for $1bn
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10 April 2012
Facebook said it plans to keep Instagram running independently [AFP]
Facebook, the world's largest social networking site, has announced it will buy smartphone photo-sharing company, Instagram, for $1bn, making it its largest acquisition ever.
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¿Cuál es la información que Facebook entrega a las autoridades?
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08 April 2012
Bitelia
La información que posee Facebook sobre las personas es algo muy valioso, no solamente para las campañas de marketing, sino también para las autoridades. Por supuesto, Facebook no puede decir simplemente “no” si, por ejemplo, la policía demanda información para poder resolver un caso. La red social más poblada del mundo ya ha aclarado en otras oportunidades cómo luce un reporte que se envía a las autoridades con información de un usuario, pero ahora, podemos verlo de primera mano.
Syria: The virtue of civil disobedience
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07 April 2012
is a PhD fellow at University of Copenhagen focusing her research on the Syrian TV industry.
Civil disobedience is the only way to mobilise people in big cities that are deemed to be regime strongholds in Syria
Last March 27, the independence flag was raised in different districts across the country [Mutasem Abou AlShamat]
Something is happening in Syria, away from the media spotlight. Last March 27, when Damascus woke up, the independence flag - symbol of the Syrian revolution - was raised in different districts, from Berzeh to Mezzeh, from school walls to bridges. Civil disobedience groups had successfully managed to coordinate the biggest anti-regime protests conducted simultaneously in different parts of the Syrian capital.
When you make Mutasem Abou AlShamat notice that raising the independence flag is nothing more than just a symbolic action - although beautiful - this Damascene in his 20s, smiles and calmly explains: "You have to look at what lies behind the action, not at its immediate content. Doing this simultaneously means that different non-violent groups are finally getting together and organising common actions. Achieving this degree of coordination should not be taken for granted in Damascus, where security control is tight, communications are either tracked or lacking and moving from one area to another is extremely difficult."
"This is a step further to coordinate a much bigger operation that is in the pipeline," he says, mysteriously.
Mutasem is a member of the Syrian non-violent movement. Together with many other groups, mostly based in Damascus and Aleppo, he has joined "Ayyam al hurryia" (Freedom days), a consortium of individuals and loose organisations which share a common goal: "To topple the regime through peaceful resistance and civil disobedience".
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'Friends of Syria' summit ends with more pledges
Signalling rebellion
Back in December 2011, they organised the general strike "Idrab al karama". When asked about the results of the initiative, Mutasem admits that "mistakes have been made and we have brainstormed a lot in order to not make them happen next time. But there is indeed a great achievement in having shown the people that a third way is possible: something that each of us can do, rather than join the demonstrations or just stay home [due to] fear."
Placing radio speakers in Damascus' central squares and playing revolutionary songs; painting the city's fountain water red to remind the martyrs' blood; distributing anti-regime leaflets that looked like Syrian currency notes - "everybody would stop to collect 1,000 Syrian Pounds on the floor!" - are some of the nuanced acts taken in defiance of regime.
Mutasem is an enthusiastic supporter of civil disobedience tactics. According to him, this is the only way to mobilise people in big cities like Damascus and Aleppo that are deemed to be regime's strongholds.
"We have to hurt the regime at its very heart, if we want to topple it. Civil disobedience sends a message to the people of Damascus and Aleppo who watch the violence on YouTube and are told by the official propaganda that there is nothing going on in the country," the young activist says. "Our message is: The revolution is here, we are here, come and join us in any possible way you can."
According to him, many people - who at the beginning would stay at home - are now helping the non-violent activists, providing logistical support, coordination, even actively joining the civil disobedience. Incidents of burning tyres blocking traffic in the middle of roads have been mushrooming in the past months, especially in Damascus.
"You know that something is successful when people adopt and repeat it. Most of the road blockings happening now are not organised by us, they are initiated by people we don't even know," he emphasises.
Mutasem thinks civil disobedience is the only way to mobilise people in the Syrian capital. He is convinced that an armed response from the revolutionaries will not succeed, as the regime is much stronger on the military front. He also thinks that the latter's violence has increased since the formation of the Free Syrian Army.
Because of this, he embraces the model of civil resistance provided by Daraya, the cradle of Syrian peaceful resistance in Damascus where activists like Ghiyath Matar and Yahya Shurbaji were trying to win the soldiers' hearts and minds through non-violent and symbolic actions like talking to them during the demonstrations and distributing flowers and water. Recalling these scenes sounds like “longing for the bygone days", as Matar was brutally killed and Shurbaji is believed to be still in jail.
Videos on non-violent struggle
But, while YouTube clips - allegedly recorded a week ago in Aleppo - are running on the screen, the young Syrian activist makes me notice that these protesters are still chanting "You are our brothers!" to the army, despite the fact that all media attention is catalysed either by the armed clashes between Assad's soldiers and the defected Free Syrian Army, or by the sectarian conflict allegedly going on between Syria's Alawi minority and Sunni majority.
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Syrian doctors speaks of horrors faced by civilians
Nevertheless, each week Ayyam al hurryia produces and posts " target="_blank">videos, explaining the meaning of the non-violent struggle, its tactics and the patience to achieve results through peaceful resistance. Some videos address the pro-regime supporters too - the "mnhibbakjia" ("we love you") crowd - dealing with the national unity issue and the necessity of reconciliation among Syrian people.
These videos are all made by Syrians inside and outside Syria, working as volunteers with Ayyam al hurryia. "It's not a crowd of well-known artists and media makers. It's Syria's new generation willing to build a civil state," Mutasem says. A savvy youth made up of professionals who were never given a chance to emerge in their diversity, as Syria's cultural production - even in its most advanced forms of criticism and dissent - was managed by an elite group of producers closely supervised by the regime.
The workforce behind Ayyam al hurryia's initiatives - whether those organising civil disobedience actions on the ground or those filming and editing the coloured educational videos on its YouTube channel - is nurtured by a Syrian grassroots movement and comes from within the country.
Mutasem smiles when I quote Gene Sharp and his 1993 handbook From Dictatorship to Democracy as an inspiration for their non-violent struggle. According to some conspiracy theories, the American scholar would have worked closely with US intelligence to help toppling regimes worldwide and would have supported anti-regime movements like Serbia's Otpor in their political fight.
These theories enjoy a certain credit, especially when it comes to Syria, where everything happening on the ground would have to be engineered by foreigners, including civil resistance. Mutasem's smile now turns into laughter.
Syrians' non-violent struggle is indeed inspired by a Syrian scholar, Jawdat Said, who has been incarcerated many times for his writings on resisting oppression through non-violence. In 2001, he wrote: "We live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear."
Jawadat Said, born in 1931, lives in the Syrian Golan Heights and works as a farmer. I wonder what he thinks of these youth, engaged in their civilised struggle against Goliath, far away from media spotlight, maybe closer to their people.
Donatella Della Ratta is a PhD fellow at University of Copenhagen focusing her research on the Syrian TV industry.
Follow her on Twitter: @donatelladr
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
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Venezuela, Wikileaks y los medios
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02 March 2012
Público
Desde hace años, los mayores medios de información estadounidenses y europeos están liderando una campaña de desinformación contra Venezuela, que claramente contradice su supuesta imparcialidad en su cobertura mediática. En realidad, tal cobertura puede definirse como mera propaganda política en contra del gobierno dirigido por el Presidente Chávez. Los documentos publicados por Wikileaks han mostrado como los diferentes gobiernos federales de EEUU han estado interviniendo activamente en la política doméstica de Venezuela, a fin de derrotar al gobierno Chávez, al que consideran una amenaza para los intereses empresariales estadounidenses, que históricamente han gozado de una enorme influencia sobre los gobiernos de aquel país, anteriores al actual. Lo que no se conocía hasta hace poco, sin embargo, era que -según los documentos publicados en Wikileaks- algunos de tales medios, han jugado un papel muy activo en la desestabilización del gobierno Chávez, lo cual no se ha publicado en los mayores medios de información españoles.
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Un examen de nosotros mismos
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01 March 2012
Il Manifesto
Traducido para Rebelión por Susana Merino.
Al gobierno de Monti no podría importarle menos la libertad de prensa. Como buen liberal está convencido de que un diario es una mercancía como cualquier otra, si se vende bastante a los lectores y a los anunciantes vive, si no muere.
El estrangulamiento fue bien ilustrado el otro día por Valentino Parlato. Y era visible desde nuestra percepción. Nuestra asfixia es de la misma naturaleza que la que se intenta aplicar a los no menos urgentes bienes comunes. Nos parece también importante la presencia de una voz fuera del coro, como la nuestra, porque en un país que ha ratificado tres veces a Silvio Berlusconi en el gobierno hay algo que no funciona. No funciona que tantos amigos se alegren por que en el lugar de un mequetrefe impresentable se ha puesto a un distinguido y honesto liberal. Honesto personalmente, se entiende. La honestidad social no se sabe muy bien qué es y tampoco le importa a la prensa salvo a nosotros que somos una fracción de la izquierda y además comunista. Es decir, más que comunistas, en el sentido de que el comunismo de los “socialismos reales” ya no andaba ni hacia atrás ni hacia adelante. Por eso fuimos excluidos del PCI, por haber planteado preguntas sobre los socialismos reales prácticamente ya no existen los partidos comunistas.
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Ni SOPA ni PIPA
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20 January 2012
Ogunguerrero
Como el Planeta en general, el intercambio de conocimientos gratuitos y la socialización del saber en Internet se hallan en peligro gracias a dos proyectos de ley estadounidenses que se presentan como defensores de la lucha contra la piratería. Se trata de las propuestas SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) y PIPA (Protect IP Act), tras las cuales se esconde la urgencia del capitalismo corporativo de someter el flujo informativo de la Red a los intereses de los monopolios de la información y el conocimiento.
A cuatro meses de que se iniciara el movimiento de indignados Occupy Wall Street, el neoliberalismo que genera la crisis, y tan bien de ella se alimenta, recurre a supuestas amenazas de robo de contenidos que, según argumentos de justificación, a EEUU corresponden, al tiempo que desarrolla un intenso trabajo de robos de cerebros en todo el mundo. Lejos de proteger la propiedad intelectual, estos proyectos pretenden monopolizarla y, según corresponde en un Sistema tan sometido por la racionalidad clasista, controlar su expansión a los sectores más esquilmados por sus propias prácticas económicas y políticas. A ese capitalismo adaptable a los propios embates de las crisis que él mismo genera, se le hace necesario y urgente llamar a capítulo de fidelidad a todo el que se haya atrevido a actuar por cuenta propia. Preocupa a sus magnates el curso que pueda alcanzar la anomia que el sistema ha generado una vez que sus bases morales declamatorias, falsas en la realidad concreta, se ponen en marcha siquiera en el aspecto del libre flujo de la información.
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EU raporteur said Dink's verdict "disappointing"
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19 January 2012
In a statement given to Todays's Zaman, Ria Oomen-Ruijten, European Parliament's rapporteur on Turkey, said the verdict of Hrant Dink's trial is "disappointing. The Hrant Dink case could have been an example of how properly functioning judicial institutions deal with disrupting forces in a society. This verdict makes clear the need for further judicial reform in Turkey".
The court convicted Yasin Hayal, a major suspect in the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, of instigating a murder and sentenced him to life in prison, while another suspected instigator, Erhan Tuncel, was acquitted by the court.
Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, was shot dead on January 19, 2007 outside the offices of his newspaper in İstanbul in broad daylight.
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