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Syrian Digital Activism in the NYTimes

This morning, in the New York Times of all places, is a good article highlighting Syria’s pervasive Internet censorship.  The premise is this: a disturbing (though not particularly graphic, as the Times suggests) video of teachers beating their young students is put up on Facebook (which Facebook, shockingly but to their credit, doesn’t remove for [...]

30.09.2010

5 Comments

The False Poles of Digital and Traditional Activism

Digital activism has been construed as its own movement, a new wave of organizing unique to the 21st century digital world.  In fact, digital tools are complementary to “traditional” activism, for a number of reasons: They allow organizers to quickly mobilize large numbers of people; they help draw media attention to causes, and quickly; they [...]

27.09.2010

55 Comments

The “cat and mouse” game between bloggers and government

This is a liveblog of a breakout panel at the Google Liberty at 2010 conference in Budapest, September 22, 2010. Cynthia Wong of the Center for Democracy and Technology introduces the next breakout panel, entitled “Online free expression and the cat and mouse game between bloggers and governments.” She introduces the session by mentioning the [...]

22.09.2010

2 Comments

Are we compromising national security by increasing access to information online?

This post is a liveblog of a panel at Google’s Liberty at 2010 conference in Budapest, September 22, 2010. Calling this debate the “elephant in the room,” moderator Monroe Price of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania introduces the panel. The first speaker, Smari McCarthy of Digital Freedoms Society (Iceland), notes [...]

22.09.2010

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Crossing national borders: Is the Internet a danger and a blessing?

This is a liveblog of a panel at the Google Liberty at 2010 conference in Budapest, September 22, 2010. Lucie Morillon of Reporters Without Borders (France) introduces the panel; we will hear from several bloggers and activists from various countries to get a sense of restrictions on Internet and bloggers globally. Egypt First up is [...]

22.09.2010

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A Hard Place and a Rock: Challenges for Industry

This post is a liveblog of a panel at Google’s Liberty at 2010 conference. Rebecca MacKinnon, currently of the New America Foundation, is leading the next discussion, entitled “A rock and a hard place: challenges for industry.”  The panel will focus on the issues of intermediaries, and will feature David Drummond of Google (US) and [...]

21.09.2010

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Online Free Expression: Values, Progress, and Complexities

This is a liveblog of a panel at Google’s Liberty at 2010 conference. Darius Cuplinskas of the Open Society Institute UK is moderating this panel. Speaking is Dunja Mijatovic of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Bosnia/Herzegovina, and Merve Alici of the Turkish Young Civilians (Turkey) and Eva Simon of the Hungarian [...]

21.09.2010

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Has the Internet been oversold?

The BBC’s Madeleine Morris introduces the next panel: “Is the potential of the Internet as a force for positive political change being oversold?” and asks users–both here and remote–to participate by asking her questions on Twitter @Mad_Morris.  Though she claims to be “unabashedly old media,” Morris is jumping in directly to a discussion on the [...]

21.09.2010

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More on Content Regulation: Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, India

Rob Faris concluded his speech by introducing three panelists: Tattu Mambetalieva of the Civil Initiative on Internet Policy (Kyrgyzstan) and the OpenNet Initiative; Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet and Society (India); and Shahzad Ahmad of Bytes for All (Pakistan). Tattu (I’ll be referring to her by first name for the sheer fact that [...]

21.09.2010

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A Moment in Time: A Very Short History of Content Regulation

Renata Uitz of Central European University welcomes Rob Faris, research director of the Berkman Center and the OpenNet Initiative. “A bunch of smart people invented the internet,” says Faris, highlighting the wonderful ways in which the Internet brought millions of people together.  ”People began using the Internet for various other things too – porn, making [...]

21.09.2010

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Policing Content in the Quasi-Public Sphere

At long last, the paper I’ve been working on since (gulp) April is now live on the OpenNet Initiative website: “Policing Content in the Quasi-Public Sphere” tackles the issues of content regulation and account deactivations across five popular social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Blogger).  The paper is also available for PDF download [...]

21.09.2010

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Guardian Award for Audacity, Not Innovation

The Guardian has finally spoken up about its awarding of “Innovator of the Year” to Austin Heap. Much credit to Charles Arthur for getting this story up, but I can’t say I’m all too impressed with Guardian News & Media’s head of media and tech: Asked to comment, Steve Busfield, head of media and technology [...]

17.09.2010

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Maine newspaper apologizes for acknowledging Muslims are human

from Jillian C. York to rconnor@pressherald.com date Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 3:27 PM subject Shame on you for issuing an apology! Dear Mr. Connor: As a researcher of the media and its interplay with the Internet, I am ashamed of your paper’s actions in regard to the apology you issued after complaints arose from [...]

14.09.2010

2 Comments

Haystack and Media Irresponsibility

Last summer, a circumvention tool was born, out of opportunity and a desire to help the Iranian people, who suffer from a rather pervasive form of Internet censorship.  The tool, it was promised, was “encrypted at such a level it would take thousands of years to figure out what you’re saying.”  As it turns out, [...]

13.09.2010

25 Comments

Is This America?

Yesterday, referring to the hate speech run amok against Muslims in this country, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof asked the question, “Is this America?”  Citing the recent words of bigot de l’année Marty Peretz of The New Republic, Kristof wonders aloud where all of the lessons learned in the past say, sixty years, have [...]

12.09.2010

3 Comments

If Facebook is a Mall, Web Hosts are Mall Developers

This morning, when I learned that web host Rackspace had shut down the site of the Dove World Outreach Center, I did something rather unbecoming of an anti-censorship advocate:  I cheered a little. The thing is, I’ve been pretty sick over this issue.  I’ve always abided by the adage, “I may not agree with what [...]

09.09.2010

6 Comments

Are UK and German ISPs blocking Hamas-sponsored website? Probably not.

Recent reports on Twitter (and Herdict) indicate that ISPs in the UK and Germany might be blocking the English-language site of Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Information Center.  Some users, when visiting the site, have reported timeouts: A report from blogger Prosebeforehos indicates that US ISPs Comcast and Verizon have blocked the DNS entry for the site, however, [...]

08.09.2010

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Free Ali Abdulemam

I woke up this morning, like many of my friends and colleagues, to the news that our good friend, Ali Abdulemam, had been arrested, for allegedly “publishing false news” on BahrainOnline.org, the site he founded and edits (the site appears to have gone down sometime this morning). This is not the first time Ali has [...]

05.09.2010

5 Comments