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Threats from Syria

A few days ago, Anas Qtiesh* wrote of spam bots intentionally targeting the #Syria hashtag with neutral or pro-regime messages. I was then asked to write a piece on the subject for the Guardian‘s Comment is Free. Today, I find that I’ve been added to a list of “information terrorists” (along with the Guardian’s Brian [...]

21.04.2011

2 Comments

When Tech Companies Do Right

Yesterday, I mentioned in a post the importance of talking about tech companies not only when they do poorly, but also when they do right. In that post, I mentioned how Twitter has shied from moderating content on their platform even in the most contentious of circumstances, showing their dedication to free expression online. There [...]

20.04.2011

2 Comments

On Facebook’s deletion of a gay kiss (or why community policing doesn’t work)

It used to be that I had to seek out instances of overreaching Facebook censorship. Now, thanks to loads of recent high-profile examples and increased popular interest in the topic, they fall right into my lap. On BoingBoing today, Richard Metzger, a self-described “married, middle-aged man,” writes that he became a spokesman for gay rights [...]

19.04.2011

3 Comments

re:campaign XI: Tools of Change (How Social Media Helped Spark the Arab Spring)

On Saturday, I gave another talk in Berlin, this time at the re:campaign conference, on the role of technology in the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and beyond. My take, as I’m sure you know by now, is that tools are just that…tools, and that a revolution comes from human power, but that nevertheless, such technology [...]

18.04.2011

4 Comments

re:publica 11: noha atef on egyptian social media stories

Noha Atef, the Egyptian blogger behind tortureinegypt.net is giving a talk at re:publica 11 on “Egyptian social media stories” to answer questions about how Egyptians have used social media and how, overnight it seems, Egyptians managed to mobilize on social networks to assist in the revolution. “The answer to the question: ‘Were Egyptians using social [...]

14.04.2011

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re:publica 2011: this is our public sphere

I’m in Berlin for re:publica 2011, a conference I’ve been wanting to go to for at least two years and which I was invited to speak at this year. When organizer Markus Beckedahl contacted me in January to speak, he was excited about my September 2010 paper, Policing Content in the Quasi-Public Sphere. Just a [...]

14.04.2011

1 Comment

Exporting Feminism to Muslims?

A few lines from Jonah Goldberg’s latest opinion piece in the LA Times: Feminism as a “movement” in America is largely played out. The work here is mostly done. Even the fight for “pay equity” is an argument about statistics, lagging cultural indicators and the actual choices liberated women make Countless Islamist countries practice gender [...]

07.04.2011

4 Comments