Currently browsing posts tagged: egypt.

On the Anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution…

Descending onto Cairo is surreal.  From afar, looking down, it seems as if the green and sand are broken into tiny farmshares; as you get closer, however, you realize that those are actually buildings, all identical, though of varying heights, and laid out in what is actually a rather orderly formation.  Closer still, and you’re [...]

25.01.2012

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To Regulate (Or Preferably Not): On Mueller’s claim of misdirected resistance to surveillance technology

A pair of blog posts this week from Milton Mueller have sparked multiple conversations filling my inbox (as well as an unprecedented amount of passive aggression, of which I do not approve, but the sheer number of people practicing it makes me reticent to name names). The posts take on the emerging cottage industry of [...]

29.12.2011

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A Small Reminder

…in case you’re not convinced as to why we shouldn’t trust the US government on this one.

14.11.2011

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#FreeAlaa

On Sunday, Alaa’s detention was extended by another 15 days. At this point, the United Nations, Amnesty International, and countless other advocacy groups (including the EFF) have called for the release of Alaa, as well as others unjustly imprisoned by Egypt’s ruling military council. There are also numerous groups in the US and Europe actively [...]

14.11.2011

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Ten Days Later, Alaa is Still in Jail

It is nearly November 9 in Egypt and my friend Alaa is still in prison. It’s now been 10 days, five fewer than the 15 that he was assigned by a court run by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), which has illegitimately tried more than 12,000 Egyptian civilians since January. Alaa and his [...]

08.11.2011

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Free Alaa. Again.

Last week, Alaa Abd El Fattah was staying at my house, playing with all of the toys and things (and the enormous all-terrain stroller he’s taken to referring to as Khaled’s SUV) he and his wife, Manal had sent to our house and today he’s in prison. When he arrived at my house last Monday, [...]

30.10.2011

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Carlos Latuff’s Talk at 1º Encontro Mundial de Blogueiros (Brazil)

Brazilian activist cartoonist Carlos Latuff, whose work has been regularly featured on Global Voices, particularly throughout the ‘Arab Spring,’ starts the Brazilian panel thanking his country for “bringing Latin America here,” stating that Brazil tends to turn its back on the rest of Latin America. “In the Arab Spring,” says Latuff, “I’ve used Twitter heavily [...]

29.10.2011

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#Hashtagging Real Life

Ever since my good friend Zeynep Tufekci brought me a revolutionary t-shirt from Egypt, I’ve been fascinated by the popularization of hashtags outside of Twitter. And by outside, I don’t mean on blogs, Facebook, and Flickr, where they’re increasingly appearing, but offline. T-shirts, posters, graffiti, and protest signs all make use of hashtag symbolism; rather [...]

16.10.2011

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Where I’ve Been: M100, OVC, and Blogs & Bullets

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been traveling to various events, and the rest of autumn looks about the same; in two weeks, I’ll travel to Brussels and Tunis, then a few weeks after that to Istanbul and possibly Brazil. Then comes Canada, and perhaps a few small trips that I haven’t nailed down just [...]

18.09.2011

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Rebecca MacKinnon at TED: Let’s Take Back the Internet!

It is not often that I frame a post around a video, but Rebecca MacKinnon’s TED talk is perfect in describing one of the issues most important to me: the censorship of the Internet, both by governments and intermediaries. Not only is Rebecca a great speaker, but the nature of TED–wherein the hyperintelligent audience may [...]

13.07.2011

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IFEX 2011 Liveblog: Ramsey George of Tactical Tech Discusses Info-Activism

Ramsey George of the Tactical Technology Collective conducted a session (several times, and in English and Arabic) on new media and advocacy strategies. Basing his talk partly on Tactical Tech’s excellent “10 Tactics for Turning Information into Activism” film (copies of which were offered to participants), he made the point early on that what people [...]

03.06.2011

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A few talks from April

So, as you may well know by now that I’ve recently started a new job as Director for International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco (whew, that’s a mouthful!). I certainly will be blogging, but as I’m still settling in, and only recently got the Internet set up in my [...]

18.05.2011

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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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Critique of media coverage of Egypt is a strong case for Twitter

In the summer of 2009, I watched, like the rest of the world, as Iranians rose up against their government, protesting rigged elections. Not speaking Persian or knowing anyone on the ground, I was limited in context and understanding of the core issues, and reliant on Western media–skewed hostile toward Ahmadinejad–for news. Though mainstream media [...]

04.02.2011

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Facebook for Activists

Two articles today focus on the promise and the troubles of Facebook for activists. I’ve written extensively on the subject, and though I recognize that Facebook is a private company with the right to make its own decisions, I continue to be troubled by what I view as negligence toward the international activist community. First, [...]

03.02.2011

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Words from Tahrir Square

I was just listening to Al Jazeera and heard a familiar voice: @monasosh aka Mona Seif, sister of my friend Alaa Abd El Fattah; though I’ve never met her, I know her voice from a @Speak2Tweet message sent just two days ago, in which she sounded optimistic.  Now, on Al Jazeera, you can hear the [...]

02.02.2011

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Blood, Sweat, and Tear Gas

An article I wrote for The European, published only in German on their site.  Below is the original text, in English.  Title is theirs. All too often, Western pundits talk about digital activism in developing countries as if it were some phenomenon bestowed upon poor young foreigners by the moguls of Silicon Valley or worse, [...]

31.01.2011

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Boston for Egypt

I went into Harvard Square this afternoon around 1:00 to join the protestors and take photos; seeing the hundred or so people gathered and ready to move, I asked what was happening and was told that an earlier delegation had already marched across Cambridge, through Central Square and into Boston, and were going to head [...]

29.01.2011

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How are protestors in Egypt using social media?

Shortly after writing this, reports came in that the Internet in Egypt had become a black hole, entirely–or almost entirely–inaccessible.  Updates soon. This question has been posed to me constantly over the past two days from journalists doing their best to understand the relationship between online and offline forms of protest.  I feel their pain [...]

27.01.2011

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Israel as “Safe Haven” for Arabs

An interesting bit in today’s Jerusalem Post; Egyptian journalist Nabil Sharaf Eldin argues, in a rather poorly written piece, that as a journalist, he is safer in Israel than in much of the region.  His ultimate point?  That as a journalist who refuses to mince words in respect to Arab regimes, he is unsafe in [...]

11.11.2010

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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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UN Security Bans ONI Poster from IGF

Rarely do I cross-post from elsewhere onto my own blog, however, this warrants widespread discussion.  From the ONI blog: Whilst attending the Internet Governance Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the OpenNet Initiative (along with partners of ONI Asia) gathered to present their upcoming book, Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in [...]

16.11.2009

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BREAKING NEWS: Fox News Annexes Iraq

As if Fox News didn’t distort the truth enough, now they’ve annexed Iraq too!  If they had labeled Egypt, I wonder what they might have called it…Morocco?  Seriously though, why is Fox making its own maps anyway?  Don’t they have people for that?  People who are not conservative idiots with no knowledge of the Middle [...]

30.07.2009

5 Comments