Currently browsing posts tagged: Twitter.

Thoughts on Twitter’s Latest Move

Today, Twitter announced a new system that will allow the company to geolocationally block (or, to use their terms, “withhold”) specific tweets in specific countries. On the company blog, Twitter explained: We haven’t yet used this ability, but if and when we are required to withhold a Tweet in a specific country, we will attempt [...]

26.01.2012

15 Comments

Fresh looks at social media as a 2011 gamechanger

Two fresh looks at the effects, in 2011, of social media on the world. The first, a talk from my friend Ethan Zuckerman at the University of British Columbia: I’ve tapped out–imperfectly–a few excerpts for those of you who don’t watch videos: In reference to how the ‘Arab Spring’ began: Thinking about social media by [...]

03.01.2012

1 Comment

On Prince Waleed and Twitter

There’s been quite a bit of buzz over the news today that Saudi Prince Waleed has invested $300m in Twitter. I barely paid attention to the news at first, considering the massive list of companies that the prince’s company, Kingdom Holdings, has invested in (including Amazon, eBay, and PriceLine, among many others, not to mention [...]

19.12.2011

2 Comments

Does ‘Trending’ a Topic Matter?

This week, my friend Gilad Lotan of SocialFlow wrote an excellent blog post explaining how trending topics really work, in an attempt it seems, to put rumors of censorship to rest. Twitter has been dealing with these rumors for quite some time, and last December publicly explained that Trending Topics are about velocity, not volume, [...]

18.10.2011

6 Comments

Twitter Trolling as Propaganda Tactic: Bahrain and Syria

First, a note: I’m no expert on either of the two countries that are a focus of this piece, nor do I intend to be comprehensive in my analysis. I know a bit more about Syria than I do about Bahrain, having studied its history closely and traveled there, but nonetheless, I intend purely to [...]

12.10.2011

1 Comment

Can a Tweet Prevent a Massacre?

I just published a post over on Global Voices with the same headline, specifically quoting Syrian opposition and their supporters, who have been attempting to trend the #RamadanMassacre hashtag today. In looking for tweets using the hashtag, I came across one from Andy Carvin that got me thinking. Can Twitter prevent a massacre? I know [...]

01.08.2011

12 Comments

Tweeting #Bahrain: A Futile Effort

In early February, Bahrain–like numerous countries in the region–caught revolution fever. Protesters took over the Pearl Roundabout in the capital, Manama, demanding reform, from February 14 to 17 until, on the last day, police stormed the Roundabout, killing seven and clearing the scene. Still, the protesters returned again and again. On March 3, clashes between [...]

01.06.2011

57 Comments

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

The Media and the Algerian Internet Rumors

Well, here we go again…the mainstream media tonight jumped on rumors that Algeria had shut down the Internet, without bothering to check their facts with people on the ground. They didn’t check Twitter either; Algerians were tweeting throughout. So far, neither the Telegraph nor Mashable–the two outlets primarily responsible for the rumor–have bothered to issue [...]

12.02.2011

6 Comments

Social Media and Human Rights in the Media

I’m extremely pleased–yes, without snark–to see the media picking up on the very auspicious topic of incorporating human rights into social media platforms, a topic I’ve been tracking since March of 2010, and which I covered in my paper, Policing Content in the Quasi-Public Sphere. Others, like Rebecca MacKinnon and Danny O’Brien of CPJ, have [...]

11.02.2011

2 Comments

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

7 Comments

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

1 Comment

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

6 Comments

Qaddafi’s View of the Internet in Tunisia

In a speech today (full transcript in Arabic here), Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi addressed the Tunisian people. Amira al Hussaini noticed–and translated–a bit of the speech dealing with the Internet: حتى أنتم إخواني التوانسة ، ربما أنكم تقرؤون في الكلينكس هذا ، والكلام الفارغ في الإنترنت . وهذا الإنترنت ، الذي أي واحد أهبل ؛ [...]

16.01.2011

5 Comments

Not Twitter, Not WikiLeaks: A Human Revolution

Beginning this afternoon, shortly after (former) president Ben Ali fled Tunisia, I started getting calls about the effect of social media on the Tunisian uprising. I answered a few questions, mostly deferring reporters to friends in Tunisia for their side of the story, and then settled in for the night…only to find rantings and ravings [...]

14.01.2011

35 Comments

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

LinkedIn: Doing the Right Thing

By now you’ve probably heard about the continuing saga of #amazonfail. Even if you’re not a Twitter user, or couldn’t care less about LGBT books and their Amazon.com rankings, the term has no doubt entered your lexicon. What you probably haven’t heard about, however, is the short-lived #linkedinfail that happened when business-themed social networking service [...]

19.04.2009

1 Comment

Is Twitter Hurting “Real-Life” Relationships?

I’ve talked a lot about Twitter here lately.  Everyone is talking about Twitter, even people who don’t use it.  The fact is, Twitter has invaded our lives; not just the lives of the digerati, but those of students, moms, television personalities…even cats.  Rather than texting, we’re tweeting.  Instead of blogging, we’re tweeting.  Sometimes we’re even [...]

10.04.2009

4 Comments

Twitter and Open Culture

I woke up one morning last weekend with visions of Twitterplums dancing in my head. In other words, I was mulling over the concept that I hold so dear: that Twitter enables, rather, encourages open communication in a way that was never before possible. The examples are abundant: there’s the open sharing of the Twitter [...]

27.02.2009

No Comments

Teaching my Mom to Twitter

A couple of weeks ago, I made a pledge to teach someone how to blog or use Twitter.  The initiative was suggested in GV’s internal e-mail list and everyone immediately embraced it – and so Valentine’s Day 2009 became Social Media Kisses day. I was willing, of course – the problem was that I couldn’t [...]

14.02.2009

4 Comments

Two Wars

The terror and destruction does not look as if it will come to an end anytime soon. Friends are growing weary. Today, I got a call from my friend Mohammed Omer, who is from Rafah. While he is fortunate enough to be in the Netherlands right now (Fortunate? He’s there because he was beaten brutally [...]

05.01.2009

1 Comment