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What Syria’s Unblocking of Facebook Was Really About

Back in February, I wrote that the Syrian government’s decision to free up access to Facebook and other sites was a risky move, potentially designed to entrap Syrians. In the nearly three months since, it seems like I was right: First came the reports of activists and non-activists being detained, their Facebook and other passwords […]

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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 […]

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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 […]