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_ Meta Discussion _ Shouting in the Dark

Posted by: GlassBeadGame

The http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/2011/08/201184144547798162.html is extraordinary. But the part relevant to this post begins at 39:26.



In the wake of democracy protests earlier this year the Al Khalifa regime utilized Facebook sites to get citizens to inform on protestors, coordinate vigilantes and hunt down activitists for arrest and torture. Facebook seems to have removed the pages as an embarassment to itself but too late to help the victims. Mr. Zuckerman is on the way to monetize torture. Not since the Rawadian radio stations coordinated the genocide there have I seen anything to match this use of media.

Facebook wants information to be free. Pro-Democracy protestors facing brutal oppresion...not so much.

Posted by: nableezy

QUOTE(GlassBeadGame @ Fri 16th September 2011, 11:55am) *
The http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/2011/08/201184144547798162.html is extraordinary. But the part relevant to this post begins at 39:26.



In the wake of democracy protests earlier this year the Al Khalifa regime utilized Facebook sites to get citizens to inform on protestors, coordinate vigilantes and hunt down activitists for arrest and torture. Facebook seems to have removed the pages as an embarassment to itself but too late to help the victims. Mr. Zuckerman is on the way to monetize torture. Not since the Rawadian radio stations coordinated the genocide there have I seen anything to match this use of media.

Facebook wants information to be free. Pro-Democracy protestors facing brutal oppresion...not so much.


People made a huge deal out of facebook being used in to organize and mobilize protestors in Egypt (as though anything close to a significant portion of the protestors had regular access to a computer much less an account on facebook), but less reported were the stories about how technology was used by the state to go after protesters. For example, a US based company (Narus) sold to Egypt (and Saudi Arabia, that other bastion of freedom in the Arab world) technology that would enable it to track what phone was used to send a specific tweet, which was then used to track the location of the person sending the tweet (tweeter, twater, whatever).

Bahrain's uprising has sadly been dismissed by most Western media. After the Saudis went in to help crush the initial protests (and on the way desecrate any Shia mosque they happened to march by) there was barely any coverage in any of the Western press. Al-Jazeera didnt do much either, and al-Arabiya had nothing but positive things to say about the Bahraini monarchy. There were a few stories about the doctors and nurses being jailed because they did not refuse treatment for injured protesters, but that is pretty much it. Everybody did however cover Bahrain's decision to withdraw its ambassador to Syria as a protest to that country's repression of its citizens. Dont get me wrong, Syria has to fall along with the rest of these bitches, but Yemen and Bahrain have been almost ignored. One because it is too poor to matter, the other because it is too rich (or important in the context of being the base for the fifth fleet) to bother.

Posted by: Wikifan

QUOTE
Al-Jazeera didnt do much either, and al-Arabiya had nothing but positive things to say about the Bahraini monarchy


the video is from al jazeera.

AJ covered bahrain quite extensively.

Posted by: nableezy

QUOTE(Wikifan @ Fri 16th September 2011, 4:50pm) *

QUOTE
Al-Jazeera didnt do much either, and al-Arabiya had nothing but positive things to say about the Bahraini monarchy


the video is from al jazeera.

AJ covered bahrain quite extensively.

I know that, and no, they really didnt. The few stories they did cover got drowned out by the drum beats to war in Libya and the coverage of the Syrian crackdown. It barely registered, in either the Arabic or the English channels.

Posted by: Wikifan

QUOTE(nableezy @ Fri 16th September 2011, 11:41pm) *

QUOTE(Wikifan @ Fri 16th September 2011, 4:50pm) *

QUOTE
Al-Jazeera didnt do much either, and al-Arabiya had nothing but positive things to say about the Bahraini monarchy


the video is from al jazeera.

AJ covered bahrain quite extensively.

I know that, and no, they really didnt. The few stories they did cover got drowned out by the drum beats to war in Libya and the coverage of the Syrian crackdown. It barely registered, in either the Arabic or the English channels.


well to be fair the conflict in syria and libya were of a much greater scale than the riots in bahrain. ~40 deaths in bahrain compared to 30,000-50,000 between libya and syria.

Posted by: It's the blimp, Frank

QUOTE(nableezy @ Fri 16th September 2011, 8:15pm) *

For example, a US based company (Narus) sold to Egypt (and Saudi Arabia, that other bastion of freedom in the Arab world) technology that would enable it to track what phone was used to send a specific tweet, which was then used to track the location of the person sending the tweet (tweeter, twater, whatever).
Twit.

Posted by: GlassBeadGame

QUOTE(nableezy @ Fri 16th September 2011, 2:15pm) *



People made a huge deal out of facebook being used in to organize and mobilize protestors in Egypt (as though anything close to a significant portion of the protestors had regular access to a computer much less an account on facebook), but less reported were the stories about how technology was used by the state to go after protesters. For example, a US based company (Narus) sold to Egypt (and Saudi Arabia, that other bastion of freedom in the Arab world) technology that would enable it to track what phone was used to send a specific tweet, which was then used to track the location of the person sending the tweet (tweeter, twater, whatever).



Remember Wael Ghonim? http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/02/10/google-executive-calls-egypt-revolution-2-0/ But the Western press swore The Revoution was more about him than the Mulsim Brotherhood. That was like saying Richard Trevithick, the Welsh inventor of the locomotive was more important in October 1917 because Lenin, afterall, arrived at Finland Station in a train. Or maybe Trevitchik was the Google guy and Ghonim invented the train. Why should anyone really care?