Online dissidents in authoritarian states such as Egypt thrive on sites like Facebook, according to Harvard University’s Ethan Zuckerman, because, “the government can’t simply shut down Facebook, because doing so would alert a large group of people who they can’t afford to radicalize.” It is the Dictator’s Dilemma, an issue I cover extensively in my…
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The Facebook insurgency
How Egyptian activists are using Facebook to challenge the US-backed dictatorship.
The web won’t set us free
My following article was published by the Washington Post online on September 26: During China’s milk powder crisis, with tens of thousands of babies affected by the contaminated goods, the country’s blogosphere railed against corrupt officials. One outraged blogger wrote: “What are the people in the Government doing? They just want mistresses, they want cash,…
Onward Zionist soldier
It’s good to see that online Zionists are spending their time so fruitfully: A group calling itself the Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIDF) hacked into a Facebook group called,… “Israel” is not a country!… … Delist it from Facebook as a country!” early Sunday morning, erasing thousands of members’ names from the site. The JIDF was…
Kill your TV
Media usage may be fragmenting but traditional mediums remain (far too) powerful: Americans — including “young people” — still get their political news from TV, according to a new study published by TV trade pub Broadcasting & Cable, and conducted by market-research firm Crawford, Johnson & Northcott, whose clients include… several TV stations. According to…
The independence struggle
Taking apart a US-dictatorship, one step at a time. (Thank you Facebook, blogging and on-the-ground activism in Egypt.)
Selective outrage at the IDF
Reveal “state secrets” and watch out: A soldier serving in the IDF’s elite 8200 military intelligence unit was sentenced to 19 days in prison on Wednesday for uploading a picture onto the Facebook social networking site. Abuse the Palestinians and human rights group are forced to challenge the rules: Today, … 16 April 2008, The Public…