Department of Justice selective outrage over Wikileaks

Here’s the hypocrisy. If Iran demanded Twitter release direct messages of a user, the US government would be outraged. But of course double-standards are the name of the game here: A member of parliament in Iceland who is also a former WikiLeaks volunteer says the US justice department has ordered Twitter to hand over her…

Google, Twitter et al on path to helping US imperialism

The introductory section of this recent essay in the London Review of Books paints a disturbing nexus between the US government and major web companies. They seem worryingly comfortable assisting US foreign policy goals. Putting a nice, sexy face to occupation. Beware: On a balmy evening in April 2009 Barham Salih, then deputy prime minister…

Are we addicted or too pleased to notice?

Some startling facts: – There are now more than 500 million active Facebook users, with 50% logging on to the site on any given day. Worldwide, users collectively spend 700 billion minutes a month on Facebook. – Google’s email service Gmail ended July with 186 million worldwide users, a 22% increase from the same time…

The wannabe porn Zionist

Reclaiming what is theirs: Israel’s foreign Ministry has acquired the @Israel username on Twitter, the social networking site, from the Spanish owner of adult porn sites. The Spaniard, who now lives in Miami, Florida, is called Israel Melendez and he set up the account for free in 2007, when Twitter was still a relatively new…

MSM regulation is above the pay scale of MPs?

Sigh: The Commons is not the place for the media to be on trial over phone-hacking allegations, the former chairman of the Press Complaints Commission has told followers on Twitter. MPs are too cowardly when it comes to tackling newspapers – and that empowers their editors, Sir Christopher Meyer said. Meyer, a former British ambassador…

Better Tweeting ain’t gonna solve Israel’s massive image problem

This is as tragic as comical. When will the Zionist lobby realise that more “effective” PR isn’t the answer to their problems? Until Israel changes its behaviour, the label “apartheid state” will be an understatement: An Australian plan to spread good news about Israel via social media will be presented at an upcoming international Jewish…

Twitter won’t really help America be more liked

A very revealing essay in today’s New York Times Magazine on the US State Department’s major use of the web, Twitter, Facebook and online tools to push Washington’s agenda globally. The article is curious for its almost complete lack of discussion about whether Obama administration policies are in fact useful or productive but instead focuses…

Repeat after me; no Twitter explosion in the Islamic Republic

I’ve written before about the hyped media campaign last year that falsely claimed the civil unrest in Iran was a Twitter Revolution. In fact, many of the Iranian Twitter accounts were being run from inside the US. So how many hacks will read this? But it is time to get Twitter’s role in the events…

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