Slashdot Mirror
Social Networking Spurs Activism Against Repression
The New York Times Magazine is running a story about the rise in political activism in Egypt through sites like Facebook, which allow citizens to gather and share ideas in ways they otherwise aren't allowed. A state-of-emergency law has been active in Egypt since 1981, which, among other things, "allows the government to ban political organizations and makes it illegal for more than five people to gather without a license from the government." As affordable internet access has spread throughout the country, the government is having a much harder time keeping wraps on the ideas of dissidents. Blocking access to the sites isn't a good solution for the government, because many non-dissidents use it for mundane communications. As Harvard's Ethan Zuckerman puts it, "...doing so would alert a large group of people who they can't afford to radicalize."
Oh sure, it's fine when it's a group you don't like but
First they came for the Communists...
You may not be able to see the connection, but attitudes like yours led directly to the rise of the Taliban.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Luckily we live the the most democratic place on the planet. Where free speech and freedom to public protect are enshrined in the constitution. Except outside Parliament Square and American military bases and drug testing labs and .. anywhere else for that matter. You also risk getting arrested if you try and talk to any of the protesters. Try it if you don't believe me. One other method of intimidation is the mass photographing of protectors by the Police Forward Intelligence Team and ironically the seizure of photographs by legitimate journalists.
--
"Freedom of speech without freedom of response is meaningless"
"Without privacy, there cannot be freedom. And without freedom, there cannot be personal or social growth"
davecb5620@gmail.com
Where did I say a group couldn't be opposed later?
I'm as willing to write code to help people sidestep censorship after they've elected the nutjobs and decided it was a bad idea as I am willing to write code to help those who don't like the other kinds of repression.
If genocide becomes likely then the UN should step in, they're too slow to be much use but that's another problem.
Militant groups? Yeah lets talk about the IDF targetting children, destroying hospitals and aid convoys. Lets talk about Israels use of WMDs. Lets talk about Hamas -the democratically elected government of Palestine and lets talk about Hamas trying to pick up the pieces and repair the grotesque acts of devastation carried out by Israels murderous armies.
Jesus. MEMRI? Seriously? Got a real source of information instead of an Israeli propaganda arm?
First paragraph is true and most people see that.
The bit about MEMRI is also true, and unfortunately not a lot of people know how that organisation selectively and misleadingly translates documents.
http://www.infocusnews.net/content/view/15069/135/
http://mondediplo.com/2005/10/15propaganda (subscription required)
And there's more that I can't be arsed to link to.
JG
-- "...I'm a bad guy because I, well, I sing some rock-and-roll songs." M. Manson
Lots of talk. But when the time comes to do the dying, you never see progressives turn up.
In fact you frequently hear something about moving to Canada in that type of case.
Imagine that, people having a big mouth and tiny balls ... who'd have thought ?
Muslims think mohamed was a good guy, THE example of a leader. Read his biography once and you'll see the problem with that. Hitler and Stalin were but cute poodles, sweet and innocent, compared to him.
Can you quote what 'biography' you are referring to ?