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The State of Iran's Ongoing Netwar
An anonymous reader writes "Following disputed elections in Iran, opposition groups and activists have turned conventional protests into a major threat to the ruling government. The low-intensity protest movement is rapidly becoming the first true netwar of the 21st century. Opposition protesters have shown that within a few hours or less, the information technologies that are the mainstay of modern society can become its weapons, as well.
This article examines the current situation in Iran and the part played by new media technologies and strategies, showing how far the theory and practice of netwar has advanced since the concept first emerged in the late nineties."
TFA was one of the best written, well thought out blogs I've ever had the pleasure to read. Indeed JournalSquared should be invited to be an admin here at /.
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Anyone that writes a story about this that doesn't mention Fark specifically needs to do a bit more research on the subject. Tats(uma) obviously gets quite a bit of credit, but he wasn't the only person there keeping up with the tweets. Fark (and oddly, 4chan) became major filters for finding the real data for the first several days. I'm amazed at the people who still don't know there's effectively a civil war going on in Iran, since CNN and other mainstream media didn't really start reporting on it until yesterday.
The other bit is, because mainstream media has to hedge their bets - they have something to lose, where sites like Fark aren't even media sites, so they have nothing to lose - CNN and such has to worry about whether the dissidents will be successful. Because if they aren't, then you've pissed off the people still in power. Media blockout is one thing, but there was reliable reports of many deaths long before MSM was reporting there being only a single death.
BTW, Iranians still need proxies for their twitter updates. If you have the ability...
Also, one of the ways people have been trying to make it more difficult for the Iranian police to track down dissidents is by changing their twitter location and timezone to that of Tehran. Feel free to do that too.
But yeah, twitter is the only thing able to make it out right now, considering.
I think meddling would probably be the worst thing to do. What is Obama going to do? March troops in? Bomb Tehran? Drop propaganda? I think just about any direct US involvement can only work to the regime's favor at this point.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
This is actually quite simple:
Nothing
Seriously, stay out of it. The Iranian government is already accusing the US of interfering in internal issues, and has lodged an official complaint through diplomatic channels. This is mostly propaganda, but honestly the best thing we can do for them is to stay out of it.
In fact, if you see your local politician wanting to do something, tell them to shut up. You're not friends to the people of Iran, and speaking up with your opinion is something they don't want to hear.
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against an irate populace is something that is one of the main pillars of our constitution.
The Declaration of Independance and the Right to Bear Arms were both very much about this. Basically, the Bill of Rights as a whole was meant to shore up the rights of the populace to defend itself against an abusive government.
It is very interesting to see that the Internet has changed the battlefield enough to level it in certain areas. Really since the mechanization of warfare, no populace could really effectively stand up to the military might of a state.
You're not friends to the people of Iran, and speaking up with your opinion is something they don't want to hear.
We don't need to speak our opinions, we just have to help the Iranian people voice theirs.
precisely. Re-read what I wrote.
Iraq - killing off ethnicities, millions of dead Iraqis, dissidents were made public examples of, their families killed.
Iran - nothing remotely like Iraq.
In Iran, dissidents are out in millions, hugging the Basij. In Iraq, dissidents were shot in high percentages. While people in Iran are being killed right now, it's substantially less than of 1% of the dissidents that are protesting. Phenomenally different situation.
Which is why, if you look at what I was responding to, the question of whether or not we should have gone to Iraq is not really relevant to whether we should go to Iran. They are different situations.
Besides, if you want real democracy in the Middle East this is the best thing you could possibly hope for; thousands of Iranians marching in the streets demanding to be heard. The Iranian people, it would seem, actually want this to happen for themselves, as opposed to someone else doing it for them. The US should keep lines of communication open when they have jurisdiction over them, say to the world 'We sure hope the rightfully elected leader will come out on top', and stay the hell out of it.
The West thinks in binary terms: free/not-free. [...] All while we are increasingly banning our own freedoms here in the West
We like our romanticized idea of freedoms. Our governments are slowly taking away freedom, so we would have a harder time justifying major rebellion. Too many people are complacent and vote our power-hungry politicians back into office. But in non-free states, we see an opportunity for people to unite to create a fresh start, to realize that romanticized ideal that our governments have tarnished. Sure, things aren't as simple as "the government dictates everything" or "do anything you want", but the closer you get to that stark contrast, the easier it is to get people to act together. No one here is trying to decide things for the Iranians, but to give them tools to better decide things for themselves; we are not forcing western ideals on anybody.
I know idealism has little to do with reality, but if you want to talk about how corrupt or controlling governments are you need to establish a baseline, so why not let that be freedom? Given that a proper government should always work to improve things, it makes sense for the ideal model to be something we cannot quite achieve.
Just because I say every government should work for freedom doesn't mean I think governments should minimize control in all cases. In the extreme example, communism might maximize freedom if less control meant people become abused by the upper class and become virtual slaves. Communism may minimize freedom if the people can generate a higher standard of living through their own economic choices. People simply need to have the ability to speak up about the current government and have the means to change it if there is a better way to establish fredom for the people.
My webcomic
Great idea ... because arming opposition groups has never turned out badly for the United States in the past.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
Everyone who thinks they are helping by siding with the Iranian opposition has a very poor understanding of Iranian politics. It doesn't matter whether it's from the government or whether it's from regular Western citizens, helping the opposition figures does not help the United States in any way. It just puts a different face on the same anti-Western government.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
helping the opposition figures does not help the United States in any way
People who are lending their support are not trying to help the United States, they're trying to help the Iranians. This isn't about the US.
What makes you think that if they opposition was successful in their political ambitions that they would become pro-American?
Because the Iranian people would realize that the American people, if not the American government, are willing to step up and help them out when they ask for it. There have already been messages from Iranians acknowledging the support they're getting from Americans and expressing their surprise and gratitude, even while acknowledging a lack of coverage by US media. If the Iranian people understand that the American people are their friends, they will be considerably less likely to view America as an enemy and considerably more likely to oppose an anti-American viewpoint by their own government.
This is more about Americans bonding with Iranians than it is about the US government bonding with the Iranian government.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Posting of relevant Twitter messages to keep everyone informed.
It's been said before, but if this ends up working, we can't say twitter is completely useless anymore.
The problem, of course, is that sites like Fark are full of well-intentioned people who do not really know the first thing about what is going on or what they really should do -- they just want to do something, anything they can think of to feel like they are helping, while not even being very sure of WHAT they are helping.
So, being net-savvy, they think that forwarding every piece of information they receive (with no way bar VERY few exceptions of vetting that information) is helping, when they could very likely be opening themselves up to being used for propaganda from just about any imaginable source -- including the Mousavi campaign which 99.9% of those trying to help didn't even know existed before last Thursday, much less know anything about what it really means. They just know it's not Ahmadinejad and that has to be just splendid, so anything masquerading as not-being-Ahmadinejad must be your new BFF in Iran.
This is incredibly dangerous.
The urge to help, be part of history and change the world is strong, but it is extremely easy to exploit. Unless you _really_ are actively involved and _know_ your contacts and know what the hell you are doing, you stand a very high chance of hurting instead of helping -- and, let's face it, with no risk of danger sitting at a computer terminal in the U.S. and blind faith that everything you do is helping the cause, considering the conflict, you could end up contributing to people being killed.
BE CAREFUL.
May I still be allowed to say that "Twitter is almost, usually, completely useless?"
At the very least I'd like to be allowed to still throw my shoes at the TV every time I hear some new show/news report based on it.