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Zimbabwe Makes Arrest Over Facebook Comment
inasity_rules writes "It seems using Facebook/Twitter to try overthrowing a corrupt government can backfire a bit, especially if they are expecting it. In Zimbabwe your Facebook posts can get you arrested. Probably for anything up to and including treason."
In the Facebook age, dissidents have Prime Ministers arrested. I think this PM should be careful.
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In Zimbabwe anything can get you arrested, heck nothing can too. Zimbabwe does not exactly have what we call the rule of law.
etc, etc, etc... "that the government of the Facebook, by the Facebook, for the Facebook, shall not perish from the earth."
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
What, they still need an excuse to arrest you in Zimbabwe?
Go make some crazy-ass threats to some public figure on your facebook and see what happens. Facebook posts are no different than any other forum for speech - if you post shit that's illegal in your country, they can arrest you.
I think that publicly trying to overthrow your government might have consequences, whatever the forum.
Zimbabwe government 'Liked This!'
I'm pretty sure you can be arrested in America as well for posting illegal things on your Facebook page. Try posting a threat to the President of the United States on your Facebook page and you'll probably get arrested in the USA.
There's nothing sacred about Facebook. Even high school students have gotten into trouble for Facebook postings about school staff.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
Isn't there any way of defacing the PM's facebook page anonymously?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
in communist china we facebook you!
to throw off tyranny and start a new, better society.
he wound up creating just about the poorest country on the planet, causing millions to migrate so that they could find food to eat, while his political opponents are brutally oppressed.
remember that while you are chanting 'free libya'
Aside from threatening to harm people, you can actually say a lot in the US that you can't in other countries. Heck, John Galliano wouldn't have been charged with a thing for all the crazy pro nazi and anti semetic things he said but he had to say them in France where it's illegal. Heck most Libertarians say worst things about taking down the government and rioting then what this Zimbabwe guy did.
We're full of false equivalence here today, aren't we?
There was no direct threat to Mugabe. There was a mention of an "egypt" happening to Zimbabwe. If you posted the exact same thing on your facebook in the US and just substituted, you'd not raise a single eyebrow.
Free Republic is full of people like this. When is the last time a freeper was arrested for what he said?
Never. Because political speech is the most protected speech in the US.
Posting a valid, direct, threat to assassinate Obama *will* get you arrested, but that's not political speech. That's conspiracy to commit murder.
>comparing high school hijinks to political speech
Trollercoaster.jpg.
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BMO
He had to give way on a few things in the end and the former opposition is running a chunk of his government. What you guys STILL haven't woken up to despite all the bloodshed elsewhere, it that Mugabe is not yet entirely the sort of monster running half a dozen other places in Africa where it was not politically expedient to criticise them.
He'll probably lose more and more support from his government and police until he is gone. All those others in Libya etc are not being moved without a lot of bloodshed.
if the govenment wants you arrested they don't actually need a reason.
Where are the fools who always pop up under a story like this to explain to us, with great indignation, why it is no better in the West, that the West does the same thing? Whenever China, Iran, North Korea, Egypt, Zimbabwe, etc., does anything vile with human rights, I need the solace of my false equivalency fools who are always there to tell me why in the West it is exactly the same, and no better.
Of course, these brave false equivalency fools are always so critical of the West... from within the West. What I want to see is their "bravery" and lazy iconoclasm, from within another country. Let's see how brave they are to post criticism of China, from within China, to post criticism of Iran, from within Iran, of Zimbabwe, from within Zimbabwe.
Any takers?
(crickets)
Don't seem so brave and counterculture now, do they? And maybe that means more about the true relationship between your rights and freedoms in the West versus those in countries that genuinely grant you no rights to expression or other simple aspects of human dignity, whatsoever.
The West does plenty wrong, and the West can improve, of course. But if you understand how good you have it RELATIVELY SPEAKING (never mind that we can do better), only then you can begin to say something intelligent about the world you live in. But if you think you are saying something intelligent by equating human rights in the West versus Zimbabwe, or China, or Iran, you're just announcing how sheltered and ignorant you are.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I'm sure glad things like that don't happen here in the West!
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2023368&cid=35386174
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2023368&cid=35385296
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2023368&cid=35385192
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2023368&cid=35385174
so that's four false equivalency fools. so far
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
wow.
you accuse me of a lot of things, with no evidence.
it is very easy for rich kids with nice jobs to scream free libya on the internet.
they are not the ones who will have to go die to make it happen.
how, pray tell, do you suggest someone with no power "work within the legal structure" of zimbabwe to challenge a despot with all the power, and who respects no legal structure?
please tell me you are joking and that you are not a complete dimwit
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The West has done many abuses, and has many problems. But if you honestly think the abuses of the West compares to the status of human rights in Zimbabwe, or China, or Iran... you're not naive, you're not sheltered, you're not clueless. You're low IQ. I mean you genuinely lack certain mental abilities of compare and contrast that can only indicate that you're just not a very intelligent person. I'm not blindly insulting you. I'm making a fair, objective appraisal of your cognitive abilities based on your demonstrated attempts to make qualitative comparisons. I'm being completely sincere: you're just not a bright person.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Social networking and blogging tools and sites were strong contributors to the organizatin of the Tunisan and Egyptian revolutions - to the point that the Egyptian revolution might be characterized as a revolution run by "flash mob" events. With these tools conspiracies could grow so fast they stayed far ahead of the governments' efforts to identify, infiltrate, and shut them down.
But the FACT of the revolutions' success has created a "Schelling Point" (AKA "focus point") - a game theoretical situation when the participants, with no direct communication, know that "The time is now and everybody else knows it too.".
Once you have a Schelling Point, communication is not so necessary. So prosecuting Facebook posters will be too little, too late. So will shutting off Internet access and phone service in your country.
Eventually governments may be able to develop new methods to head off and suppress popular uprisings. But for now it's the people who have the upper hand.
To the dictators of the world I say: Welcome to "The Singularity". B-) )
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
You don't know what Libertarian means do you? No... wait. Don't answer that. I can't handle the derp today.
he knows about it
If, for example, you were to speak in less than glowing terms about JEWS (even using the word "Jew" is apparently a 'crime' nowadays, just search for "Jew" on Google and read their sickening 'apology' about the results that might come up if you don't use the magic word "Jewish"...) you would definitely be sacked from your job, and most likely sent to prison.
So now do you know who runs your country, against the will of the people? The eternal Jew.
Try it - at your next 'diversity awareness' course at your place of work, stand up and say "Jew", and watch people's reactions- you would probably be sacked on the spot.