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Belarus Cracks Down On VKontakte
decora writes "On several recent Wednesdays, Russian language social networking site Vkontakte has been blocked by the government of Belarus. The blocks are partly to prevent the organization of 'Silent Protests,' in which citizens gather in city squares, and clap in protest against president Alexander Lukashenko. The government has designated the people involved as "social network revolutionaries" and charged many with disorderly conduct. One VKontakte user, Mikhail Karatkevich, is to be put on trial August 10 for 'organizing a mass rally' after he posted a meeting notice onto his page. According to Charter 97, the regime has even set up fake proxy servers to capture the unwitting; Tor is the suggested solution."
When internet access becomes a human right, the action of censorship will become illegal
Linux has bugs. Windows has holes. I am +10/11GMT.
I, too, like silent protests. I like them so much, I applaud when I show up to one.
Now who do you think would also set up a few Tor servers to listen in?
Karma: none (due to not believing in reincarnation)
I wonder if dictators are getting scared with the mass amounts of revolutions everywhere. It is like revolution fever! It is just simply sad about how many people are losing their lives in these. It just goes to show you how corrupt the governments are when people are getting killed for non violent protests.
God spoke to me
authoritarian governments to track down dissidents. On Thursday, Al Jazeera, broadcast a documentary about how authorities in Bahrain were able to efficiently utilize Facebook to apprehend dissidents.
[quote]
It tells the story of Ayat al Qurmezi, a 20-year-old woman, who first attracted attention from authorities by publicly reading a poem that was critical of Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa and the king.
Her actions, at Pearl Roundabout in Manama, the focal point of the demonstrations, led to a Facebook page calling for her torture and arrest.
Thousands of pro-government supporters flocked to the page, where they goaded each other to post horrific messages such as "I spit on you whore!" and "God willing the security forces smash her mouth and teeth", before demanding the woman's arrest.
The film alleges that this page, and others like it, were allowed to stay live for months instead of being pulled down by moderators.
And as the documentary reports, those wishes were granted when with the help of the Facebook page, Ayat was tracked down and taken into custody.
"What we've heard is that Ayat was tortured and put in the military hospital," Ayat's mother says in the 50-minute film. "I'm going to die from worrying about her."
It was only three months later that Ayat turned up on state TV, to issue an apology that the family says was obtained by force.
The documentary also alleges that Facebook pages which showed photos of known protesters were set-up and left active for weeks, in order for authorities to track them down and arrest them. Each of the pictures was 'checked off' as the protesters were captured.
[/quote]
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/08/04/al-jazeera-documentary-to_n_918188.html
The documentary is titled "Bahrain: Shouting in the dark", and is available to watch here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaTKDMYOBOU .
I just tried it with an open proxy in Belarus (213.184.241.106:3128) and neither vkontakte.ru nor imo.im are blocked...
Silently standing and clapping hands -- that brings passive-aggressive behavior to the whole new level!
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
friday is not wednesday
oops, I thought it would be an ongoing block. And not only friday is not wednesday, but additionally the post on charter97 is wednesday, July 20.
I don't see anybody trying to bring democracy to that country, might it be that there is nothing to take there? No oil and the only gas is coming out of that gas bag of a 'president'? Lukashenko is even more pathetic than the Dear Leader of North Korea, he can't even threaten anybody with anything except his own citizens.
You can't handle the truth.
That's because that's not the right URL for the parody. This is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0 (yes, it's a rickroll) Captcha: Not found
Belarus is a country of about 9.5 million people in Eastern Europe. When the Soviet Union and other communist regimes fell world over during the late 1980s and early 90s, Belarusians did nothing. It is one of the last reminiscences of Soviet-era communism in Europe – when the other Eastern Bloc countries started the transition to democracy, market economy and European integration as soon as the Russian dominance fell, Belarusians chose to remain a closed, authoritarian, communist society. Now, when even Russia has moved towards democracy and continues to have one of the most liberal economies in the world, Belarus' position to remain a poor, backwater communist regime cuts it off ever more severely from normal Western cultural development. In the end, the blame lies on the Belarusian people, who failed to stand up and revolutionize the society in the 1990s.
It is both encouraging and sad to see these few courageous citizens standing up to the oppression, but sadly it feels like they have already missed the rain by two decades. Knowing that these people could end up with long prison sentences and potentially capital punishment, one can only admire their courage. Maybe the Arab Spring will one day reach as far north as Belarus..
Journalists who visit Belarus (and there are very few that are allowed) often come back saying that Belarus is the last Soviet republic. One party system, state controls everything, massive corruption, deteriorating everything, you name it. All the negatives of soviet style communism with none of the positives of actual Marxist ideals. People are often rated as being more free to criticize their government in China, Cuba, or Iran than they are in Belarus.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
What about a radio or TV?
So whats so special about the internet?
Crawl out of your basement and get in touch with the real world pal.
"The internet is special"
No it isn't.
"massive and two-way."
So was CB Radio back in the day. Perhaps that should have been a human right too?
Idiots who claim the internet should be a human right clearly have no idea about real human rights and where and how they're being abused or they wouldn't trivialise them int his way. A human right is not having your water polluted by industrial conglomerates or your land stolen by a corrupt government, its not about some middle class western kid being able to twitter BS to his friends.
The internet may not be a human right but it is unique in that the entry cost to making yourself heard to millions of people is almost nothing. CB Radio limited your message to a few dozen weirdos.
There is nothing in history that compares to the scope and power of the internet.
'Silent Protests,' in which citizens gather in city squares, and clap in protest
I do not think that word means what you think it means...
And this my friends, is precisely what the anonymity on the internet is good. To protect us from the "big brother". During some speech in mid-50's (after Stalin's death), Nikita Khrushchev was criticizing stalinism. Someone from the audience said: "so why haven't you people in the Central Comitee said nothing against the abuses?". "Who said that?!" - yelled Khrushchev. Silence... "Who said that?!" - yelled Khrushchev again. Silence again... "That's why." - concluded Khrushchev.
"CB Radio limited your message to a few dozen weirdos."
You think people who spend all day on farcebook or twitter are normal??
No but those are millions of weirdos :p
There is a lot more to these protests than just the silent demonstrations. The economy collapsed after the crooked 2010 elections. Prices of basic goods saw huge increases. For example, just few weeks ago drivers were blocking busy streets with their cars in protest against 100% increase in fuel prices. More info here
By social traditions and way of living Belarus is very similar to other European countries. They certainly has less dependence on cars as they have greater social equality and developed public transportation. But it is also a flat and boring piece of land.
Lukashenko period may indeed to turn out a blessing in disguise. Senseless privatization has destroyed the beauty of my country, Latvia. When I traveled around Europe, the best country for tourists was Slovenia because they didn't allow total privatization. Their state owned camping places and tourism infrastructure was well organized and efficient. In comparison, Austria was a big disappointment as many nice places were restricted with "Privat".