Iran’s Men Don Dresses to Support Viral Campaign
Iranian men are taking cross-dressing selfies for an online movement protesting a sexist punishment for criminals in Kurdistan. Our own Solmaz Sharif covers a powerful (and fun) digital protest that has sprung up in response to a judge's offensive decision, a violent police crackdown, and an underlying gender bias.
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From Flickr user justicentric
Country Spotlight: Egypt
In Egypt, the strategic use of social media platforms has brought new life to campaigns bringing attention to social and political issues. How are platforms like Facebook and blogs amplifying activists' voices and mobilizing Egyptians to the streets? We've put together an update on protest campaigns in the country.
After Orange: A Backslide in Ukraine?
Six years after the Orange Revolution negated fraudulent elections and changed the balance of power in Kiev, are we seeing a rollback to autocracy in Ukraine? Recent attacks on press freedoms and today’s court ruling transferring power away from parliament and toward the presidency suggest that this might be the case.
Where’s the Orange Revolution now?
From Flickr user digital.democracy
Maptivism: Mapping Information for Advocacy and Activism
What's maptivism? By mapping information and data online you can better communicate with an audience, helping them to visualize and become advocates for an issue.
How have different mapping tools been used around the world to document events and share information, and what are the most popular mapping tools? Learn about different types of mapping for advocacy and activism.
Digital Activism Daily: Beating a Straw Man to Death
- You could read Malcolm Gladwell’s piece in the New Yorker, “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will not be Tweeted.” You could also read the spate of responses that it elicited, where the general consensus seems to be that, while Gladwell’s initial points about the weaknesses of 21st century activism are well taken, he:
- Overlooks the full range of recent case studies (think: the 2008 presidential campaign in the United States)
- Focuses too much on the tools, assuming that they dictate behavior
- Assumes that networked activism is always about low risks and weak ties, when it's actually more complicated that that (especially when you can get arrested in some countries for starting a facebook group)
- (Similarly) pretty much declares that a hierarchical organization is always more effective for making actions happen than decentralized and networked one -- when the reality is also more of a gray area
The Gauravonomics blog has a good round up of responses to the piece.
- Launch of U-Shahid project to crowdsource citizen reports during the upcoming November parliamentary elections in Egypt using Ushahidi.
- CrowdVoice, the newest project by Esra'a al Shafei and her colleagues at Mideast Youth, is taking donations.
- It's no longer just the Gulf States looking to get unhibited access to peoples' encrypted communications on platforms like Blackberry and Skype -- the U.S. has now joined the fray.
Iranian “Blogfather” Sentenced to 19 Years in Prison
Iranian/Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, imprisoned since 2008, has been sentenced to 19 1/2 years in prison. This is the harshest punishment that an Iranian blogger has ever received.
Supporters Rally in Support of Imprisoned Egyptian Blogger
Kareem Amer, an Egyptian blogger who was imprisoned on November 6, 2006, would have completed his 4 year prison term in November of this year. The Free Kareem campaign, which has been organizing rallies and letter campaigns for four years in an attempt to secure his release, have reasons to believe that Kareem may not be released on this date. They also fear that he might be tortured nearing the date of his release.
Digital Activism Daily: New Tricks in Egypt?
The digital activism daily is a round up of interesting stories related to technology, protest, activism and social entrepreneurship. Want to point something out? Send a note to tips@movements.org or Tweet it to @aym.
- Did Egyptian protesters succesfully evade government censors by coding all of their posts with #Oraby2010 on Twitter? It doesn't seem as if it would've taken much time for an authority to clue into the hashtag that demonstrators were using to organize one another-- and it's not like the anti-Mubarak protesters avoided getting beaten up- but in what ways, to what extent, and for how long, did the #Oraby2010 tactic work? We're all ears.
- Google’s new Transparency Report tools reveal where Google is blocked or governments are requesting takedowns.
- The Internet at Liberty 2010 conference just ended. Check out Jillian York for some good liveblogging if you want to catch up on a few of the panels.
- Green Movement activists in Iran have taken to rooftops to peacefully protest government attempts to intimidate the opposition’s leaders.
- This spreadsheet from MobileActive on mobile security tools is a great resource to check out.
- Global CrisisCamp Day this Saturday! Are you participating? Sign Up today!
- Fahad Desmukh writes about the internet in Bahrain
- What digital traces do we leave behind? Tactical Tech launches a series with ONO Robot exploring the issues around digital security, online privacy, and access to information.
Repeat After Me: Technology Is Agnostic
The last day of the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting kicked off with two technology-oriented panels that, while they didn't break any ground, are worth highlighting.
Why? Because, from Dorsey (Twitter) to Okolloh (Ushahidi) to John Chambers (Cisco Systems), everyone agreed on one point in particular: emerging technologies aren't powerful by them selves, but rather must be continually shaped and molded by product developers, users, and researchers.
Dispatch From UN Week: Mashable’s Social Media Social Good Summit
The goal of this week's inaugural Social Good Summit, brought to you by the social media blog Mashable, was to "bring together today’s most inspirational and promising leaders [to discuss] effective ways in which new media can help address the world’s challenges." The event was held during the week of the UN General Assembly and the Clinton Global Initiative and focused specifically on how social media can be used to achieve the Millenium Development Goals, or MDGs.
I spent the day at the summit on Monday and heard from some of these leaders. Here are some highlights from the event:
From Flickr user Wild_atHeart
The Latest On Protests in Egypt
We've gathered the latest news about today's protests held in the cities of Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt. The demonstrations were organized by a number of pro-democracy and opposition groups, and many Egyptians used Twitter to share information from the ground.
Suicide or Murder in Europe’s Last Dictatorship?
In Belarus, the late 1990s and early 2000s were an era of disappearances. As President Alexander Lukashenka ruthlessly consolidated power, countless journalists, businessmen, politicians, and activists died under mysterious circumstances or simply vanished. The recent death of journalist and vocal critic of the Lukashenka government, Aleh Byabenin, has left money wondering if the government has returned to its old tactics.
Will activists secure a transparent, international investigation into Byabenin's death? Or, with an impending election, will the authorities make an extra effort to quash any protest around the incident?
