Indonesian Atheist Posts ‘God Doesn’t Exist’ on Facebook, Faces Potential Jailtime
An Indonesian atheist is facing jail time for posting the phrase “God doesn’t exist” on his Facebook page. The man, who is only being identified as Alexander, arrived for work at a government office on Wednesday, and was attacked by a group of people upset by his beliefs.
Twitter’s New Persian Service Excites Iranians
Twitter had a major role during Iran’s uprising after the disputed election on June 2009.
Twitter announced its plan to expand their right-to-left language translation service to include more languages: Arabic, Farsi/Persian, Hebrew and Urdu. Persian is Iran’s official language and is also spoken in Afghanistan.
On their blog, Twitter announced this news on January 25: “Beginning today, right-to-left languages are now available for volunteers to translate in the Twitter Translation Center, starting with Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu.
Syrian Activists Circumvent Regime Censorship
Despite the Syrian regime’s relentless crusade to ban activists from sending and receiving information in their country, dissidents have found a number of ways to stay connected. Here is a brief overview of three methods they use.
1) Proxy servers:
Dima, a young Syrian activist from Damascus, told Movements.org,“most of the websites that are important to us are banned. All of the local media outlets that oppose the regime cannot be accessed from Syria."
For example, local websites, like SHRIL (Syrian Human Rights Information Link) that is run by famed Syrian activist Razan Zaitouneh, are blocked in Syria. SHRIL contains links to hundreds of websites that are currently banned, some of which were blocked years before the beginning of the revolution in Syria.
All4Syria is a website run by Syrian intellectual Ayman Abdel Nour. The regime banned his website in 2004 because it discusses issues considered taboo. To read more, click here.
Iranian Officials’ Phobia of Grouponing
The Internet has become the Iranian government’s worst nightmare, whether it used to organize a gathering (click here to read more about the Iranian teenagers who were arrested for participating in a water gun fight), post one’s thoughts on a blog or another form of social media, or simply to try to save some money.
Title: Online Activists Chide Saudi Grand Mufti
Saudi Grand Mufti Abdul-Aziz bin Abdullah Al-Sheik criticized women vendors for selling goods in public places when he gave his sermon during the Jumma prayer earlier this month, stating that this behavior would result in “a tremendous moral crisis”. This statement follows July’s mandate from Saudi Arabia’s Labor Ministry directing stores that sell lingerie and cosmetics to replace salesmen with women.
To view the rest of this artice, click here.
How to get past Internet filtering (if you aren’t concerned about being detected or monitored)
There are a number of techniques to get past Internet filtering. If your aim is simply to reach pages or services on the Internet that are blocked from your location, and you are not concerned whether other people can detect and monitor your circumvention, these techniques may be all you need:
HTTPS
using alternative domain names or URLs to reach blocked content
using third-party Web sites to reach blocked content
using e-mail gateways to retrieve blocked Web pages over e-mail.
How to add context to your YouTube videos for maximum impact
Many people argue that for activists YouTube is actually the most powerful social network. YouTube allows activists and citizen journalists in countries without free media to capture events happening on the ground and share them with the rest of the world. By recording (or streaming) human rights abuses, violence against peacful protestors, or even non violent demonstrations activists can harness the power of video to gain support for their causes and movements.
CASE STUDY: The PInk Chaddi Campaign
In late January 2009, a group of 40 activists from right-wing Hindu group Sri Ram Sena attacked women and men hanging out in a pub in the Indian city of Mangalore. They were upset with the women for engaging in behavior they found immoral, claiming that the girls were disrepecting traditional Indian values. Video of the event went viral across India, sparking outrage among many at the attack on innocent women.
Pramod Muthalik, the group’s founder, praised the attack, stating, “Whoever has done this has done a good job. Girls going to pubs is not acceptable. So, whatever the Sena members did was right. You are highlighting this small incident to malign the BJP government in the state.”
Following the attack, the Sri Ram Sena announced plans to target couples out celebrating Valentines Day, threatening to forcibly marry off unmarried couples seen in public places.
How could women and men react to this right-wing group attempts at “moral policing” and take a stand before future attacks?
Egyptian Blogger on Egypt’s Future
Amidst Egyptian elections, CyberDissidents.org caught up with Dalia Ziada, a young Egyptian blogger, activist and parliamentary candidate in the El-Adl (Justice) Party. Ranked third in a recent survey, the Justice Party is mostly comprised of young activists who participated in the revolution, Dalia among them, and places women in advanced positions on their party lists. Dalia says her party is trying to find the balance between the extremists, Islamists, and the former members of Mubarak’s National Democratic Party. As a young woman activist, Dalia promotes liberal rights and women’s rights in Egypt, believing that an Egyptian can be both liberal-minded and a pious Muslim.
CD: During the Egyptian revolution, you were saying that everyone likes the military. Do you think that has changed?
DZ: No, the majority of people still like the military, but people in Tahrir Square are different. On TV recently, I watched a crowd of people saying, “We still want to have the military in power, even if we have a civilian leader. We still want the military.”
CD: Why?
DZ: They like the military. They feel safer with the military. Also, don’t forget the Israel issue. People feel like there is some kind of foreign enemy, and the only way to protect themselves from this enemy....to read the rest, click here.
How to get an SMS short code
Short codes are shorter versions of telephone numbers that provide increased functionality with SMS. They typically provide automated services to people who text them. One advantage of short codes is that organizations can charge special rates for texting to a short code. For example, the American Red Cross charges users five dollars to text “GIVE” to 24357, which is an extremely convenient donation method for supporters. Short codes can also be free to text to, which is used to encourage interaction between and organization and the community. For example, an organization can mass message members and ask for a vote on a decision. Community members can text their votes for free, allowing an organization to easily get feedback from supporters.
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