New YouTube ‘How-to’ Playlists: Circumvention and Staying Safe Online
From Syrian Sit-Ins on YouTube, to the worldwide Occupy movement, and the continued events following the transformative Arab Spring, web censorship rises as a prominent issue and concern for current social movements around the world. To share information between organizers and supporters through communication technologies has become, in some countries, risky and intensely challenging. A notable option to accessing blocked information and communicating securely is circumvention technology. Through the plethora of technologies available, digital activists of various movements and issues can both share their information with the world and mobilize within their country for change.
Serving Movements.org’s mission to connect and support digital activists, the following playlists on our YouTube channel (youtube.com/youthmovements) collect guides and tips about some known and useful circumvention technologies. Both provide detailed walkthroughs and explanations on the programs, software, and strategies activists can use in facing censorship and blocked internet traffic. With the How-To guide library on this site, the guides in “Stay Safe” and “Access Blocked Information” categories served as a content base for accumulating videos. YouTube uploads describing the programs and strategies corresponding to the How-To guides were then pooled into these two playlists.
The first playlist, “Circumvention Tools,” features websites, methods, and programs to help activists access blocked sites and communication platforms. The first few videos detail circumventing an internet proxy, followed by videos outlining software and programs that can bypass censored sites. The second playlist, “Staying Safe on the Internet,” provides information on applications, software, and advice to safeguard against unwanted surveillance and intrusion by protecting and encrypting communication across the internet and airwaves. The opening videos cover applications and platforms that can help activists communicate securely and anonymously. After that, the videos then outline various tips to help secure communication platforms activists may already be using, like Gmail, Facebook, and mobile communication. Ending the playlist are walkthroughs of software tools, including Tor, Hotspot Shield, and TrueCrypt, that help protect privacy online and information stored on computers offline.
These playlists serve as a base of information about circumvention and proxy technology to help activists fight pushback against their social mobilization efforts. Visit the How-To database on this site for more information on the various strategies, software, and programs listed in these playlists. As advocacy for social change remains marginalized in countries around the world, these technologies allow digital activists to bypass interference and build capacity for their causes.
