Twitter Revolution In Tehran, Will Spore Gov Ban It On GE?
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http://kentridgecommon.com/?p=4248
The Kent Ridge Common, 17 Jun 2009, Christopher Ong
Twitter Revolution in Tehran
When a US State Department Official made a request to the social networking site Twitter to delay its scheduled maintenance so that the world could be kept abreast of the developments in the aftermath of the Iranian elections, the role of new technology in potentially changing the course of history in Tehran cannot be anymore doubted.
Who would have ever thought that an internet service only a couple of years old that invites users to blog on the one premise – “What are you doing?” could have invited such broad ramifications?
Certainly not Ahmadinejad.
In the aftermath of the Iranian elections whereby news channels and sites like the CNN and the BBC are blocked, hundreds upon thousands of Iranians are joining the Twitter revolution in posting minute by minute photos, updates and links to the opposition protests in Iran.
International coverage of the opposition rallies are not allowed without explicit approval, and reporters from international news agencies are barred from leaving their hotel rooms or offices to discuss this event.
So far, only the Iranian-run state television have been offered unbridled access to the aftermath, and on Tuesday showed a pro-Ahmadinejad rally where thousands of his supporters crowded central Tehran.
Still, this has not stopped ordinary Iranians who have been generally tech-savvy enough to use proxy-sites and other means to bypass the blockade of access to online information. And the role of a new technology not even existing 5 years ago in Twitter as an alternative medium of information is becoming crucial.
“Basij militia are constantly vandilizing the city and state tv is constantly blaming it on Mousavi supporters!!” wrote one Twitterfeed, IranRiggedElect. “Keep your doors open,” wrote another, “so people can escape from the riot police.”
Certain TwitterFeeds boasts of 25 million connections within Iran and another 8 million outside. Indeed, a revolution is a revolution in its sole being as unstoppable. And nothing at this point seems capable of stopping the Twitter revolution.
“If we ever succeed then the power goes to the people for fact & not as a formality,” said NetRevolution. “this is the first Net Revolution.”
Will Singapore ban Twitter-feeds at the next general elections?
At the last general elections, political podcasts and videocasts were banned. Dr Lee Boon Yang, an interview with AsiaMedia, views these new internet mediums as a different kettle of fish, because they have a “greater impact to influence, due to the nature of the medium.”
Calling for political debates to remain “serious”, he suggested that individuals who participate in it must take “responsibility” and “cannot remain anonymous.”
Indeed, there is no certainty a new technology such as Twitter — that may prove to be crucial source of alternative information away from the mainstream media — will not be blocked from coverage of the next general elections. Some Twitterfeeds are anonymous, with one even recently masquerading as the Official Twitter Feed of North Korea.
But the next generation of Singaporeans who are increasingly becoming better-educated are thirsting for alternative sources of information and news, as evinced in the high amount of readers that flocked to online socio-political sites during the events of the recent AWARE saga.
Will the Twitter revolution hit us during the General Election?
For all you know, Twitter may only be visited at the Jurong Bird Park.
Discuss: Will Twitter or other forms of new technology play a critical role in shaping the next general elections? What would your reactions be if Twitter or other forms of new technology were banned?
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Given the significant role played by the new media in some countries' elections, namely Malaysia and US, and the paranoid mentality of the PAP, the ruling party would most probably ban it.
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Do not underestimate the will to survive. This got nothing to do with Twitter....This has everything to do with a regime that sat too comfortable at the top and ignore what happen at the ground level. In any case the supreme council put themselve in that position.
China govt go to far extense to acquire block software to perch out all negative news about China. Govt try to insulate their citizens from any negative issue about their own govt are doom to fail.
These days if you block internet it is a given that you will force netcitizen to go underground and revolution. Socially you further isolate the net citizens. It is stupid to block any access or communication......Learn from Obama, use the net on how to get your message across rather than ban it.
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wtf for?
goodness.. your paranoia is amazing..
i would like to introduce you to andyboy.. both of you would make a swell couple
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Originally posted by the Bear:
wtf for?
goodness.. your paranoia is amazing..
i would like to introduce you to andyboy.. both of you would make a swell couple
You mean AndrewPKYap, the armchair conspiracy theorist? -
Originally posted by the Bear:
wtf for?
goodness.. your paranoia is amazing..
i would like to introduce you to andyboy.. both of you would make a swell couple
it is not the political paranoia.....Twitter 1, Censors 0: Why it's still working
Posted: Thursday, June 18 2009 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Why does Twitter work inside Iran even after other Internet services have been disrupted? The key feature enabling it to evade government censorship, some observers say, is something that might otherwise be considered Twitter's Achilles’ heel.
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Is not Paranoia..........Neda. A case for changing the way news are reporting. Its call civilian reporting.
NPR.org, "June 22, 2009 · The video was so graphic that CNN was compelled to put up a rare black-screen warning before showing it. The images of a young woman bleeding to death on a street in Tehran were haunting and, indeed, as disturbing as the network warned.
.................................................
Forget the political message it sends about what's going on in Iran. The broadcast of the dying moments of a woman called Neda, who reportedly had been shot during anti-government protests, also represents an important moment for media and for the technology that delivers what we call news today.
We might flinch, but we are now willing to watch someone die on television. For real. Not just as a work of dramatic fiction.
Whether or not the networks' standards are loosening, it is clear they are feeling pressure from the unfiltered, digitally viral world of the Internet.
It has taken decades, and the advent of new technology, for this situation to evolve. After all, it took days for stills from the Zapruder film showing the assassination of President Kennedy to be made public in Life magazine. (It was years later before the film itself was shown.) Footage on nightly news reports from Vietnam was delayed for several hours or days while the film was flown back for later broadcast. Satellite video phones brought us the Iraq war in real time, but the images were still filtered or delayed by the networks.
We are now on the cusp of live, unfiltered video coverage from citizen journalists around the world. Services like Qik.com allow us to stream video live from our cell phones. It's only a matter of time before we'll see HD-quality video transmitted live wherever cell phone coverage is available. And broadband wireless will spread that capability far and wide.
So where does that leave us? Thanks to readers' and viewers' changing habits and competition from the Internet, the gatekeeping roles of print and broadcast journalism have been redefined. They are no longer the sole arbiters of what's proper for the masses to read, see and hear.
That unforgettable video showing the death of a young Iranian woman is only the latest evidence of that.
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DESPOTS KILL THEIR OWN PEOPLE RATHER THAN STEP DOWN FOR THEIR MISTAKES WHEN PEOPLE PROTEST THEIR DISHONORABLE BEHAVIOR...
REMEMBER THAT!!!
NEVER FORGET WE HAVE A CURSED DESPOT RIGHT HERE AND WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE....
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Originally posted by AndrewPKYap:
DESPOTS KILL THEIR OWN PEOPLE RATHER THAN STEP DOWN FOR THEIR MISTAKES WHEN PEOPLE PROTEST THEIR DISHONORABLE BEHAVIOR...
REMEMBER THAT!!!
NEVER FORGET WE HAVE A CURSED DESPOT RIGHT HERE AND WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE....
AndrewPKYAP, how many people did the regime kill in Singapore? Can you provide some proof? -
Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:
AndrewPKYAP, how people did the regime kill in Singapore? Can you provide some proof?He meant despots in general will do such thing lah. Not just refering to PAP.
But we havn't really gone through this kind of protests for good many years... hard to say it won't happen tho.
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Originally posted by jojobeach:
He meant despots in general will do such thing lah. Not just refering to PAP.
But we havn't really gone through this kind of protests for good many years... hard to say it won't happen tho.
What protest? Singaporean will generally run riot due to influx of so many FTs. -
Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:
What protest? Singaporean will generally run riot due to influx of so many FTs.
Frankly i think the FTs would be leading the protests soon, way things are going. -
Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:
AndrewPKYAP, how many people did the regime kill in Singapore? Can you provide some proof?
How many people did the regime kill in Singapore ?The LKY regime has "killed" quite a few lives in the 52 year history.
The lives destroyed included
Lim Chin Siong, secretary-general, Barisan Sosialis
S. Woodhull, vice-chairman, Barisan Sosialis
Fong Swee Suan, secretary-general SATU and executive committee member, Barisan Sosialis
James Puthucheary
Dominic Puthucheary, committee member SATU and Barisan Sosialis, vice-president Singapore General Employees' Union
Said Zahari, former editor of Utusan Melayu
Tan Teck Wah, president of Singapore General Employees' Union, vice-president, SATU
A. Wahab Shah, chairman, Party Rakyat
Lim Hock Siew
Poh Soo Kai
The above list of names are the better known ones from a list of 111 who were arrested in Operation Cold Store in February 1963 - no one knows what has happened to the 111 arrested for their political activism in opposing the PAP.
New information from the archives from the Colonial Office revealed nothing about those whom LKY and the PAP accused of having links to the Malayan Communist Party.
Chia Thye Poh was another life destroyed by LKY false accusation that he was a Communist - imprisoned in solitary confinement for 32 years.
Then there was the persecution of Tan Liang Hong after he stood as a Cheng San candidate against the PAP in the hotly contested election of 1998.
So were the lives of younger Singaporeans such as Tan Wah Piow who was the president of the University of Singapore Students' Union, - in "The case of Public Prosecutor v. Tan Wah Piow (1975) " - in which Tan confronted Phey Yew Kok - a PAP MP and secretary-general of PIEU who later fled Singapore to escape corruption charges.
No efforts have been made by the PAP Government to arrest Phey, who remained at large till this day - even as thousands of dollars were spent to track Francis Seow's movement in the USA, simply to disgrace him.
Then there was M. Ravi from the SDP who was sent by the PAP Government to the Institute of Mental Health in August 2008.
In a Singapore ISD Operation Spectrum 21 May 1987 saw 22 young Roman Catholics church and social activists and professionals detained without trial.
All being arrested under false charges of being Marxist Conspirators in the Catholic Church to subvert Singapore and over-throw the PAP Govenment.
Amongst those caught in LKY's web was a very capable lawyer - Miss Teo Soh Lung - whose social concerns and activist involvement in churchl work got her into trouble. Her troubles came after she represented the Law Society and supported JBJ in confronting LKY in open court.
It was one of the darkest day in Singapore's political development.
Do people have to physically die first to make a political point, or is it enough to have their political souls killed ?
In her own words (Part 1) - Teo Soh Lung
In her own words (Part 2) - Teo Soh Lung
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A tale of 2 reactions.....
Obama's Speech
"In 2009 no iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to the peaceful pursuit of justice"
In China.
BEIJING, June 23 (Reuters) - China will not revoke its controversial plan requiring all new personal computers to be sold with "Green Dam" Internet filtering software from July 1, an official newspaper reported on Tuesday.
In Iran
Iran is employing a technology called "deep packet inspection" where they grab Internet traffic at key points and examine the type of traffic, connections. Looking at Internet packets like this is equivalent to listening in a someone's conversations, only Iran's government can stop it or alter it if they wish to spread disinformation, or in their case fear and terror of governmental violence.
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Just get rid of the despots and Singaporeans will not need to ask such stupid questions.
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well i think it will take decades to be where minorities are protected.
this news came out from China and it was internet that exposed how minority could easily be exploited. Keep internet Free.
Unlikely heroes for Chinese blogosphere
Posted: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 3:21 PM
Filed Under: Beijing, China -
DESPOTS KILLING THEIR OWN CITIZEN, ALWAYS REJECT DESPOTS!!!! Gerrymandering, persecuting opposition and activists, public money grabbing...
Do not watch if you are squeamish
Neda Agha Soltan Iranian girl shot dead on Tehran street, live camera recording
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Came across this news from npr.org interesting perspective on the region and reaction. enjoy the article......
Iranian Election Divides Arabs, Their Leaders
June 25, 2009 · Around the Arab world, reactions to the Iranian election have ranged from street demonstrations to Internet protests. But Arab leaders, many of whom are wary of the regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have either remained silent or embraced his re-election as legitimate.
The gap between the public and their leaders in the tightly controlled, economically powerful Persian Gulf states has rarely been this clear. In the wake of the Iranian vote, as government repression of street demonstrations turned violent, the United Arab Emirates' foreign minister spoke out, as did his counterpart in Bahrain.
Both echoed the regime in Tehran, railing against what they called "foreign interference" in Iranian affairs. The Emirati minister added that no country wants to be exposed to instability.
Ordinary Arabs Show Support For Reformers
At the street level, meanwhile, the reaction was much more supportive of the demonstrators seeking a new election. In Dubai, where property prices are generally the first topic of conversation, demonstrators — many of them Iranian expatriates — took to the streets outside mosques and the Iranian Consulate in a rare display of sustained public protest.
When the demonstrations showed no signs of evaporating after several days, the police were called in to break them up. Even so, on a recent night, hundreds of people showed up for a silent candlelight vigil featuring a memorial to a young Iranian woman whose apparent shooting death in Tehran had been captured on video.
Cautious Reaction Of Arab Leaders Not Surprising
Abbas, an Iranian businessman who asked that his last name not be used for fear of retribution against family members in Iran, says the attacks on civilians in the streets dismayed him. He has no doubt that the election should be annulled and redone. But he also admits that he is not surprised by the cautious reactions among Arab leaders.
"I think the rulers of the countries around us are wise to keep quiet until they know what happens, because it is either Mr. Ahmadinejad or the reformists who [will] come to power. They are right in being silent until this is known," he says.
In several Arab countries, the state-run or pro-government press has buried stories about the unrest in Iran, preferring to lead with articles about swine flu or the latest wrinkle in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On the Internet, activists engaged in lengthy debates over whether the Iranian protesters were the descendants of the 1979 revolution or pretenders in designer jeans.
In Cairo, Mahmoud Salem, who blogs under the name "Sandmonkey," says some officials seem worried that political unrest could spread to Egypt, but he thinks the Egyptian leadership would love to see the Iranian regime fall.
"Our government is loving this. Our government hopes Iran falls down. Because no Iran, no Hezbollah and no Hamas. Hamas has to toe the line. Egypt is back in the driving seat in the region," he says.
He claps his hands together as if to say, "That's it, problem solved."
But of course it's not that simple, he adds, noting that one of the biggest beneficiaries of regime change in Iran would be Israel, and that's an outcome that would satisfy no Arab leader.
Opportunity May Be Slipping Away
In the United Arab Emirates, Iranian expatriates such as Abbas scan the Internet for the latest theories on how Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, might be forced from power. Some are excited by a report on the Al Arabiya channel that former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani might convene the Assembly of Experts, a clerical governing body, for a vote to replace Khamenei with a committee of ayatollahs, some of whom might favor redoing the elections.
But Abbas worries that time is not on the reformers' side.
"I think this is the only possibility, the only chance Iranians have to create some change. If they fail to do it this time, they might really have to shelve it for a long time," he says.
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They will just selectively ban certain cellphone numbers,certain web access to certain people.
I might be thrown into IMH on the 30th June 2009 also.
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To atobe:
how do you know that those names you put there are not bad people who if we do not suppress them they will bring more havoc to the societies...
Look at hitler... the failure to discover evil and locked them has resulted him in waging wars based on races superiority and killed tens of millions of people...
Those name you put there...how you prove that they are not dangerous people or stupid people.
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Look at Lee kwan yew,
with him in power, has he done stupid things like hitler and go around killing people and fighting wars...
has lee kwan yew brought singapore from no resources country to developed country in world... yes
people who called lee kwan yew despots should be ashamed of feeding on the contribution he has made for us.. Hypocrities..
in hongkong, you can enjoy free acid splash onto your face by some gangster or mad man.
in indonesia, there are many assasins available to kill the neighbours you dislike and people who are your enemys because they are so poor
in Iran, you get out of car because its too stuffy can also be killed between a conflict of protester and police...
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Originally posted by AndrewPKYap:
DESPOTS KILLING THEIR OWN CITIZEN, ALWAYS REJECT DESPOTS!!!! Gerrymandering, persecuting opposition and activists, public money grabbing...
Do not watch if you are squeamish
Neda Agha Soltan Iranian girl shot dead on Tehran street, live camera recording
i have watched it.. disgusting indeed cos i long time never saw such deaths film... seriously dun feel like watching it again..
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that is why singapore is the best country in the world... they are so correct to ban mass protest and make mass gathering illegal...
This only works if the govt leaders are clean and uncorrupted which in singapore , is really true...
Look at all the other countries... govt is corrupted... mass protesting is allowed... their country is so messy and this things bring so much problem ...innocents people get killed, property can destroyed...
that is the reason why singapore can be no 1 in many areas... because the other countries always in confused internal state...
many countries govt are really corked up.. unlike our singapore...
but singapore govt is still not good enough yet.. they still have many rooms for improvements from the best government possible.
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What are they afraid of ?
BEIJING - Out of fear that history might repeat itself, the authoritarian governments of China, Cuba and Burma have been selectively censoring the news this month of Iranian crowds braving government militias on the streets of Tehran to demand democratic reforms