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PDFThere’s nothing more topical than Democracy, Dissent, and Digital Media in the Arab World. Check out the latest Digital Media Round-Up from Laura Mottaz at the Center for International Media Assistance for essential news, analysis and events, including Hillary Clinton’s call for Internet freedom and reactions to her speech.
Upcoming Events – Washington DC
Covering Egypt: The Media and the Revolution
Monday, February 28, 2011 6:30-8:30PM
National Press Club
Featuring: Riz Khan, Mona Eltahawy, Jeffrey Ghannam, and Natasha Tynes
RSVP: Grace Burton at gburton@icfj.org or 202.349.7606
Summary: In Egypt, all the new tools in the digital media revolution came into play. From Al Jazeera’s deep coverage to citizen journalists posting photos on Facebook, the world received a vivid picture of what was happening on the ground despite the government attempt to shut down the Internet. Al Jazeera’s Riz Khan will discuss how his organization stayed on top of the breaking news. His remarks will be followed by a panel discussion with distinguished experts on the media scene in Egypt.
Democracy, Dissent, and Digital Media in the Arab World
Tuesday, March 1, 2011, 8:30-11:00AM
Rayburn Building, Room B-369
Co-Sponsors: The Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press and The Center for International Media Assistance
Featuring: Mona Eltahawy, Abderrahim Foukara, Amira Maaty, and Michael Nelson
RSVP: CIMA@ned.org
Summary: The latest uprisings in the Arab region have revived the debate about the power of digital media. Mass demonstrations across the region have caused the downfall of two governments and led to major changes in others. From Tunisia to Egypt to Yemen, digital media have played a vital role in mobilizing protesters and transmitting information in real time around the globe. Yet some argue that the influence of these tools has been greatly exaggerated. A panel of experts and activists will examine the strengths and vulnerabilities of digital media in supporting protests across the Arab world.
Upcoming Events – Around the US
Blogs and Bullets: Social Media and the Struggle for Political Change
Thursday, February 24, 2011, 4:15-5:30PM
Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law
Stanford University
Featuring: Clay Shirky, Olivia Ma, Marc Lynch, and Larry Diamond
RSVP: http://liberationtechnology.stanford.edu/events/registration/6497/
Summary: From WikFileaks revelations to claims of “Twitter revolutions,” the role of new media in shaping global political action is one of the most discussed but least understood phenomena confronting scholars, policymakers, advocates, and the private sector. In a continuing effort to find answers to these questions, George Washington University, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the Liberation Technology Program of Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law present a panel to discuss the latest approaches to understanding the role of new media in fostering peace, conflict, and political change.
In the News
Responses to Secretary Clinton’s Net Freedom Speech
Read full text of the Secretary Clinton’s speech here: Internet Rights and Wrongs: Choices and Challenges in a Networked World
U.S. Policy to Address Internet Freedom
Days after Facebook and Twitter added fuel to a revolt in Egypt, the Obama administration on Tuesday announced a new policy on Internet freedom, intended to help people get around barriers in cyberspace while making it harder for autocratic governments to use the same technology to repress dissent. (New York Times, 2/14)
U.S. Department of State’s Internet Freedom Fact Sheet
The United States is making good on its promise to defend the openness of the Internet and other connection technologies. (State.gov. 2/15)
Reacting to Secretary Clinton’s Internet Freedom Speech
A colleague who works in the State Department contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if I wanted to offer any suggestions for what Secretary Clinton might cover in her second address on internet freedom, the address she gave this afternoon at George Washington University. I sent him a long note in the form of a proposed speech, on January 24th, the day before protesters took to the streets in Cairo, ten days after Ben Ali fled Tunisia. (Ethan Zuckerman, 2/15)
Clinton Demands Net Freedom Abroad as Domestic Restrictions Loom
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged governments abroad Tuesday to embrace internet freedom even as the United States moves to tighten online restrictions at home. Clinton’s speech came a day after the House voted to extend to December 8 three controversial domestic spy provisions of the Patriot Act. And Customs officials seized 18 more internet domains without giving the pirate website owners a chance to challenge the forfeiture. (Wired, 2/15)
Hillary Clinton’s Speech: Shades of Hypocrisy on Internet Freedom
Hillary Clinton is back, lecturing the world on internet freedom, but thirteen months after her original speech on the topic, the dimension of the debate has changed. Back then she targeted the Chinese, whom she could confidently and credibly criticise in the wake of attacks on Google. Yet after the WikiLeaks affair it is harder for the United States to so readily moralise. (Guardian, 2/15)
America’s Internet Freedom Agenda
When Hillary Clinton delivered her first major speech on Internet freedom in January 2010 little did she know about WikiLeaks and the yet-to-come revolts in Tunisia and Egypt. Clinton’s follow-up speech, delivered on February 15th at George Washington University, was an effort to capitalize on the universal excitement about the role of social media in the recent events in the Middle East, correct some of the rhetorical excesses of the 2010 address, and try to reconcile the inherent contradictions of aspiring to export Internet freedom abroad while limiting it at home. (Huffington Post, 2/17)
‘Internet Freedom’ in the Age of Assange
From Egyptian Facebookers to WikiLeaks to China’s Great Firewall, the State Department’s efforts to promote an open global Internet just got a lot more complicated. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s second annual “Internet freedom” speech on Tuesday showcased how the U.S. government is grappling with the question of what it means to be both a superpower and a democracy in the Internet age. (Foreign Policy, 2/17)
Internet Freedom and U.S. State Department
Host Michele Norris speaks with Alec Ross, a senior adviser for innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. They discuss Internet freedom and why it’s a top priority for the State Department. (NPR, 2/17)
China Reacts to U.S. Policy on Internet Freedom
China Censors U.S. Posts On Internet Freedom
China’s Internet censors have deleted U.S. Embassy posts promoting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech on Internet freedom from microblogs, parrying U.S. efforts to spur debate about Beijing’s grip on free speech. (Reuters, 2/17)
China Warns US Over Clinton’s Web Freedom Call
China has warned the US not to use calls for internet freedom as an excuse to meddle in other countries’ affairs. The foreign ministry comments came after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced an initiative to help dissidents around the world get past government internet controls. (BBC, 2/17)
China’s Great Firewall Not Secure Enough, Says Creator
The architect of the Great Firewall – the censorship system blocking huge portions of the web for China‘s 450 million internet users – says further tightening is needed to halt attempts to overcome its controls. (Guardian, 2/18)
New Report Criticizes U.S. Efforts to Promote Internet Freedom in China
See full report here: Another U.S. Deficit – China and America – Public Diplomacy in the Age of the Internet
US Internet Censorship Fight Falling Short: Report
State Department efforts to combat Internet censorship in China and other countries have fallen short and funding for the drive should be shifted to another US agency, a Senate committee report says. (AFP, 2/13)
Lugar: U.S. Failing to Combat Internet Censorship by China
On the same day Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will give a major speech on protecting freedom of information, especially in cyberspace, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a report criticizing the U.S. government for failing to confront the Chinese government’s Internet censorship policies. (Foreign Policy, 2/15)
Following Digital Media in Egypt
Mubarak is Gone, But Can Egypt’s Digital Revolution United the Country?
Twitter and Facebook played an integral role in helping to topple Hosni Mubarak, but if Egypt is to be reformed, the online momentum of recent events must go beyond mere protest. (Guardian, 2/13)
Internet Wasn’t Real Hero of Egypt
When asked what he thought of the French Revolution, China’s first premier Chou En-lai famously replied: “It’s too soon to tell.” What role did the Internet play in the Egyptian Revolution? People will be arguing about the answer to that question for decades if not centuries. (Rebecca MacKinnon, 2/14)
Egypt’s Revolution by Social Media
If journalism is the rough draft of history, in this fast-moving era it may already be time to settle the question of the Internet’s role in the Egyptian revolt. To this end, consider the leading role of a 30-year-old Google executive. (Wall Street Journal, 2/14)
Egypt Leaders Found ‘Off’ Switch for Internet
Epitaphs for the Mubarak government all note that the mobilizing power of the Internet was one of the Egyptian opposition’s most potent weapons. But quickly lost in the swirl of revolution was the government’s ferocious counterattack, a dark achievement that many had thought impossible in the age of global connectedness. (New York Times, 2/15)
Facebook Officials Keep Quiet on Its Role in Revolts
With Facebook playing a starring role in the revolts that toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt, you might think the company’s top executives would use this historic moment to highlight its role as the platform for democratic change. Instead, they really do not want to talk about it. (New York Times, 2/14)
Global Censorship Update
Gaddafi Warns Against Use of Facebook, Activists Arrested
On 13 February 2011, ANHRI condemned the latest move by Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi as he warned against the use of the social networking site Facebook. Many Libyan Internet activists have declared their support for the pro-democracy movement and change in Egypt, which turned into a revolution, and have created groups on Facebook to call for political and economic reforms in Libya. The Libyan dictator’s security forces have arrested several of these Internet activists. (IFEX, 2/14)
Syrian Blogger Gets Five Years’ Jail
Syrian woman blogger Tal al-Mallouhi has been sentenced to five years in prison by a state security court, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement on Monday. “The state security court in Damascus today condemned blogger Tal al-Mallouhi to five years in prison after finding her guilty of divulging information to a foreign country,” it said in a statement received in Nicosia. (AFP, 2/14)
Iranian Regime Steps Up Censorship and Online Disruption to Block Protests
The authorities have increased censorship in a bid to prevent yesterday’s anti-government protests, blocking independent or pro-opposition websites and other electronic media. Broadband speed has greatly slowed in major cities as in the run-up to previous anti-regime demonstrations or opposition events. (Committee to Protect Journalists, 2/15)
Uganda Bans SMS Texting of Key Words During Poll
Uganda has ordered phone companies to intercept text messages with words or phrases including “Egypt”, “bullet,” and “people power” ahead of Friday’s elections that some fear may turn violent. (Reuters, 2/17)
Internet Use In Bahrain Restricted, Data Shows
As protests have erupted in Bahrain over the last several days, the government has severely restricted the access of its citizens to the Internet, new data from an organization that monitors Internet traffic strongly suggests. (New York Times, 2/18)
Latest Digital Innovations
Researcher Makes Free Phone and Text Encryption Available to Egypt - Free phone and text-message encryption software that has until now been available mostly to U.S. users can now be used in Egypt, according to the security researcher who developed it. (Wired, 2/10)
This Text Message Will Self Destruct in 60 Seconds
TigerText, a private SMS app, has made the self-destructing message a reality through an app that lets users determine when and how the messages are deleted. (ReadWriteWeb, 2/11)
Twitter Translation Center Uses Crowd-Sourced Translations for New Languages
Twitter launched its Twitter Translation Center on Monday in an effort to turn its users into translating volunteers who will help convert the social media company’s products into new languages. (Los Angeles Times, 2/14)
Decentralizing the Internet So Big Brother Can’t Find You
On Tuesday afternoon, as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke in Washington about the Internet and human liberty, a Columbia law professor in Manhattan, Eben Moglen, was putting together a shopping list to rebuild the Internet — this time, without governments and big companies able to watch every twitch of our fingers. (New York Times, 2/15)
New Tools for Online Diplomacy
U.S. State Department Starts Farsi Twitter Feed
The U.S. State Department launched a new Farsi-language Twitter feed Sunday in a bid to connect with internet users in Iran. (CNN, 2/14)
Turn U.S. Embassies Into Ambassadors for the Internet
From the outside, most U.S. embassies project an image that is less about openness and more about an impenetrable American Fortress, epitomizing the real tension between diplomacy and security. However, some U.S. diplomatic missions have deliberately chosen to cultivate an image more like a cozy Internet cafe. These efforts are a good start, but they face challenges. (Tech News, 2/16)
Check-Ins with a Purpose: Applications for Disaster Response
The check-in’s series builds on Ushahidi’s free and open-source check-in service (CI) slated to launch in just a few weeks at SxSW 2011. So how might organizations and local groups be able to use CI for disaster response? In three ways: (1) preparedness; (2) coordination; and (3) evaluation. (Patrick Meier, 2/16)
Intelligence Chiefs: Social Media Helped in Monitoring Recent Revolts
The nation’s top intelligence officials told senators they used not only intelligence but clues in social media to keep abreast of recent uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, but they admitted the task is a daunting one given the overwhelming amount of information available. (CNN, 2/17)
FBI Pushes for Surveillance Backdoors in Web 2.0 Tools
The FBI pushed Thursday for more built-in backdoors for online communication, but beat a hasty retreat from its earlier proposal to require providers of encrypted communications services to include a backdoor for law enforcement wiretaps. (Wired, 2/17)
Research Update
Another U.S. Deficit – China and America – Public Diplomacy in the Age of the Internet
The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a report criticizing the U.S. government for failing to confront the Chinese government’s Internet censorship policies.
Laura Mottaz is Project Coordinator at the Center for International Media Assistance.
