PeaceTech News Roundup

 

PeaceTech Roundup Weekly News Highlights, May 29 - June 4, 2014   Featured Story: Assad's Hollow Mandate by Steven Heydemann Media and Social Media Syrian Conflict Leads to PDK Reprisals Against Pro-PKK Media (Thomas Reuters Foundation, 6/4/14) Young Iranians 'Claustrophobic' as Culture is Forced Online but Accessed in Private (Guardian, 6/3/14) Blogging for Freedom in Vietnam (New Yorker, 6/3/14) #BringBackOurGirls: The Verdict (Guardian, 6/3/14) Radio Drama Encounters Real-Life Trauma in South Sudan (PBS, 6/2/14) Journalists Protest Against Curbing of Press Freedom (AllAfrica, 6/2/14) Egypt's Police Seek Ability to Monitor Social Media for Signs of Dissent (Guardian, 6/2/14) Activists on Social Media Keep Thai Junta on Edge (Wall Street Journal, 6/1/14) Chinese Journalists are Beginning to Fight Their Government's Censorship (Washington Post, 6/1/14) Iran Link to Social Media Spying on Military Leaders (BBC, 5/29/14) Technology and Science The Cyber Cold War: What Issuing Arrest Warrants Means and What Can Still be Done (Huffington Post, 6/4/14) China Escalates Its War on American Tech Firms (Time, 6/4/14) China Boosts Security, Internet Restrictions Ahead of Tiananmen Square Anniversary (Deutsche Welle, 6/3/14) 'Conflict Minerals' Deadline Looms for Technology Firms (BBC, 5/30/14) Edward Snowden: 'I'd Like To Go Home' (Washington Post, 5/29/14) Media and Social Media Syrian Conflict Leads to PDK Reprisals Against Pro-PKK Media Journalists, news media and freedom of information in Iraqi Kurdistan have been hit by a recent increase in the traditional tension between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (PDK), whose leader, Masoud Barzani, is Iraqi Kurdistan's president, and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Turkish armed separatist group that has many fighters based in Iraqi Kurdistan. The targeted entities included two media outlets: DIHA, a Turkish news agency, and the monthly Rojava Welat. See the full article (Thomas Reuters Foundation, 6/4/14) [Return to top] Young Iranians 'Claustrophobic' as Culture is Forced Online but Accessed in Private In different ways, [youth] struggle to cope with simultaneous feelings of social isolation and claustrophobia, predominant among the current generation of Iranian youth. Spending hours a day in front of their computers or satellite TV, the Ahmadinejad generation's cultural tastes have moved far outside the confines of the Islamic republic. By the time they reach high-school age, many teenagers spend hours a day on Instagram and Facebook. See the full article (Guardian, 6/3/14) [Return to top] Blogging for Freedom in Vietnam A few years before his arrest, in 2012, I exchanged e-mails with the Vietnamese blogger Le Quoc Quan, a Hanoi-based lawyer who first started blogging in 2005. He told me that his first post, just a sentence long, read: "Oh my fatherland of Vietnam, I want to say something to you!" While working on my book about Internet dissent in the Communist and post-Communist world, I interviewed bloggers in China, Cuba, and Russia who, like Quan, wanted to tell stories that did not appear in the state-controlled media. See the full article (New Yorker, Emily Parker, 6/3/14) [Return to top] #BringBackOurGirls: The Verdict Social media campaigns (such as Kony2012) are frequently dismissed as superficial and a displacement for real engagement - labelled "slacktivism". Yet, despite some difficulties, #BringBackOurGirls does appear to be a case where the worldwide outcry voiced through Twitter has had a genuine impact and promoted meaningful action [in Nigeria]. See the full article (Guardian, Suzanne Franks, 6/3/14) Click to read "Nigeria: Remedies for a Police-Community Disconnect?" an Olive Branch Post by Nadia Gerspacher. [Return to top] Radio Drama Encounters Real-Life Trauma in South Sudan A new radio drama in South Sudan called Sawa Shabab coaches young listeners on life skills and getting along with others. But just as production was set to begin, violence erupted in the country - the same violence the show's creators were hoping to prevent. The radio drama aims to address tribal differences by having actors overcome obstacles to work together for their country, to show young listeners that good can come from respecting diversity and countering stereotypes. See the full article (PBS, Larisa Epatko, 6/2/14) Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Rhythms at the Intersection of Peace and Conflict" on June, 10, 2014 at 9:30am. [Return to top] Egypt's Police Seek Ability to Monitor Social Media for Signs of Dissent Egypt's police force is seeking to build a surveillance system to monitor social media for expressions of dissent - including profanity, immorality, insults and calls for strikes and protests. According to a leaked document in which technology companies are invited to offer their services, Egypt's interior ministry says it wants the ability to scan Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Viber in real-time for usage that might "harm public security or incite terrorism". See the full article (Guardian, Patrick Kingsley, 6/2/14) [Return to top] Journalists Protest Against Curbing of Press Freedom A group of Sudanese journalists on Sunday organised a sit-in in front of the National Press and Publications' Council in Khartoum in protest against the government's media policies. The protesters submitted a strong worded memorandum to the Press Council calling for its immediate intervention to protect the media against the "vicious and systematic attacks" by the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), and to cancel the suspension of several journalists. See the full article (AllAfrica, 6/2/14) [Return to top] Activists on Social Media Keep Thai Junta on Edge A handful of users of Facebook and other social-media sites Sunday achieved mostly with online messages what it previously took tens of thousands of actual street protesters to do: Shut down the center of Thailand's capital. Thailand's military rulers, who seized power in a coup last month, have imposed wide-ranging censorship, and have ordered more than 250 people to report to army camps since the coup was announced, though most have since been released. Cable television networks still don't run international news channels such as CNN and BBC. See the full article (Wall Street Journal, James Hookway and Newley Purnell, 6/1/14) [Return to top] Chinese Journalists are Beginning to Fight Their Government's Censorship If President Xi Jinping and his colleagues want to keep a lid on that bottle, they may face resistance from a surprising source: the nation's budding journalists. By substantial numbers, students in some of China's leading journalism schools oppose censorship, doubt the credibility of their domestic media, and don't believe journalists should be members of the Communist Party. See the full article (Washington Post, Joseph Weber, 6/1/14) [Return to top] Iran Link to Social Media Spying on Military Leaders Fake social media accounts have been used by Iranian hackers to spy on senior military and political staff worldwide, a report suggests. The accounts aided a four-year campaign that aimed to befriend targets, said computer security firm iSight Partners. Accounts were used to make it appear that bogus identities set up by the spies were real people. See the full article (BBC, 5/29/14) [Return to top] Featured Story from the USIP Foreign Policy Peace Channel Assad's Hollow Mandate by Steven Heydemann On June 3, in a parody of democracy, Bashar al-Assad will be reelected as president of Syria for his third seven-year term. If he serves out this term, Assad will be eligible to run for a fourth term in 2021 that would extend his presidency to 28 years -- two years short of his father's tenure. Tuesday's election is easy to ridicule, but it would be a mistake to dismiss it as a meaningless charade. See the full article [Return to top] Technology and Science The Cyber Cold War: What Issuing Arrest Warrants Means and What Can Still be Done We are in a second cold war. The recent indictments of Chinese military officers have definitively shown this to be a fact, yet it is just one of many silent blows back and forth in this bloodless war behind closed doors in which both governments claim they are not involved. Just like the original cold war, the only way to keep our heads above water is to keep improving the technology that is keeping us safe. See the full article (Huffington Post, Andrew Edwards, 6/4/14) [Return to top] China Escalates Its War on American Tech Firms U.S. technology firms have often found China a tough market. Now, in the wake of Washington's charges against five Chinese military officials for cyberspying, a riled Beijing has intensified its criticism of U.S. tech businesses. Chinese media this week attacked numerous U.S. tech firms for, in effect, acting as agents of American espionage. See the full article (Time, Michael Schuman, 6/4/14) [Return to top] China Boosts Security, Internet Restrictions Ahead of Tiananmen Square Anniversary Police and paramilitary troops patrolled the streets and manned checkpoints in Beijing on Tuesday. The move comes as authorities mount a major campaign against dissidents, detaining several dozen activists and heightening restrictions on other artists, lawyers and government critics. A censorship watchdog, meanwhile, said that a number of Google-related websites had been blocked. China prevents access to websites including YouTube and Twitter using a system known as the "Great Firewall," and restrictions are tightened ahead of dates the government considers sensitive. See the full article (Deutsche Welle, 6/3/14) [Return to top] 'Conflict Minerals' Deadline Looms for Technology Firms Companies manufacturing products that use "conflict minerals" must submit a plan to deal with the problem to US regulators by Monday. The term applies to raw materials, such as gold, tungsten, tantalum and tin, gathered by miners controlled by violent militia groups. All of the materials are used widely in electronics products and the deadline applies to firms listed in the US. See the full article (BBC, Dave Lee, 5/30/14) [Return to top] Edward Snowden: 'I'd Like To Go Home' Edward J. Snowden, in an hour-long television interview broadcast Wednesday night, portrayed himself as a "patriot" who broke the law in an act of "civil disobedience" directed at "massive" constitutional violations by the U.S. government. While Snowden said he would love to return to the United States from Russia, where he sought and obtained asylum last summer after leaking thousands of documents detailing the extent of the National Security Agency's sprawling surveillance program, he said he did not want to "walk into a jail cell." See the full article (Washington Post, Terrence McCoy, 5/29/14) [Return to top] Did we miss anything?     Share this: | Forward this to a Friend

PeaceTech News Roundup

 

PeaceTech Roundup Weekly News Highlights, January 22 - 28, 2014   Featured Story: As If Catostrophic Flooding Wasn't Bad Enough by Valerie Hopkins Media and Social Media Iran Steps Up War on Social Media (Huffington Post, 5/28/14) Thailand's Cybercoup (Washington Post, 5/27/14) Reporting from Sudan's Hidden Frontline (Columbia Journalism Review, 5/27/14) War Correspondents Review - Tuneful Tribute to Frontline Journalists (Guardian, 5/27/14) Kenya's Media Landscape (Deutsche Welle, 5/27/14) Tajik Mullah's Remarks On Jihad Spark War Of Words (RFE/RL, 5/27/14) Covering Only a Part of War (Washington Post, 5/27/14) Journalistic Ethics at Internet Speed (BBC, 5/26/14) Women On the Frontline: Female Photojournalists' Vision of conflict (Guardian, 5/24/15) Technology and Science The Internet As a Human Right (Time, 5/28/14) Understanding Evidence: How Tech Is Complicating Law for the Better (Tech President, 5/28/14) Ukraine cyber War Escalates Alongside Violence (Telegraph, 5/28/14) China Accuses US of Internet Surveillance on Its Leaders (BBC, 5/27/14) 1,000 Days of Syria - Turning War Journalism Into a Game (Guardian, 5/22/14) Media and Social Media Iran Steps Up War on Social Media Another battle is being waged in Iran's internal cyber war. Iranian leadership has banned Instagram, the picture sharing website. Now Instagram has the distinction of joining the plethora of social media that the Islamic Republic has banned. The illustrious group includes Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. See the full article (Huffington Post, Micah D. Halpern, 5/28/14) Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Nuclear Flashpoints: U.S.-Iran Tensions Over Terms and Timetables" on June, 10, 2014 at 9:30am. [Return to top] Thailand's Cybercoup It was the most social-media savvy coup in Thailand. And for a country with one of the largest number of coup attempts in the world, 19 in total, since 1932, it was quite a feat. The men in uniform are trying to get with the times. Perhaps they learned from Turkey's Erdogan that they could block social media sites like Twitter and YouTube and still win an election. Either way, the Thai military thought the coup had to be carried out properly: on the ground and in cyberspace. See the full article (Washington Post, Aim Singpeng, 5/27/14) [Return to top] Reporting from Sudan's Hidden Frontline There is a war being fought in Sudan, and it's happening almost out of sight. American Ryan Boyette had travelled to Nuba with an aid agency in 2003 and settled there. When the war broke out and agencies pulled out their staff, Boyette decided to stay. Foreign journalists were finding it increasingly difficult to get to Nuba, so Boyette founded Nuba Reports, a not-for-profit news outlet manned by Sudanese reporters, that covers the worsening humanitarian crisis. See the full article (Columbia Journalism Review, Edirin Oputu, 5/27/14) [Return to top] War Correspondents Review - Tuneful Tribute to Frontline Journalists "Sometimes to keep silent is to lie," says one of the journalists interviewed for this 70-minute staged song cycle, based on testimony from war correspondents covering conflicts from Bosnia and Iraq to Chechnya and Liberia. The urge to tell the truth and keep the world informed during wars falls to a group of people who, unlike the rest of us, know they are likely to be shot at when they go to work. See the full article (Guardian, Lyn Gardner, 5/27/14) [Return to top] Kenya's Media Landscape On the face of it, Kenyan journalists have a positive press environment. The 2010 constitution guarantees press freedom and access to information, and Kenya's media enjoy greater freedoms than in many of its neighboring countries. Kenya is also seen as one of the trailblazers when it comes to digital innovations. But appearances can be misleading. See the full article (Deutsche Welle, Charlotte Hauswedell, 5/27/14) Click to read "Boko Haram Kidnappings Prompt Northern Nigerian Women's March" an Olive Branch Post by Georgia Holmer. [Return to top] Tajik Mullah's Remarks On Jihad Spark War of Words A video has appeared on the Internet that purports to show a Tajik militant in Syria condemning a pro-government mullah's stance on the issue of jihad. The four-minute clip features a self-described militant angrily denouncing remarks made by prominent Tajik mullah Hoji Mirzo Ibronov, who recently expressed concern that young Tajiks were being brainwashed and recruited to fight alongside Islamist rebels in Syria. See the full article (RFE/RL, Farangis Najibullah, 5/27/14) [Return to top] Covering Only a Part of War Most of what we know about today's wars we learn from the media. Conflict and violence are a firm part of the daily stream of information we consume. No incident, wherever it occurs, is too small to be reported straight to our screens at home. For conflict researchers, the advent of the information age should be good news: It has now become possible to produce detailed data collection on violence at unprecedented levels of detail and speed. So, is this really the data source we as researchers should be relying on? See the full article (Washington Post, Nils B. Weidmann, 5/27/14) Click to read "Northern Ireland: When Peace is Imperfect" an Olive Branch Post by Ann-Louise Colgan. [Return to top] Journalistic Ethics at Internet Speed All of this had me wondering about the danger presented by the modern world of online opinion journalism: namely the consequences of the pressure to produce reactions and opinions at greater and greater speed. Being first is rewarded by increased web traffic, which tends to encourage snap (shallow?) judgement and a failure to adequate check the veracity of sources. I asked journalist and Harvard University lecturer Jeffrey Seglin for his thoughts on the topic. See the full article (BBC, Anthony Zurcher, 5/26/14) [Return to top] Women On the Frontline: Female Photojournalists' Vision of Conflict For female photojournalists the past six weeks have been a particularly brutal reminder of the dangers they face. Two photographers have recently been killed while making a record of the suffering on humanity's most extreme edges, documenting the otherwise hidden effects of war on people left to endure tremendous hardship and pain. See the full article (Guardian, Tracy McVeigh, 5/24/15) [Return to top] Featured Story from the USIP Foreign Policy Peace Channel As If Catostrophic Flooding Wasn't Bad Enough by Valerie Hopkins The flooding [in Bosnia], wrought by three months' worth of rain falling in only three days, covers a territory larger than the U.S. state of Massachusetts in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia. Almost 1 million Bosnians have either been evacuated or have left their homes because of flooding or landslides. The rains have unearthed and moved many of these relics of past conflict, threatening to raise the death toll of the floods even after the waters have receded. See the full article [Return to top] Technology and Science The Internet As a Human Right Kosta Grammatis likes to think big. In 2011, around the time of the Arab Spring, Grammatis grew frustrated at the ways governments can pull the plug on people's Internet access as a form of social and political control. He wanted to figure out how to circumvent political and physical obstacles and bring digital media to anywhere it was otherwise unavailable. He and some colleagues set out to buy a satellite from a bankrupt company and use it to beam connectivity to places like Tunisia. See the full article (Time, 5/28/14) Click to read "Powering Up for Peace: Technology Startup Wins USIP Award" an Olive Branch Post by Anand Varghese. [Return to top] Understanding Evidence: How Tech Is Complicating Law for the Better The use of satellite imagery for evidence is by no means a new technology: remote sensing is one of the main reasons satellites are being deployed in the first place. However, in the last decade, the access to up-to-date satellite imagery has become orders of magnitude cheaper and easier. This article explores some of the new technologies available to human rights advocates who want to further their cause through participation in legal processes. See the full article (Tech President, Tin Geber, 5/28/14) [Return to top] Ukraine Cyber War Escalates Alongside Violence Hostilities in Ukraine have been mirrored by a shadow cyber war where both sides have opened up an online front, a new analysis of Internet traffic suggests. The online struggle is being waged by a mixture of state forces, but also criminal gangs, and a ragtag army of 'patriotic hackers' and activists, experts suggest, and sets a pattern likely to be repeated in future conflicts. See the full article (Telegraph, Ben Farmer, 5/28/14) [Return to top] China Accuses US of Internet Surveillance on Its Leaders China has accused the US of using Internet surveillance to spy on its leaders and key institutions. A report released by a government agency said that China had been a main target for US spies, who had focused on government officials, businesses and mobile phone users. It called the behaviour "brazen" and a "gross violation of human rights". See the full article (BBC, 5/27/14) [Return to top] 1,000 Days of Syria - Turning War Journalism Into a Game How to interest an uninterested populace in this seemingly remote nation? Journalist Mitch Swenson settled upon the idea of an online game. Swenson describes 1,000 Days of Syria, which is freely available to play on the Internet, as "part electric literature; part newscast; and part choose-your-own-adventure." You follow one of three narratives, that of a foreign photojournalist, a mother of two living in Daraa or a rebel youth living in Aleppo. See the full article (Guardian, Simon Parkin, 5/22/14) [Return to top] Did we miss anything?     Share this: | Forward this to a Friend