PeaceTech News Roundup

 

PeaceTech Roundup Weekly News Highlights, August 14 - 20, 2014   Featured Story: South Sudan's Coming Famine by Ty McCormick Media and Social Media Video Shows ISIS Beheading U.S. Journalist James Foley (CNN, 8/20/14) At Least 39 Journalists Are Still Missing Worldwide, 20 Missing in Syria (Mashable, 8/19/14) Social Media Companies Scramble to Block Terrorist Video of Journalist's Murder (Foreign Policy, 8/19/14) 'Afromaidan': Foreign Media Cite Ferguson as Evidence of US 'Failed State' (Al Jazeera America, 8/19/14) From The Fringes Toward Mainstream: Russian Nationalist Broadsheet Basks In Ukraine Conflict (RFE/RL, 8/19/14) Islamic State Shifts to New Platform After Twitter Block (BBC, 8/19/14) Technology and Science Voice Recognition Technology Will Attempt to ID 'Barbaric' British Jihadist (Telegraph, 8/20/14) Myanmar Will Be the First Smartphone Only Country (ICT Works, 8/20/14) China Said to Deploy Drones After Unrest in Xinjiang (New York Times, 8/19/14) Apple Becomes Voice Of Reason In Cyber War Of Words (Forbes, 8/19/14) Technology Can Make Lawful Surveillance Both Open and Effective (MIT Tech Review, 8/18/14) When You Google Gaza: Techies' Ambitions on the Embattled Strip (Huffington Post, 8/15/14) Media and Social Media Video Shows ISIS Beheading U.S. Journalist James Foley A video released by ISIS shows the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley and threatens the life of another American if President Barack Obama doesn't end military operations in Iraq. In the video posted Tuesday on YouTube, Foley is seen kneeling next to a man dressed in black. Foley reads a message, presumably scripted by his captors, that his "real killer'' is America. See the full article (CNN, Chelsea J. Carter, 8/20/14) [Return to top] At Least 39 Journalists Are Still Missing Worldwide, 20 Missing in Syria News of Foley's alleged death was sudden and tragic, especially because his family and supporters launched a campaign to find him after he was kidnapped in Syria in November 2012. Foley is one of at least 20 journalists who have gone missing in the country since its civil war began in 2011, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. See the full article (Mashable, Colin Daileda, 8/19/14) [Return to top] Social Media Companies Scramble to Block Terrorist Video of Journalist's Murder Twitter and YouTube moved quickly on Tuesday -- but with decidedly mixed results -- to suspend accounts that linked to a jihadi propaganda video purporting to show the murder of American journalist James Foley at the hands of Islamist terrorists. The crackdown provided a vivid example of the pressure on social media companies to police violent terrorist propaganda, but at the same time it showed the difficulty they have in stopping individuals intent on spreading violent images and rhetoric. See the full article (Foreign Policy, Shane Harris, 8/19/14) [Return to top] 'Afromaidan': Foreign Media Cite Ferguson as Evidence of US 'Failed State' It should come as no surprise that the wall-to-wall U.S. coverage of the turmoil provoked by the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, was echoed in the global media. And a quick survey of international coverage of the ongoing protests suggests that it often reflects pre-existing views of the United States. Russian and Iranian media have, perhaps unsurprisingly, printed scathing judgments about the police response to protests in Missouri. One Russian site, Svobodnaya Pressa, coined the term "Afromaidan," implying that the U.S. is getting a dose of its own medicine for backing anti-Russian Euromaidan rallies in Kiev, Ukraine. See the full article (Al Jazeera America, Ben Piven, 8/19/14) Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Ensuring a Strong U.S. Defense for the Future" on September, 4, 2014 at 2:00pm. [Return to top] From The Fringes Toward Mainstream: Russian Nationalist Broadsheet Basks In Ukraine Conflict Not so long ago, the ultranationalist broadsheet "Zavtra" would occasionally pillory Russian President Vladimir Putin for various sins. But that all changed with Russia's annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine. Likewise, over the past several months, "Zavtra," once on the fringes of Russian political discourse, has found itself firmly in the mainstream. The newspaper, which claims a circulation of between 70,000 and 100,000, is still pushing the same visceral anti-Western views and neo-Stalinist views it always has. See the full article (RFE/RL, Tom Balmforth, 8/19/14) [Return to top] Islamic State Shifts to New Platform After Twitter Block A sustained clampdown on the Twitter presence of Islamic State (IS) has forced the hardline jihadist group to explore less well-known social media platforms, setting up a string of accounts on the privacy-focused Diaspora. The Twitter squeeze reached its peak last week - coinciding with mounting international pressure on the group - when back-up IS accounts were being taken down almost as soon as they were being launched. See the full article (BBC, 8/19/14) [Return to top] Featured Story from the USIP Foreign Policy Peace Channel South Sudan's Coming Famine by Ty McCormick The origins of the food-security crisis are layered [in South Sudan ]. War disrupted the planting season, not just where there was active fighting, but across the northern half of the country as farmers fled their fields in anticipation of violence. But systematic underinvestment by the South Sudanese government, which has battled numerous corruption scandals since it became independent in 2011, is also part of the equation: Roughly 90 percent of South Sudanese territory is suitable for agriculture, but only about four percent of it was being cultivated, even before the current crisis. This combination of greed, violence, and lack of capacity has proven deadly. See the full article [Return to top] Technology and Science Voice Recognition Technology Will Attempt to ID 'Barbaric' British Jihadist British intelligence agencies are likely to use voice recognition software to try to identify the British jihadist who beheaded the American journalist James Foley. Philip Hammond confirmed this morning that British intelligence agencies are analysing the video to try to establish the man's identity. Counter terrorist officers are expected to run the broadcast through voice-recognition software to see if he is somebody already known to intelligence services. See the full article (Telegraph, Georgia Graham, 8/20/14) Click to read "How Technology Can Help Activists Navigate Under Pressure" an Olive Branch Post by Noel Dickover. [Return to top] Myanmar Will Be the First Smartphone Only Country Today, Myamnar has the same mobile phone usage as North Korea, Eritrea, and Cuba - less than 10% - with only the urban elite owning smartphones, and mobile networks limited in scope and functionality. Yet technology restrictions are ending, and three mobile operators are racing to roll out services to 60 million across the country. See the full article (ICT Works, Wayan Vota, 8/20/14) [Return to top] China Said to Deploy Drones After Unrest in Xinjiang Three days after an eruption of violence in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang this summer left nearly 100 people dead, the region's "antiterrorist command" asked the country's biggest space and defense contractor for help. It wanted technical experts to operate drones that the authorities in Xinjiang had ordered last year in anticipation of growing unrest. The target was "terrorists," according to the online edition of People's Daily, a Communist Party media outlet. See the full article (New York Times, Didi Kirsten Tatlow, 8/19/14)*NYT subscription may be required to access full story [Return to top] Apple Becomes Voice Of Reason In Cyber War Of Words Apple has emerged as a rare voice of reason in the war of words between China and the west over cyber security, with word that the global tech giant has decided to host some of its users' personal data on Chinese-based computers. Apple's move was almost surely a business decision first and foremost, providing its Chinese users with speedier services. But the move also sends a signal that other western companies should consider following, reflecting Apple's belief that using Chinese infrastructure doesn't pose a risk to compromising a company's private data. See the full article (Forbes, Doug Young, 8/19/14) [Return to top] Technology Can Make Lawful Surveillance Both Open and Effective Democracy rests on the principle that legal processes must be open and public. Laws are created through open deliberation by elected bodies; they are open for anyone to read or challenge; and in enforcing them the government must get a warrant before searching a person's private property. For our increasingly electronic society to remain democratic, this principle of open process must follow us into cyberspace. Unfortunately it appears to have been lost in translation. See the full article (MIT Tech Review, Bryan Ford and Joan Feigenbaum, 8/18/14) [Return to top] When You Google Gaza: Techies' Ambitions on the Embattled Strip Nearly four weeks into Operation Protective Edge, Ahmed Borai is explaining how to separate hydrogen from seawater. Gaza's sole power plant was bombed out of commission four days earlier, leaving Gaza City blacked out and reducing the rest of the strip to two hours of electricity a day. "We're bombed at any time here," he declares over Facebook chat, "so not a big deal." But while he concedes his workaround is "scary", Ahmed has bigger worries. "If I lose the internet, I lose my company." Fabraca, a 3D printing and product design company that he founded in early 2013, now includes four other employees from India, Serbia and Armenia, and the income it generates supports his entire family. See the full article (Huffington Post, Jennifer MacKenzie, 8/15/14) [Return to top] Did we miss anything?     Share this: | Forward this to a Friend

PeaceTech News Roundup

 

PeaceTech Roundup Weekly News Highlights, August 7 - 13, 2014   Featured Story: On Israel's Defeat in Gaza by David Kothkopf Media and Social Media Italian Journalist Among Five Dead in Gaza Bomb-Disposal Accident (New York Times, 8/13/14) Social Media and Modern Warfare (Huffington Post, 8/11/14) How Twitter Has Changed Warfare Forever (Huffington Post, 8/11/14) Ukraine conflict: Turning Up the TV Heat (BBC, 8/10/14) Truth and Propaganda: The Other Two Foes in Gaza's War (Guardian, 8/10/14) Tweet Offensive: U.S. Announces Iraq Airstrikes on Twitter (NBC, 8/8/14) The War Photo No One Would Publish (The Atlantic, 8/8/14) Hashtag Diplomacy Won't Save Lives (USA Today, 8/7/14) Azerbaijan's President Threatens War with Armenia via Twitter (Guardian, 8/7/14) Israel, Gaza, War & Data: Social Networks and the Art of Personalizing Propaganda (Huffington Post, 8/7/14) The ISIS Online Campaign Luring Western Girls to Jihad (Daily Beast, 8/7/14) Technology and Science Five Police Investigated After Delhi Launches WhatsApp Anti-Bribery Campaign (BBC, 8/13/14) How Data Scientists Are Uncovering War Crimes in Syria (Mashable, 8/12/14) Meet the American Who Wants to Save Egypt's Bread (NBC News, 8/12/14) Middle East Tech News: All You Need to Know From the Last Three Months (Huffington Post, 8/12/14) Against All Odds: From Iraq to Silicon Valley (Huffington Post, 8/12/14) Diaspora Nigerians Return to Empower Youngsters in Technology (AllAfrica, 8/11/14) Should We Make Games about Israel/Palestine? (Guardian, 8/8/14) Media and Social Media Italian Journalist Among Five Dead in Gaza Bomb-Disposal Accident The bombs had stopped falling on the Gaza Strip, so a crew from The Associated Press set out Wednesday morning to do a story on the people who pick them up. Two of the journalists, an Italian videographer and a local Palestine helping him with arrangements and translation, were killed along with three members of Gaza's unexploded-ordnance squad as they were attempting to defuse what officials described as an Israeli bomb that detonated. See the full article (New York Times, Jodi Rudoren and Fares Akram, 8/13/14)*NYT subscription may be required to access full story [Return to top] Social Media and Modern Warfare The advent of social media has however really changed the way wars are represented and news consumed - and by extension peoples' attitudes towards specific wars. No longer are citizens reliant on official transcripts or field reports of battles, rather information can be gleaned almost instantaneously. We have been inundated with blogs, tweets, status updates, comments on status updates and comments on news reports. See the full article (Huffington Post, Adam Fisch, 8/11/14) [Return to top] How Twitter Has Changed Warfare Forever If we saw Iraq through our TV screens, then we're seeing Gaza through our newsfeeds. Just as the Gulf War was known by media commentators as the "CNN war", due to the power of their live updates on Desert Storm, the ongoing conflict in Gaza looks set to be remembered as the first ever social media war. How has this come about and what will be the impact for governments, soldiers and civilians? Instant Twitter reporting circumvents any potential filters or editors, whether through government censorship or the policies of media outlets. See the full article (Huffington Post, Danny coleman-Cooke, 8/11/14) Click to read "Iraq: Islamic Militants, Breakup and Other Tough Questions on Twitter" an Olive Branch Post by Steven Ruder. [Return to top] Ukraine conflict: Turning Up the TV Heat Television channels in Russia and Ukraine are using emotive language in their coverage of the conflict in the east of Ukraine, with Moscow-based channels employing particularly strong terms to compare Ukrainian authorities with Nazism. Russian state TV's coverage of the crisis has been consistently sensationalist, using a wide repertoire of propaganda techniques to incite revulsion and hostility towards the authorities in Kiev. See the full article (BBC, 8/10/14) [Return to top] Truth and Propaganda: The Other Two Foes in Gaza's War My social networks followed me into the war and collided with others - a reminder that warfare has become newly alive with information. The basic suite of tools journalists use has only been around six or seven years - so Gaza is one of the earliest glimpses into how propaganda and truth might intersect in 21st-century warfare. See the full article (Guardian, Paul Mason, 8/10/14) [Return to top] Tweet Offensive: U.S. Announces Iraq Airstrikes on Twitter Rear Adm. John Kirby kept his major announcement about Iraq on Friday morning short - as in less than 140 characters. Instead of a news conference or TV announcement, the Pentagon's press secretary took to Twitter to break the news that U.S. forces would drop bombs on ISIS artillery in Iraq. See the full article (NBC, 8/8/14) [Return to top] The War Photo No One Would Publish On February 28, 1991, Kenneth Jarecke stood in front of the charred man, parked amid the carbonized bodies of his fellow soldiers, and photographed him. The image and its anonymous subject might have come to symbolize the Gulf War. Instead, it went unpublished in the United States, not because of military obstruction but because of editorial choices. It's hard to calculate the consequences of a photograph's absence. See the full article (The Atlantic, Torie Rose DeGhett, 8/8/14) [Return to top] Hashtag Diplomacy Won't Save Lives Do you remember #BringBackOurGirls, the social media campaign launched to help rescue 276 girls abducted from a secondary school in northeast Nigeria? Well it turns out that the online campaign has been no match for Boko Haram, a group of men willing to prey on the weak and defenseless and die for the cause of establishing an Islamic state. See the full article (USA Today, Gary Bauer, 8/7/14) [Return to top] Azerbaijan's President Threatens War with Armenia via Twitter The self-proclaimed Islamic State, formerly known by the acronym ISIS, is actively recruiting Western women and girls. And in the process this "caliphate" that now occupies large swathes of Syria and Iraq is showing, once again, that it's almost as shrewd with social media as it is ruthless on the battlefield. See the full article (Daily Beast, Jamie Dettmer, 8/7/14) [Return to top] Israel, Gaza, War & Data: Social Networks and the Art of Personalizing Propaganda While war rages on the ground in Gaza and across Israeli skies, there's an all-out information war unraveling in social networked spaces. As we construct our online profiles based on what we already know, what we're interested in, and what we're recommended, social networks are perfectly designed to reinforce our existing beliefs. Personalized spaces, optimized for engagement, prioritize content that is likely to generate more traffic; the more we click, share, like, the higher engagement tracked on the service. Content that makes us uncomfortable, is filtered out. See the full article (Huffington Post, Gilad Lotan, 8/7/14) [Return to top] The ISIS Online Campaign Luring Western Girls to Jihad The self-proclaimed Islamic State, formerly known by the acronym ISIS, is actively recruiting Western women and girls. And in the process this "caliphate" that now occupies large swathes of Syria and Iraq is showing, once again, that it's almost as shrewd with social media as it is ruthless on the battlefield. See the full article (Daily Beast, Jamie Dettmer, 8/7/14) [Return to top] Featured Story from the USIP Foreign Policy Peace Channel On Israel's Defeat in Gaza by David Kothkopf Whenever this most recent conflict is seen to be over, it will not be remembered for the security logic behind it or the speeches justifying it. Nor will it be remembered for the tactical gains that Israel may have achieved. No, the lasting image this war will leave the world is of four boys on a beach, playing soccer and then running for their lives, hurtled from a carefree moment of childhood to oblivion in the blink of an eye. There is no Iron Dome that can protect Israel from images like that. See the full article [Return to top] Technology and Science Five Police Investigated After Delhi Launches WhatsApp Anti-Bribery Campaign Five policemen in India are being investigated for alleged corruption after officials received complaints on a newly-launched helpline number. Since its launch on 6 August, the helpline has received more than 3,700 WhatsApp messages and 622 calls. Officials said they had received two video and three audio messages and were investigating the reported incidents. See the full article (BBC, 8/13/14) [Return to top] How Data Scientists Are Uncovering War Crimes in Syria For more than three years, Syria has been crippled by a bloody civil war that has laid waste to cities and exacted a heavy civilian toll. One group of researchers, though, is determined to document every single killing. Through painstaking data-gathering and assiduous verification, the group Syrian Tracker has tallied 111,915 deaths in the course of the conflict so far. Syria Tracker gets reports from eyewitnesses and volunteers on the ground. Researchers also cull data from news reports. See the full article (Mashable, Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, 8/12/14) [Return to top] Meet the American Who Wants to Save Egypt's Bread The rising price of bread was one reason Hosni Mubarak lost power in Egypt. Food inflation is one reason his replacement, Mohammed Morsi, also lost the job. The emerging world is a market that frightens off a lot of-maybe the vast majority of-American investors. But Blumberg believes in his technology. His company designed a series of modular storage bins that deflect the sun's heat, keep grain dry and provide security measures against theft. See the full article (NBC News, Jane Wells, 8/12/14) [Return to top] Middle East Tech News: All You Need to Know From the Last Three Months The past few months have seen a raft of rich new research reports published about media and technology in the Middle East. From a study into media use by Northwestern University in Qatar, through to the Dubai School of Government's 6th Arab Social Media Report and ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller's annual Arab Youth Survey; these detailed studies provide a number of fresh insights into evolving attitudes and technology based behaviours in this fast changing region. See the full article (Huffington Post, Damian Radcliffe, 8/12/14) [Return to top] Against All Odds: From Iraq to Silicon Valley Martin Hermez, the 21 year-old founder and CEO of Tivvi; a soon to be launched social network mobile application company based in Silicon Valley and his team are among those few. Martin was born in Baghdadand spent more than half his life under the iron-fist rule of Sadaam Hussein. Martin and his immediate family escaped Baghdad via a perilous 12-hour road trip to Jordan, leaving the rest of their family behind. Months later, on July 4 2003, they arrived in Detroit with one month's rent at their disposal and unable to speak English. See the full article (Huffington Post, Kirk-Anthony Hamilton, 8/12/14) [Return to top] Diaspora Nigerians Return to Empower Youngsters in Technology Recently, a one-week computer programming and robotics mentorship programme took place at the Digital Bridge Institute, Abuja. Adebisi Oje is the convener and CEO of Africode, an initiative developed to help youngsters in Nigeria to learn the basics of coding. Young, energetic and passionate, she said Nigerian youth deserve better knowledge in information technology. See the full article (AllAfrica, Yunus Abdulhamid and Mulikatu Malika, 8/11/14) [Return to top] Should We Make Games about Israel/Palestine? Are some topics just too taboo to be tackled by gaming? This week, a controversial game called "Bomb Gaza" was pulled from the Google Play store after a public backlash. Designed for Androids and tablets, the game's stated aim was to "drop bombs and avoid killing civilans". Inevitably, the game drew a slew of negative reviews and negative commentary before it was eventually taken down by Google, who said it violated their policies. See the full article (Guardian, Elena Cresci, 8/8/14) [Return to top] Did we miss anything?     Share this: | Forward this to a Friend