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Internet Censorship: How Cute Cats Can Help [Relevant to current Iranian uprising]
Youtube ^
| Dec 17, 2008
| Ethan Zuckerman
Posted on 06/14/2009 5:28:50 PM PDT by PapaBear3625
Internet Censorship: How Cute Cats Can Help
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: censorship; iran; twitter
Considering how the most reliable means of getting real news out of Iran has turned out to be Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube, this lecture is particularly relevant.
To: PapaBear3625
They better not find ICanHazBaconburger.
2
posted on
06/14/2009 5:31:23 PM PDT
by
dangus
To: PapaBear3625
Pink noses beligerates. WTH?
3
posted on
06/14/2009 5:33:19 PM PDT
by
allmost
To: Man50D; Ernest_at_the_Beach; SE Mom; SolidWood; dr_who; gleeaikin; hoosiermama; ...
The fact that we've been getting most of our news about the current Iranian uprising from Twitter, youtube, and Facebook reminded me of this lecture that I had watched just a few weeks ago.
The essence of what he's saying is that it's easy for governments to block pure political sites, with little internal consequences. Only a tiny fraction of the population frequents such sites, and most won't even notice they are blocked.
It is fundamentally harder to censor services like twitter, youtube, facebook, flickr, etc. Large segments of the population use these sites to keep in touch with their friends and exchange pictures of cute cats. You can't just block them without a lot of people noticing and asking questions, and censoring individual posts is very time consuming and human-intensive.
In a time when the MSM kept quiet out of fear of retaliation against their people in-country, and foreign news services have been blocked, things like Twitter have kept the news flowing.
4
posted on
06/14/2009 5:42:07 PM PDT
by
PapaBear3625
(The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money -- Thatcher)
To: PapaBear3625
5
posted on
06/14/2009 5:43:44 PM PDT
by
mamelukesabre
(Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
To: mamelukesabre
6
posted on
06/14/2009 5:50:03 PM PDT
by
PapaBear3625
(The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money -- Thatcher)
To: PapaBear3625
Save the kittens. Do whatever needs to be done...
7
posted on
06/14/2009 5:50:48 PM PDT
by
allmost
To: PapaBear3625
Ok. It sucks to be in iran. Is that the gist?
8
posted on
06/14/2009 5:55:28 PM PDT
by
mamelukesabre
(Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
To: PapaBear3625
Long, but VERY worthwhile. I recommend that all politically oriented FReepers at least listen to it while doing other things on the computer.
9
posted on
06/14/2009 6:30:13 PM PDT
by
PAR35
To: PapaBear3625
In a time when the MSM kept quiet out of fear of retaliation against their people in-country, and foreign news services have been blocked, things like Twitter have kept the news flowing.
_______________________________________________
Tho I’m not a big fan of Twitter....in times of crisis in the world (ie - Iran and Mumbai) it has been an invaluable source for information.
10
posted on
06/14/2009 6:36:52 PM PDT
by
RushIsMyTeddyBear
(Obama. Clear and Pres__ent Danger.)
To: PapaBear3625
Absolutely fascinating- thanks for the post.
11
posted on
06/14/2009 6:42:37 PM PDT
by
SE Mom
(Proud mom of an Iraq war combat vet)
To: PapaBear3625
Thanks! I watched the whole hour plus video and found it worthwhile.
12
posted on
06/14/2009 7:50:44 PM PDT
by
bvw
To: PapaBear3625
13
posted on
06/14/2009 8:49:26 PM PDT
by
G8 Diplomat
(I'm learning Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Pashtu, and Russian so someday you won't have to)
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