The 463: Inside Tech

The Egyptian Facebook "Revolution"

General Al Jazeera story on the protests

Jack Fairweather of Islam's Advance (Newsweek/WaPo) writes a fascinating post on the role of Facebook in organizing recent protests in Egypt. He notes that the social network has engaged young moderates and liberals in the type of political activity previously reserved for Islamists. The piece also suggests that the impact of the social network might be overblown thus far. Of course, that could be true, but, then again, could you imagine reading an article like this two or three years ago?

A excerpt:

When most people log onto Facebook, the thought of fermenting revolution is pretty far from their minds. But in the Middle East, and most recently in Egypt, Facebook has become an important platform for dissent in countries that routinely clampdown on liberal activists, and where the mosque has traditionally been the only outlet for venting political frustration.

Last month saw the arrest of Esra Abdel Fattah, 27, after she formed a group on Facebook calling for protests against the high price of food and other commodities in Egypt. Strike action was already planned by factory workers in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla al-Kobra, and the Facebook group, which attracted 64,000 members, tapped into a national mood of unrest. During Fattah’s incarceration, police clashed with protestors in Mahalla, killing three; some 500 people were detained.

By the time Egyptian police freed her two weeks ago, Fattah, an active online activist and member of the liberal al-Ghad political party, had become something of a cyber folk hero, feted by Middle Eastern bloggers and tech-minded students.

Singapore Regulation and a Japanese Update

Singapore is currently considering how to best regulate Internet content and have asked a group of 15 bloggers to help them formulate a framework.  From TodayOnline:

An open letter on proposed changes to Internet regulation will soon be sent to the Ministry of Information, Community and the Arts (Mica) by a group of 15 bloggers.

Their proposals include the setting up of an Internet consultative committee for the free and responsible use of digital media, and for rules governing speech to be the same across media platforms...

...The "platform-neutral" regulations should also be as minimal as those regulating the "current freest platform", which they believe to be film.

Nice gesture.  But, of course, whether buttoned-downed Singaporean government listens to the bloggers is a whole other story.

Now, if the Japanese government listens to 91 percent of the public there, "harmful" Internet content will be shielded from those under 18-years-old.  We wrote up a piece on the Japanese march toward content regulation earlier this month.  Today, the Daily Yomiuri provides a update and broaches the white elephant in the regulation...

At a meeting on April 11 of the LDP General Council's committee on countermeasures against illegal and harmful information, many members questioned the advisability of allowing the government to get involved in vetting information on the Internet.

"People have different views about what is and isn't harmful," one committee member said.

Unlike judgments on explicitly illegal information, such as instigating murder or the use of narcotics or stimulants, distinguishing between "wholesome" and "harmful" information can be difficult.

Indeed, but it seems like they are still going to try.

Incoming Russian Prez Is Not as Dumb About the Internet as (Insert Favorite Senator Here)

The NYT blog, The Lede, has an interesting bit on the the incoming Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev.  Apparently, not only has he used the Internet, he understands it (!) and can speak intelligently to current online trends.  The bar is indeed low.

Most relevant to this space is the fact that the Times notes that Russia maintains a fairly minimalistic regulatory regime over the Internet...for now...

Unlike in China, the Internet in Russia is not censored and is full of online newspapers, magazines and videos that criticize the government. By contrast, the Kremlin controls television, and although independent newspapers and radio stations exist, they have relatively small audiences.

Under President Vladimir V. Putin, the Kremlin has considered measures that would tighten control over the Internet. It is currently drafting a law that would force websites to register with the government. A few bloggers have been prosecuted for remarks that were deemed offensive or extremist. Russian Internet entrepreneurs are hoping that Mr. Medvedev will push back against these efforts.

Photo by kecko

 

Add Pakistan to the List

YouTube is banned "till further orders"....

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) told the country's 70 Internet service providers Friday that the popular website would be blocked until further notice, the Associated Press reports.

The authority did not specify what the offensive material was, but a PTA official said the ban concerned a movie trailer for an upcoming film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, who has said he plans to release an anti-Koran movie portraying the religion as fascist and prone to inciting violence against women and homosexuals.

Even better, this move apparently cut off traffic to the video site for a mere two-thirds of the world.

Seemingly, this is not part of Pakistan's recent hire of a US PR firm to "polish its image".

UPDATE: One day later, the ban is lifted.

UK Government to Push ISP Filtering Plan

This will make some noise... (from the Times)...

People who illegally download films and music will be cut off from the internet under new legislative proposals to be unveiled next week.

Internet service providers (ISPs) will be legally required to take action against users who access pirated material, The Times has learnt....

...Ministers will make an explicit commitment to legislate with the launch next week of a Green Paper on the creative industries. A draft copy, obtained by The Times, states: “We will move to legislate to require internet service providers to take action on illegal file-sharing.” A consultation paper setting out the options is promised within months.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes for those who want ISPs to filter "indecent" material to get in on the act as this process plays out.

Doesn't Anyone Remember the Movie "Heathers"?

The sad story goes like this.

Small Wales town named Bridgend.

Fourteen teen suicides in one year.

Despair. Anger. Reflection. Blame!

Pointed fingers. Right at the Web. "Social Networking Websites."

"it was revealed she used the computer hours before she died"

"Randall's death raised fears that the suicides were related to a desire for the "prestige" that is associated with having a memorial page on the social networking site Bebo."

Call to action! Now!

Conservative MP has a plan.

"A string of teenage suicides has highlighted the urgent need to tighten up internet safety for youngsters"

Self-regulation has failed.

Solution: An Internet Standards Authority -- A "co-regulatory structure" for the internet, bringing together parties including law enforcement agencies, government, charities and parents.

The enforcers?

ISPs. Of Course.

What to censor? Easy. "Harmful content would include content where cultural, taste and decency judgments have to be made."

Moreover. No sites with this: "glorification of violence and terrorism, pornography, cyber-bullying, suicide, internet gambling and anorexia websites"

ISPs would offer two-tiers of content for kids and adults. The "default" would be for kids. Opt-out. Like the Australian plan.

Need a password to read about anorexia.

No happy endings involving Winona Ryder.

Mandatory Filtering in Europe?

Susan Crawford (an esteemed professor and ICANN board member) isn't one to toss around rumors lightly. In an interesting ISP-level filtering round-up, she mentions that China is having second thoughts about the breadth of its Great Firewall and that the US is creating a "Voice of America" for software that would enable "widespread ... Internet use where the Internet is now censored."

But, juicily, she also says: "There are strong rumors that a concerted effort is underway in the EU to mandate ISP filtering for (at the least) copyright issues and indecent material."

Already, France has taken a lead in developing legislation that would mandate ISP-level filtering for copyrighted material on P2P networks. And, the international version of the RIAA (IFPI), hopes that the French effort is extended to other countries. However, a European Parliament amendment that would create filtering rules failed in January.

France is one thing. (So is Australia). Copyright rules are another. Copyright AND "indecency" mandates across the EU are more than exponentially quite another and would blast open a Pandora's Box. Boom.

Many Small Ladders; One Great Firewall

Today, the International Herald Tribune delves into China's Internet censorship policies and efforts to combat them...

For the vast majority of Internet users, censorship still does not appear to be much of a factor. The most popular Web applications here are games and messaging services, and the most-visited Internet sites focus on everyday subjects like entertainment news and sports. Many, in fact, seem only vaguely aware that the Chinese Internet universe is carefully pruned, and even among those who know, a majority hardly seems to care.

But growing numbers of others are becoming increasingly resentful of restrictions on a wide range of Web sites, including Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, MySpace (sometimes), Blogspot and many other sites that the public sees as sources of harmless diversion or information.

The mounting resentment has inspired a wave of increasingly determined social resistance of a kind that is uncommon in China.

(Flickr photo by Hannibal Poenaru)

YouTube Korea Faces Regulatory Hurdles

Despite the enthusiasm of the Koreans in the video above, The Korea Times has a skeptical piece on YouTube's launch in the Korean market.  Competition in a crowded field of familiar Korean brands is one big issue.  The others are regulatory burdens that would send a million blogs a-blazing if they were implemented in the US...

Censorship is another critical issue that YouTube must solve. The Korean government enforces relatively strict guidelines for sexual, violent, or politically controversial contents on Web sites. So major local portals such as Naver and Daum employ several hundreds of monitors in Korea and in China who check all video and text content and filter inappropriate material 24 hours a day.
 
YouTube's Arsiwala said Wednesday that the firm will do its best to comply with the Korean regulations. But there certainly will be loopholes because of the sheer amount of the videos uploaded onto the site ― Arsiwala says that YouTube sees about 10 hours of videos uploaded every minute.

Yes, New Hampshire (and Nevada and South Carolina...), There is a Tech Policy Issue That Matters

Supporting free trade at CES

CNET's Anne Broache went to the site of Tuesday's big primary earlier this week to file the shocking news that the average voter in New Hampshire doesn't give a rat's rear-end about net neutrality and other geek policy issues fawned over on this page. And, we've said as much here for as long as we've been pumping out posts. At the height of the NN debate, we noted how few average Internet users cared about it. And, we have suggested that it won't be until 2012 for an issue like privacy to become presidential debate-worthy.

But, hold on a minute people. Don't get your geek dawbers down. There is a tech policy issue being debated at every turn of this campaign. You may just be missing the forrest for the trees. The issue is free trade and, if you haven't noticed, the fear-driven creep of protectionism is spreading as the election year rhetoric heats up.

Free trade has a huge impact on innovation, the success of both big and small companies that touch technology and consumers of everything from big TVs to little pacemakers. This is why the Consumer Electronics Association is taking on the issue as a priority and made free trade a front and center focus at this week's massive CES event.

A gaggle of 463ers attended the event and, working with CEA, helped get the good word about free trade out at the show. Part of this meant jumping headfirst into retail politics and manning a booth (above) that helped get thousands of CES attendees to send a letter to their congressional representatives in support of free trade. It was fascinating to hear firsthand how many small business owners attending the show rely on free trade to keep their American employees employed and well-paid.

What worried me, though, were the good number of people who stopped to ask who could possible be against free trade. And, they were surprised to learn that something they took for granted as a motherhood and apple pie issue could be threatened.

As CEA's president Gary Shapiro noted in his CES keynote, there are plenty of people using free trade as a wedge issue for their own interests...

From coverage of Shaprio's speech:

He cited a CEA survey showing that 69 percent of Americans "agree that free trade is important." But that consensus, Shapiro added, is threatened. "Free trade. Given the [political] climate today, it is not a given."

As the enemy, Shapiro identified "protectionists and isolationists," as well as "pundits, politicians and TV demagogues holding out protectionism as a solution to our economic problems."

He said, "I believe that our digital destiny is as inevitable as the discovery of America." But he added, "Never before have I been as concerned that some in our country might restrict our leadership toward that digital destiny." Shapiro said that a trend toward isolationism, which was common in the U.S. before World War II, is "dangerous and disturbing."

Against the forces of economic retrenchment, Shapiro said that free trade, especially in technology, represents America's best hope. "Technology has become the shining star of the new economy," said Shapiro. "We believe that our technologies improve the world." (EETimes)

The Hollywood Reporter also notes how free trade created one of the bigger truces of tech policy (if for a moment this week)...

The Hollywood studios, consumer electronics makers and the music industry have called a temporary truce and are teaming to convince lawmakers of the importance of free trade.

The heads of the groups' major trade organizations told lawmakers in a letter released Monday that it was in the country's best interest to approve a number of trade agreements pushed by the Bush administration.

Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Assn., told reporters "it was the first time in my career" that he had agreed to sign on with "two organizations I have opposed for years" -- the MPAA and the RIAA.

"While we disagree strongly on the specifics of intellectual property, we agree on this point," he told reporters during a telephone news conference from the CEA's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

For more on CEA's perspective, go to the organization's International Trade special section of their Web site and see Sharpiro's CNET op-ed titled "Protectionism Never Works." And, remember, if you are looking for an issue that impacts technology this election year, it may be right in front of you.