Look out! Web tools can be used to promote human rights or to undermine human rights

Scott  Shane at the NY Times provides an in-depth look at the uprising in Egypt and how both governments and dissidents can use social media to their advantage. Shane leads off with these words:

WASHINGTON — Fear is the dictator’s traditional tool for keeping the people in check. But by cutting off Egypt’s Internet and wireless service late last week in the face of huge street protests, President Hosni Mubarak betrayed his own fear — that Facebook, Twitter, laptops and smartphones could empower his opponents, expose his weakness to the world and topple his regime.

However, the situation has become much more complex:

Tunisia’s uprising offers the latest encouragement for a comforting notion: that the same Web tools that so many Americans use to keep up with college pals and post passing thoughts have a more noble role as well, as a scourge of despotism. It was just 18 months ago, after all, that the same technologies were hailed as a factor in Iran’s Green Revolution, the stirring street protests that followed the disputed presidential election.

But since that revolt collapsed, Iran has become a cautionary tale. The Iranian police eagerly followed the electronic trails left by activists, which assisted them in making thousands of arrests in the crackdown that followed. The government even crowd-sourced its hunt for enemies, posting on the Web the photos of unidentified demonstrators and inviting Iranians to identify them.

“The Iranian government has become much more adept at using the Internet to go after activists,” said Faraz Sanei, who tracks Iran at Human Rights Watch. The Revolutionary Guard, the powerful political and economic force that protects the ayatollahs’ regime, has created an online surveillance center and is believed to be behind a “cyberarmy” of hackers that it can unleash against opponents, he said. 

Read Shane’s complete article here.

The Beijing/Denver Connection: Tinderbox Environment

PUMA Heads for Denver

The summer Olympics ended in Beijing today on Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008, the day before the Democratic convention is scheduled to begin in Denver and believe it or not, there may well be a connection between the two events.

The Christian Science Monitor reports on how China played its role as Olympic host:

“One prediction that did ring true was that China refused to allow protests, contrary to its past pledges. Domestic critics were silenced beforehand or snared by catch-22 rules on protest permits. Foreign activists seeking to publicize the cause of Tibet pulled off symbolic stunts that few spectators noticed.”

It appears that one of China’s goals was to present to the world a unified country, even at the cost of stifling any signs of dissent.

We Americans are grateful that we live in a country where we have freedom of speech, and dissent is recognized as an important element of living in a democracy.

Oops! I just saw this article by Lisa Wangsness in today’s Boston Globe:

“Democratic Party leaders have spent weeks preparing a national convention this week that will burst with symbols of unshakable unity behind Senator Barack Obama.

“But outside the convention arena in Denver, some of Hillary Clinton's supporters plan to air their grievances against Obama, the party's leadership, and the national media, whose coverage of the primary battle they considered sexist. Hundreds of disaffected Democrats from around the country plan to converge in the Mile High City to hold news conferences, protests, and vigils, threatening the party's ability to present a united front against Republican John McCain.

Wangsness continues:

‘“While many Clinton delegates say they will back Obama and do not intend to embarrass him, grass-roots activists planning protests outside the convention hope to disrupt the sense of unity party leaders are cultivating.‘This is a voter's revolt,’ said Darragh Murphy, who founded Puma PAC, a pro-Clinton political action committee whose acronym stands for People United Means Action.

“Polls suggest Obama's narrow national lead is all but disappearing amid attacks from a newly aggressive and disciplined McCain campaign. One reason for this appears to be that barely half of Clinton's supporters plan to vote for Obama, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released last week. With the last two presidential elections decided by a small number of voters in swing states, Obama needs a unified party to win in November.

‘“Puma PAC is among a multitude of pro-Clinton groups that formed online to protest a variety of issues, including perceived media bias and flaws in the primary process. In Denver, Murphy's group plans to show the premiere of an unfinished movie, ‘The Audacity of Democracy,’ and is cosponsoring a protest and candlelight salute to Clinton tomorrow. Another group, PUMA 08, will coordinate communication between its members and the press, and provide a home base for bloggers who support Clinton.”’

“A separate organization, 18 Million Voices Rise Hillary Rise, is calling on Clinton supporters to join a march and gathering celebrating Clinton's achievements and the 88th anniversary of women's suffrage on Tuesday.

“Democratic analysts downplay the significance of the demonstrators because Clinton's top aides and prominent supporters have shunned them. But analysts are aware they could be a distraction.”

Wangsness reports that Democratic strategist Chris Lehane made the Beijing/Denver connection:

‘“I think the vast majority of the Hillary folks did fall in love with Hillary - and now are certainly falling in line with Obama. Having said that, there's going to be the largest gathering of press outside of Beijing in Denver this week, with all of them on a hair-trigger for the slightest sign of dissonance and conflict. . . . It has all the elements of a tinderbox environment.’

True democracy is always kind of messy, Mr. Lehane, and you and your cohorts could have avoided the potential for “dissonance and conflict” had you seen fit to speak out against the misogynous attacks on Hillary Clinton by party leaders and media allies during the Democratic primary. And of course, some of those unpleasant distractions now building up in Denver might have been avoided had the DNC planned a convention offering a legitimate election instead of a media event designed to convey a false sense of unity.

To read the Lisa Wangsness article in its entirety go here.

Support for Myanmar

Bill Varner reported Oct. 2 for Bloomberg -- '"China and Russia were among the 47 members of the United Nations Human Rights Council to unanimously adopt a resolution that ``strongly deplores'' the Myanmar government's crackdown on the country's biggest pro- democracy protests in almost 20 years."'