Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: "Orderly transition" in #Egypt, in reply to Neil Morrison,
Campbell’s implication that Key is, by virtue of his mother and the acclamation of the Jerusalem Post, acting out some sort of traitorous solidarity with Israel, rather than being his typical ill-informed self.
That jumped out for me too. I thought, that can't possibly be what he meant to say ...
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Hard News: "Orderly transition" in #Egypt, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
The online media narrative “it’s about Twitter” is simply a reflection of the traditional media narrative NZer relieved to get out of Egypt. Pick a subgroup that you relate to and write about how they’re affected.
Of course, and that’s a perfectly reasonable approach, so long as you cover the wider story too.
But it does seem worth reiterating that the subgroup of internet users in Egypt is four times the population of New Zealand. I’m willing to bet it makes up more than 16% of the active protesters too.
I’m glad Simon chipped in on this, because it was some of his past comments about political organising via Facebook in Indonesia that I had in mind. I do, personally, find it an interesting element of the big picture.
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A useful Guardian column on the internet shutdown:
As recently as a week ago, Egypt's internet was extraordinary in the Arab world for its freedom. For more than a decade, the regime has adhered to a hands-off policy, leaving unblocked everything from rumours about President Hosni Mubarak's health to videos of police beatings. Unlike most of its regional neighbours and other authoritarian regimes, Egypt's government never built or required sophisticated technical infrastructures of censorship. (Of course, the country has hardly been a paradise of free expression: the state security forces have vigorously suppressed dissent through surveillance, arbitrary detentions and relentless intimidation of writers and editors.)
Partly as a result of its liberal policies, Egypt became a hub for internet and mobile network investment, home to a thriving and competitive communications sector that pioneered free dial-up services, achieved impressive rates of access and use, and offered speedy wireless and broadband networks at relatively low prices. Indeed, Egypt is today one of the major crossing points for the underwater fibre-optic cables that interconnect the regions of the globe.
But last Thursday, the Mubarak regime shattered a decade's worth of accomplishment by issuing the order to shut down the mobile networks and internet links. Since the internet age dawned in the early 90s, no widely connected country had disconnected itself entirely. The starkness and suddenness of Egypt's reversal – from unrestricted to unreachable – marks one of the many tragedies of the Mubarak regime's brutal and hamfisted response to last week's emergence of citizen protests.
Also, a table of internet penetration in the Middle East and North Africa.
Egypt has a relatively low penetration rate (~16%) but the highest number of internet users in the region: ~13 million.
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Hard News: "Orderly transition" in #Egypt, in reply to giovanni tiso,
There have certainly been widely circulated materials on demo strategy that expressedly urged participants not to use Facebook or Twitter, for they'd be monitored. I'm not denying that they might have been of some use - hey, protestors will use whatever ICT is available, what's new? -
Well, in that it's not new in Egypt, sure. The student end of the pro-democracy movement was using Facebook groups in 2008. The extent of their impact is a matter of debate, but the regime came down hard on the organisers.
what's been really appalling is how social media-obsessed types have insisted to make it the story, as they did wrt to Iran. If I read the phrase "the Twitter generation" one more time in the coverage of this thing I'm going to kill somebody.
It's not the story, certainly, but in the context of the regime's near-total shutdown of electronic communications, it is a story.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to recordari,
Actually, left Laneways before they played as my back started to remind me standing up for 8 hours is for the kids.
Us too. But it was really nice to hear them playing live via bFM when we got home.
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Hard News: "Orderly transition" in #Egypt, in reply to Andre Alessi,
I agree. It's much harder to fight against the state when the state could be any old stranger walking beside you.
There also seems to be reasonable evidence that at least some of the looters have been agents provocateurs.
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@adbu on Twitter is reporting that the last internet provider in Egypt is about to go dark -- followed by the entire mobile phone network. Holy shit.
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Hard News: "Orderly transition" in #Egypt, in reply to Christiaan,
Talk of Twitter revolutions have been overblown but Gladwell underestimated the utility of these tools. This is definitely a revolution of the people but they’ve been highly organised, making good use of Twitter and Facebook.
I thought that was the point he missed in Iran. Sure, the majority of people there weren't using Twitter, but student organisers in particular were -- in large part because the mullahs hadn't worked out how to block Twitter effectively. Just as you'd noted wrt Egypt, you could see some of it actually taking place. I helped pass on a couple of anonymous proxies via a friend, which felt nice.
But speaking of Anonymous ... Anonymous's threat to mount DDoS attacks against Egyptian government websites is pathetic. Like the regime really cares about that. Like DDoS attacks are actually what the Egyptian internet needs. Like shutting down websites is a useful response to the shutting down of the internet. It's verging on attention-seeking.
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Hard News: "Orderly transition" in #Egypt, in reply to Stephen Judd,
Someone suggested that cutting off internet and phone service actually drove the protests, as people went into the streets and talked to their neighbours to find out what was happening. Once you’re on the street anyway, and there’s a crowd, why not join it?
That would be ironic, wouldn't it?
The story last week that had residents opening their wi-fi networks so protestors could communicate after mobile networks were shut down may or may not be true, but it's bloody lovely if it is.
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Hard News: "Orderly transition" in #Egypt, in reply to Andre Alessi,
but in this case I think he had the right approach, and I'm struggling to understand what Clark would have done differently when faced with those questions while she was PM.
I disagree. The US and European leaders have effectively cut Mubarak loose; Key is still praising him. That said, I don't think what John Key says on Breakfast is really the big story here.