Global Voices Advocacy » Leila Nachawati

Facebook's Suspicious Behavior

Leila Nachawati — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 16:02:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, as I was writing a Facebook update, I noticed that a friend who had been arrested in Syria had “liked” a Facebook page dedicated to selling insurance policies. I was shocked and immediately checked his status to see whether he had been released. He had not updated his status for months, and yet he appeared to like some random page from a company that I do not believe he would have had any interest in anyway.

I thought it was a mistake and did not do further research on the issue until I read a post by Read Write Social focusing on unusual behavior regarding “likes” and “ads”. The examples mentioned by the author include liberal friends liking Mitt Romney, a committed anarchist liking corporate brands, and even a friend liking pages months after her death.

Facebook Button by birgerking on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Facebook´s explanation to Read Write Social reads: “the ´likes´from dead people can happen if an account doesn't get ´memorialized´,” meaning that someone has informed Facebook that the account-holder has died. Many questions remain, however: What if the user never liked the page in the first place? What is the explanation for this.. unusual behavior? What are the implications of someone “liking” something they don't actually like? One example of this is that Facebook “likes” have been used in court cases in the past.

At Global Voices Advocacy we are concerned about this and have contacted Facebook about it. We received an email from a Facebook spokesperson thanking us for bringing the issue to their attention but we have not received any explanation so far.

We have also conducted a survey among our community to find out whether our members have noticed unusual behavior regarding Facebook pages and ads. From the 20 users who responded, 12 reported suspicious occurrences:

“Yes, constantly. Here are a couple of cases: Friends without kids liking Pamper.s ads; a guy liking Falabella, a retail store promoting jewelry; my husband liking a news outlet that had nothing to do with his interests”

“Yes, I notice this every day. Is this part of some hidden advertising campaign?”

“Yes, it happened to me once. I don´t remember the page name but it was some indian cricketer”

Yes, it happened several times. When i go the Pages Feed I find updates from pages i liked along with pages that i never liked. I couldn't understand on what basis as there is no common things between the pages i didn't like. One example is a page about food, Shawerma El Rim.

The fact that Facebook users may appear showing interest or support for content they may not agree with is a dangerous indicator. What someone likes or dislikes, the news they follow and the campaigns they support has to do with their identity, and faking this may compromise them publicly.

Another response to our survey highlights the following:

“I recently took screenshots where my friend ‘liked’ Mitt Romney and Lincoln Cars, neither of which appeared in his ‘likes’ according to his Facebook page. (Just on my Facebook homepage) He told me he had never “liked” either one of those pages. He is also a pretty devout Democrat, and received a bunch of ‘hate’ Facebook messages because of the ‘like’ being displayed.”

The responses we collected reflect complaints not only regarding Facebook pages and ads but also the Event tool:

“My friend created a birthday event only for 6 classmates, but her privacy setting for event was “Friends of Friends”. I checked with her, she had invited only 6 of us. I was shocked to find out that my cousin had clicked the “Maybe” option, meaning she had been invited, since my friend and her are not friends! Someone else who is neither my friend not the event creator's friend also (have) appeared to have joined the event. We don’t know who he is, and he was obviously not invited to this event. This sounds very dangerous to me. What if this person actually showed up in my friend´s house?”

Who is behind these fake “likes” and invitations?

According to the author of the Read Write Social piece, Bernard Meisler, “it’s hard to imagine that Facebook would start ‘liking’ stuff on people’s behalf without their knowledge or consent. Even for Mark Zuckerberg, the guy who once said of his members, ‘They trust me — dumb fucks,’ this would be a stretch.”

However, it is also hard to imagine that brands and third party advertisers would act without Facebook´s knowledge and consent. Either way, Facebook should be concerned about what this means for its credibility and reliability.

International Day to End Impunity: Join the Campaign

Leila Nachawati — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 23:56:58 +0000

Accountability: The acknowledgment and assumption of responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies.

Impunity: In the international law of human rights, it refers to the failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice and, as such, itself constitutes a denial of the victims’ right to justice and redress.

At Global Voices Advocacy, we strongly believe in accountability as a way to prevent crimes from repeating themselves. Freedom of expression online is our focus, and we have witnessed an alarming trend in online censorship in recent years. Whether it is to purportedly fight pornography, to supposedly protect intellectual property or for alleged security reasons, netizens everywhere are increasingly vulnerable to Internet restrictions and repression.

Source: IFEX's 2012 Toolkit

Acts of online “thuggery” by dictatorial governments against netizens have intensified. Cyberactivists are jailed, harassed, tortured and even killed for using the internet to denounce repressive regimes: Cao Haibao in China, Twitter users in Bahrain, blogger Ruy Salgado in Mexico, Facebook users in Iran, the Bulgarian authors of the local version of Wikileaks, Vietnamese musicians, and countless Syrian bloggers and video-activists, are all but just a few of the most recent cases we documented.

To keep track of this worrying trend, we launched a couple of years ago, Threatened Voices, a project of Global Voices Advocacy dedicated to documenting and publicizing the cases of endangered netizens around the world.

From our experience reporting on human rights abuses on a daily basis, the crimes which remain unaccounted for are the most likely to continue being repeated. Impunity gives oppressive governments a carte blanche to silence opposition to their policies, as we have witnessed in the case of Syria and other repressive regimes. That is why it is crucial that netizens worldwide stand up to demand protection of online rights and freedoms.

To demand justice for all artists, journalists, musicians and writers who are forcibly silenced around the world, IFEX has decided to name November 23th the International Day to End Impunity:

The goal of the Day is to achieve justice for those persecuted for exercising their right to freedom of expression by drawing global attention to the issue of impunity. The Day not only raises public awareness about what creates and sustains a culture of impunity, it also prompts concerned citizens worldwide to take action, make their voices heard and demand justice.

We, at Global Voices Advocacy, gladly join the campaign focusing on freedom of expression online.

You too can join by sending us a video, a photo, a hand-made drawing, a short text (500 words long) or any piece of creativity about one or all of the following:

How do you think the internet would look like if censorship was prohibited by law;
How the cyberspace would look like if censors could not get away with their actions anymore;
Tell us how you fight online censorship and share your successful stories with us!

For an overview of the state of online censorship worldwide, you can review our Online Censorship Special Coverage Page. You can also read the latest edition of our Netizen Reports: Netizen Report: Baku edition.

Thanks to Rayna St. and Hisham Almiraat for their help in writing this post.

EU to Tighten Rules on Surveillance Technology Exports

Leila Nachawati — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 23:42:42 +0000

“It is unacceptable that regimes in Syria and Iran can use European technologies to violate human rights”. Marietje Schaake

Activists have been fighting the battle against technology exports to repressive countries for years. To track and surveil citizens online, regimes such as Mubarak´s in Egypt or Assad´s in Syria have relied on Western technology. The latest Wikileaks files on Syria reveal that the involvement of Western companies in the crackdown against Syrian citizens has continued despite sanctions and international pressure.

Tightening the rules

Now the EU seems to have finally agreed to take action on tightening the rules that have made these exports possible. In January the EU announced regulation No. 36/2012 to ban surveillance technology exports to Syria. This would cover the “sale, maintenance and updates of systems for ‘deep-packet inspection’ of e-mail contents, remote infection of computers, speaker recognition, ‘tactical’ interception of text messages,” among other technologies.

Within a strategy that the EU announces as “seeking to anchor and mainstream the promotion and protection of digital freedom”, Parliamentarians are now calling for stricter control on dual-use technology to prevent it from being used by repressive regimes. But what does this involve?

EU member states will be obliged to block technology exports to countries facing emergency situations.
Companies should ask for export authorization if they have reasons to believe that certain exports might harm human rights

How will this be implemented?

According to Dutch Member of European Parliament Marietje Schaake´s proposal, the European Commission will be required to provide a regularly updated list of restricted products and countries. An upgraded EU control system would guarantee that the EU knows what is being sold to whom, and whether the sale is potentially dangerous.

Is the European Commission really committed to this? “The Commission should take all necessary steps to implement these updates”, Schaake has assured Global Voices Advocacy (GVA). “If they don't, we will remind them.”

GVA has expressed the wish that this process is as transparent as possible. Schaake has welcomed active participation from citizens on making sure this regulation is effectively implemented:

“I am happy to pass on suggestions from citizens to those responsible. It helps when more people are raising their voices against digital arms trade. For many people in Europe it is hard to imagine that technologies used in Syria, Iran, and other countries are literally of vital importance.“

Syria Files: More Western technology for the Syrian regime

Leila Nachawati — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 23:02:49 +0000

Photo via Wikileaks.org

Western technology has played a key role in providing the Syrian regime with tools to track and repress citizens for years. The latest Wikileaks files on Syria, which include more than two million emails from political figures and companies, reveal that the involvement of Western companies in the crackdown against Syrian citizens has continued despite sanctions and international pressure.

Supplying support for communications equipment

According to emails published by Wikileaks on 5 July, Italian defence company Finmeccanica has been supplying support for communications equipment to the Syrian regime since 2008. That year Selex Elsag, a branch of Finmeccanica, signed a contract with the Syrian Wireless Organization through the leading Greek telecommunications firm Intracom S.A. to supply high-tech radios. It agreed to increase the size of the contract in May 2011, by which time unrest had already spread across the country.

Finmeccanica-Selex Elsag is not the first Western firm involved in aiding the Syrian regime. Logs released by the activist group Telecomix last year exposed that the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment had been using U.S. company Bluecoat devices in order to filter and monitor HTTP connections in the country. (Note: A U.S. Department of Commerce spokesperson acknowledged in April this year that Blue Coat is under investigation.) Area SpA, a surveillance company based outside Milan, worked for years on installing a system that would allow the Syrian government “to dip into virtually any corner of the Internet in the country ”, as well as into mobile phones, fixed lines and vehicles. Shortly before completing the project and amid media pressure against its support of the crackdown against Syrian citizens, Area announced it would exit the project. Selex, however, has continued supplying the Syrian regime.

As sanctions began to pose problems with the supply chain, Selex worked hard to find alternative ways to source the components for the project. In February 2012, almost a year after the beginning of the uprisings and when the death toll had already reached 10,000, it was confirmed that company representatives visited Damascus to train Syrian Intracom Telecom engineers. The relationship with the Syrian regime compromises not only the company but also the Italian government, since Selex is under the control of Rome.

Advice on PR and communications

Technology supply is not the only support received by the Syrian regime from Western companies. Other emails published by Wikileaks reveal that the communications firm Brown Lloyd James has been offering the regime advice on PR and communications. An email sent to senior Asma al-Assad aide Fares Kallas on May 19 2011 offers specific guidance on how to win the media battle:

If hard power is necessary to quell rebellion, soft power is needed to reassure the Syrian people and outside audiences that reform is proceeding apace

The email, sent under the subject “Crisis communication analysis”, includes a list of measures to contain stories that might affect the government´s image abroad. The stories are described by Brown Lloyd James as “negative media stories circulated by opposition figures living outside Syria”, which the firm offers recommendations to counteract:

24-hour media monitoring and response system should be in place with assets in UK and US markets
Social media sites should be monitored and false sites should be challenged and removed
A steady, constantly updated messaging document that contains talking points geared to latest developments

In addition to these measures, the firm insists that “efforts should be made to convey normalcy and a contrast to current news depicting Syria as being on the verge of chaos.” It also recommends appealing to Syrians’ patriotism and intensifying the presence of the First Lady, in order “to show strength and sympathy at once.”

The guidance offered by Brown Lloyd James is consistent with a strategy that the regime has been developing for decades: denying the opposition's legitimacy and focusing on improving the government´s image inside the country and abroad, instead of implementing real changes on the ground.

There is a clear relationship between the technology provided by companies such as Finmeccanica and the crackdown against opponents in Syria. By legitimizing and offering support to the regime´s narrative, Brown Lloyd James also contributes to hindering the Syrian people´s struggle for freedom and justice. Both examples, which may not be the last ones, prove the inconsistency between Western official discourse, which highlights the need to isolate the regime, and the lack of will to end a profitable economic relationship.

Thanks to Wassim Zabad for his help searching the files.

US and European firms help Syrian regime spy on citizens

Leila Nachawati — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:47:22 +0000

Image used with permission

To track and surveil citizens online, repressive regimes in the Middle East and North Africa have relied on Western technology for years. US company BlueCoat has been accused for months of providing the Assads with products for online crackdown, and the firm finally acknowledged that the Syrian regime has been using its products, although without its direct consent. It is not the only Western company providing these services. Italian firm Area S.p.A, a surveillance company based outside Milan, is installing a system that will allow the Syrian government “to dip into virtually any corner of the Internet in the country”, and into mobile phones, fixed lines and vehicles. Area uses equipment from U.S. company NetApp Inc., France’s Qosmos SA and Germany’s Utimaco Safeware AG.

Surveillance technology and embargo trades

There are fundamental differences between the implications of selling this technology for firms like BlueCoat and for European companies like Area or Utimaco. Sales to Syria are not authorised as a result of US trade embargoes since 2004, which include exports to Syria other than food or medicine. BlueCoat, which sells security devices that can also be used to intercept traffic, would be seriously compromised if they were in violation of the trade agreements, and the firm has repeatedly denied selling its products to the Syrian regime. According to Tor researcher Jacob Applebaum, “Bluecoat is lying to everyone about Syria. They know exactly where serial numbers are being used because of a phone home process” (which prevents BlueCoat devices to be in operation without the firm knowing about it.)

Area's products are specifically designed for lawful interception. The firm defines itself as “the Italian leading provider of technology solutions to support Law Enforcement Agencies in interception activities”. Its agreement with the Syrian government will help agents track and analyze data on mobile phones, fixed telephone lines, telephone switchboards, Internet access and vehicles. It also includes training for government agents. However, Area, Utimaco and Qosmos face no legal questioning for providing these services to the Syrian government. The EU has imposed a series of sanctions against Syria since May, including a ban on arms sales, but these do not include surveillance technology. Human rights activists wonder why, since there is a direct relationship between filtering and surveillance technology and the tracking, arrest, torture and killing of potential opponents in Syria.

Is the current agreement on export controls enough?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has worked on a proposal for companies to audit their customers for human rights abuses. The framework includes affirmative investigation of “who´s your customer” before and during sale, and refraining from participating in transactions where investigations reveal evidence or credible concerns that the technologies provided by the company will be used to facilitate human rights violations. However, events like the Intelligence Support Systems World Americas conference celebrated in October, where surveillance firms shared tips on the latest “lawful interception” techniques used to spy on citizens, show how little concern companies show for how their products can be abused around the world. According to Rebecca McKinnon, the problem of “amoral technology being used for immoral purposes has been exacerbated in the Internet age. As long as engineers and companies claim to have no responsibility for the political context in which their inventions and products are used, the problem is going to grow worse.” So what if companies don't act on their own? According to EFF Director for International Freedom of Expression Jillian York,” if companies don´t act on their own some regulatory approach seems inevitable.”

The Wassenaar Agreement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies may be the closest we have come to regulating such services being provided to repressive regimes. This multilateral export control regime includes 40 participating states that accept that certain restrictions should be applied to arm exports, and also to technologies that can be classified as dual-use (technologies normally used for civilian purposes but which may have military applications). It briefly mentions surveillance and monitoring technology:

“ML11.A.: Electronic systems or equipmente, designed either for surveillance and monitoring of the electro-magnetic spectrum for military intelligence or security puroposes or for counteracting such surveillance and monitoring.”

However, the guidelines for entering such category and the restrictions are not properly defined. What kind of electronic surveillance systems fall under this category? And what should be done if a technology does fall under this category? The lack of definition makes it easy for firms to modify their product specifications to bypass the restrictions and makes legal actions against them very difficult.

Supporting citizen struggle for freedom

Since surveillance technology is as necessary for repressive regimes in order to continue their crackdown against citizens as the weapons they import, would it make sense to see surveillance products and services included in the import bans? Should there be a policy similar to that on weapons that specifies what kind of devices can or cannot be exported, and in what terms? According to researcher and hacker Arturo Filastò, “giving these countries the ability to track and analyze data on mobile phones and other devices seems like a bad idea, and policy makers should meet up and figure out what is the best way to regulate this. A number of options could be discussed: technologies that allow remote deactivation in case they get used wrongly, limiting their use… Discussing this is urgent, since there is currently no law to regulate it.”

On a conference that took place on October 28 in Barcelona, “Mediterranean: Cultural Dialogue after the Arab Spring”, activists from the Middle East and North Africa and members of the European Parliament discussed which stand Europe should take in order to support freedom and citizen demands on the south of the Mediterranean. We all agreed that Arab citizens had a hard time trusting the pronouncements of European governments after being confronted with the fact that Europe has supported repressive regimes in different ways for years, and still does. Providing dictatorships with technology to track and censor citizens was one way to do so, and it could boycott all attempts to promote freedom, justice and stability in the region. Within this context, figuring out ways to regulate this does seem urgent.

Detained Bloggers and Journalists in Syria: The List Gets Longer

Leila Nachawati — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:51:27 +0000

Blogger Hussein Ghrer

Since the street protest movement began in March 2011 in Syria, threats and physical attacks against journalists have increased. The list of detained bloggers and journalists gets longer and includes foreign journalists arrested and deported. Among the latest, prominent blogger and programmer Hussein Ghrer, who disappeared on October 24.

On October 27 Reporters Without Borders published a list that includes some of the journalists, bloggers and cyber-activists identified as currently detained in the country:

Qais Abatili, a very active netizen who was arrested on 25 September.

Nizar Al-Baba, an online activist who has been held since 21 September.

Malak Al-Shanawany, a blogger and activist who contributes to many websites. She was arrested on a Damascus street on 22 September. She has been arrested twice before.

Jehad Jamal, a blogger better known by the pseudonym of “Milan,” who has been held since 21 September.

Nizar Adleh, a journalist who contributes to many websites. He has been held since 6 September.

Miraal Brourda, a writer and poet who contributes to many websites.

Ahmed Bilal, a producer for Falesteen TV who was arrested in the Damascus suburb of Mo’adamieh on 13 September.

Amer Matar, a journalist with the daily Al-Hayat, who was arrested on 4 September. This was his second arrest.

Alwan Zouaiter, a journalist who was writing for many Lebanese dailies. He was arrested by intelligence officials in the northern city of Raqqah after returning from Libya. He was initially sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly contacting the Syrian opposition while abroad. The sentence was subsequently reduced to 13 months.

Omar Abdel Salam

Amer Al-As’ad, a first-year information technology student who also writes as a journalist for many Arabic-language dailies. He was arrested on 3 July and arrested again on 4 August. There has been no news of him since then.

Hanadi Zahlout, a freelance journalist who has written many articles for online publications. He was arrested for the second time on 25 July, released four days later and re-arrested on 4 August. He is currently in Adra prison.

Omar Al-As’ad, a journalist who writes for many Arabic-language dailies. He is also a final-year information technology student. He was arrested on 5 July and re-arrested on 4 August. There has been no news of him since then.

Rudy Othman and Asim Hamsho, two bloggers who were arrested at the start of August.

Abd Qabani, a netizen arrested on 8 August.

Ammar Sa’ib, a netizen arrested on 1 August in Damascus.

Mohamed Tahan Jamal, a member of the League of Arab Writers and Union of Journalists, who was arrested on 20 July after signing the “Aleppo Appeal for the Nation.”

Abd Al-Majid Tamer and Mahmoud Asem Al-Mohamed, two journalists working for Kurdish news websites who were arrested on 31 May.

Manaf Al Zeitoun, who was arrested on 25 March. There has been no news of him since his arrest.

Repression against freedom of speech is not unprecedented in Syria, whose authorities have prevented journalists from entering the country for decades. On March 24, Syrian political adviser Buthaina Shaaban announced on behalf of the Regional Command of the Baath Party a list of reforms that included a free press. On August 28, President Bashar al-Assad approved a new media law that purportedly upholds freedom of expression and bans the arrest of journalists. Yet, less than a week later, a Syrian journalist and contributor to the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat was arrested, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported, and dozens of others have followed. Also according to CPJ:

A close look to the legislation, Decree No. 108, suggests the Assad regime is simply paying lip service to reform.

The announced reforms have had no effect on the ground, and the list of journalists and bloggers arrested and disappeared has never been longer. Reporters Without Borders has also added President Bashar AlAssad to its list of Predators of Press Freedom, that includes organizations and individuals “who cannot stand the press, treat it as an enemy and directly attack journalists.”

According to Syrian activist Rami Jarah (aka Alexander Page), who was imprisoned twice in Damascus:

Over the past weeks the Syrian regime has performed a vicious crackdown against bloggers and social activists inside Syria. Those compromised and detained for such “acts of crime” are subjected to unbelievable hostility and usually tortured severely. It´s all part of Assad's lack of tolerance to freedom of speech. Online Activists use a number of different techniques to encrypt the data they are sending and receiving through Syria's one and only Internet Service provider: “Bashar Al Assad”.

On a blog that activists have put together to demand the immediate disclosure of the fate of Hussein Ghrer and the release of all prisoners of conscience, they also refer to words as weapons in a context where freedom of speech is considered an enemy:

Fear of freedom and hatred against all liberties are responsible for Hussein´s detention. Words are Hussein´s weapons, and ours too. We want these weapons to break the silence. We command you to raise your voice for Hussein´s freedom and all prisoners of conscience in Syrian cells.

Syria: Prominent Blogger Disappears in Damascus

Leila Nachawati — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:34:10 +0000

Syrian blogger Hussein Ghrer left his home in Damascus on Monday, October 24, and has not come back. He is a thirty-year-old married father of two and has blogged and participated in numerous solidarity campaigns for Palestine, as well as the blogger campaign against the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights, and campaigns for solidarity with victims of honor crimes.

The most recent post on Ghrer's blog focuses on the arrest earlier this year of now-released Syrian blogger Anas Maarawi in the context of freedom in Syria. The post includes references to the situation bloggers face in the country:

كمدونين لا نملك غير قلمنا لنعبر عن جزء يسير جداً مما يعتمل في قلوبنا من خوف على الوطن من هذا الوحش الذي يسمى فساداً والمحمي بقوة القانون الأمني الذي لا يعلوا فوقه قانون

“As bloggers, we have nothing but our writing to express a very little part of what hurts us so much. Our hearts ache in front of this monster that's called corruption, protected by the force of security law, which is above any other law in this country.”

Activists have put together a Facebook campaign calling for his release and a blog in which they call for Syrian authorities to disclose information about Ghrer and release those detained in violation of the law and human rights (full statement in English here):

We demand the immediate disclosure of the fate of our friend and fellow blogger Hussein Ghrer and the release of all prisoners of conscience, since their detention is against the law and universal human rights. We also demand the end of persecution against freedom of speech, because blind force, no matter how strong it is, will stay blind, and will stumble until it falls for good.

Bloggers from all over the world have already joined the campaign, which is growing rapidly fueled by the buzz created over twitter:

w43L: Another Syrian blogger arrested @husseinghrer facebook.com/pages/Free-Syr… # FreeHussein

Omniya: Hussein could be you , could be me. could be anyone walking down the street . # FreeHussein #Syria

Syriangavroche:الحرية لحسين غرير!! # freehussein#Syria

Amid the Syrian government's crackdown against all forms of opposition, Ghrer's words on his latest post seem now more meaningful than ever:

Silence doesn't serve us after today. We don't want a country where we get imprisoned for uttering a word. We want a country that embraces and welcomes words.

BlueCoat: US technology surveilling Syrian citizens online

Leila Nachawati — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:48:26 +0000

In the context of repression in the Middle East and North Africa, surveillance technology has played a key role in providing authoritarian regimes with the tools necessary to track citizens online. Among these companies, BlueCoat has proved to be the most efficient in helping the Syrian regime control every movement of Syrians on the Internet.

Every movement of Syrians online is monitored

On October 5, Telecomix collective released 54 Gigabytes of log files taken from Syrian BlueCoat devices that cover the period from 22nd of July to 5th of August, 2011. Bluecoat, an American company, produces proxy devices, tools that offer web caching, virus scanning, and content filtering. Such devices can also be used to conduct surveillance.

The logs released by Telecomix show that the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment has been using Bluecoat devices in order to filter and monitor HTTP connections in the country. BlueCoat has denied selling products to the Syrian regime before, as sales to Syria are not authorised as a result of US trade embargoes, but these logs prove that BlueCoat products have been used as the main technology for surveillance in Syria, perhaps through resellers located in neighboring countries.

Following the Telecomix release, BlueCoat did not respond to direct enquires about the sale of their products to the Syrian government. After multiple attempts, a company spokesperson protested they “don´t sell technology to Syria.”

This graphic by researcher Arturo Filastò shows the entries that are most requested and blocked in different parts of the country. The logs show that the majority of blocked sites relate to software, advertising, social media, and search engines, as well as some pornographic and other adult content, some of which may have been included by default. Included in the list of blocked sites are Islamsyria.com, Islammemo.cc; Muhammadanism.org and Ikhwanonline.com, which show the Syrian regime's obsession with Muslim narratives, but also TourismEgyptonline and Myvisapassport.com, which provide info on obtaining visas to get out of the country.

According to Tor researcher Roger Dingledine, “the release shows that when people in Syria have used Tor, the websites they visit don´t show up in these logs.”Because of the dangers posed by this level of surveillance, he strongly recommends all Syrians use Tor. “The surveillance hasn´t stopped just because we found these logs. So if you don´t want to be in these kind of lists you need to use a privacy tool like Tor.”

A risky release

Telecomix, which defines itself as a “guerrilla informational warfare” group, has helped people in Syria and other countries in the region with censored and monitored web access. With this release, they aimed to allow access to anyone who wishes to analyze the files to provide a deeper insight on Syrian censorship and create more knowledge to circumvent further attacks on freedom of expression. But is this the right way to achieve that? Telecomix states that subscribers'personal IP addresses have been stripped off to protect their privacy, but also note that some personal data are still present in the requested URLs. According to researcher Jacob Appelbaum, “publishing the data is risky. The data was probably already in the hands of the ones wanting to harm the Syrian population but after this release, we can bet that if they did not have a copy, they will now. Publishing an analysis of this data without revealing info on the specific users would have been safer. Syrians are apparently being killed for posting criticisms of Assad on Facebook pages – the authorities will stop at nothing to suppress criticism”

There is clearly a direct relationship between filtering and surveillance technology like BlueCoat and the tracking, arrest, torture and killing of potential opponents in Syria. According to Jillian C. York from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, “we have seen few changes in respect to the sale of surveillance and filtering tools to authoritarian regimes by companies based in the United States and other democratic countries.”With the death toll reaching 3000 according to some sources, and tens of thousands arrested, tortured and disappeared, this release is just further proof of the surveillance Syrians are exposed to every minute of their lives, and the implication of Western technology in this surveillance.

Bahrain: Leading blogger Ali Abdulemam sentenced to 15 years in prison, along with other human rights defenders

Leila Nachawati — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:17:15 +0000

Ali Abdulemam with two of his children

Nine months after leading blogger and human rights activist Ali Abdulemam was arrested along with other political and human rights activists in Bahrain, a military court has sentenced him to 15 years in prison. The rest of activists face sentences that range from two years to life imprisonment, in the context of a crackdown to crush dissent in the country that started in September. The verdicts were immediately condemned by human rights groups such as Reporters without Borders and Amnesty International.

Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program, reports:

“The trials appear to be politically motivated, since we have not seen any evidence that the activists used or advocated violence”.

AI also reports that at least 500 people have been detained in Bahrain since pro-reform protests began in February, four have died in suspicious circumstances in detention and almost 2,000 people have been dismissed or suspended from work. Crackdown against opposition to the ruling dynasty has also reached the point of shooting at peaceful protesters and locking up the nurses and doctors that treat them.

Ali Abdulemam, who is a father of three, was sentenced in absentia. He is known as “the godfather of blogging”, after years of work as a blogger and human rights activist, mainly through his portal BahrainOnline.org, one of the Kingdom’s most popular pro-democracy outlets. Because of his relevance in promoting democratic reforms and freedom of speech in the region through the use of digital tools, his arrest triggered a global campaign during his first ordeal back in 2005. His arrest again in September raised an outpour of support and solidarity, with bloggers from all over the world demanding his release and the release of the other activists. His Facebook group has more than 2.600 members and is growing rapidly fueled by the buzz created over twitter by many users.

Shadaio @Drdoos_BPR @abdulemam You should be proud that your words can make a difference. Keep it up

maryamalkhawaja In absentia: Ali AbdulEmam: 15 years imprisonment. Known as the Godfather of blogging. #bahrain #jun1

Shortly after being released on February 23, Abdulemam disappeared again, and neither his family nor any of his closest friends know his whereabouts.

Bahrain´s authorities continue to ignore international pressure, which has resulted into cancellation of the prestigious Formula 1 Grand Prix race in Bahrain for 2011, after the F1 teams unanimously objected to the race date due to the human rights abuses in the country.

Human rights organization Front Line Defenders reports:

“The verdict and the fact that the trial took place before a military court whose procedures fall far short of internationally recognised fair trial standards underlines the determination of the Government of Bahrain to secure a conviction at any cost”

Amnesty International calls on Bahrain’s authorities to end these unfair military trials and release all prisoners of conscience immediately and unconditionally.

Syrian uprisings and official vs. decentralized communications

Leila Nachawati — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:01:49 +0000

The world looks at Syria for the first time in decades, while hundreds of thousands of citizens demonstrate against the regime that has ruled the country for almost 50 years. While hundreds of protesters were killed according to many reports, the official version shows quite a different picture. The gap between the state-controlled narrative and what the population is witnessing is growing bigger as citizens share and build upon their own narrative with the tools provided by the Internet.

Official communications

SANA shows a list of policemen killed during demonstrations, April 23

SANA, the state news agency, highlighted the following news on April 22, the day when the protests gained momentum and over a 100 protesters were killed:

● The reforms announced by the President Basshar El-Assad.

● The attack against a police car where a policeman was killed and 11 others wounded.

Syrian TV shares images of everyday life combined with analysis of the reforms announced by the President on March 30. Most of the State-owned media focused on the following:

● Images of shattered windows and destroyed cars caused by what the State-Media calls “terrorists”, “armed groups”, “gangs” and “thieves”.

● Pictures of confiscated weapons, including: sticks, axes, bottles, cans. Also, shockingly enough, mobile phones with “foreign Sim-cards”.

● Interviews with demonstrators showing their regret for having participated in the protests.

● Citizens sharing their opinions, with accusations that range from accusing Salafi groups to blaming the unrest on a Western plot against the country.

● Interviews and analysis of the reforms announced by the President

● Analysis of articles and blog posts like the one published on Counterpunch, Syria and the Delusions of the Western Press, that accuses Western media of hiding and manipulating information to damage Syria´s image.

After April 22, official communications have continued to highlight the death of the policemen, the implication of foreign interests in the country and pro-government reactions.

Images of pro-government demonstrations. Sana, April 26

This is the communication system Syrians have grown used to. The Syrian telecommunications market, one of the least developed in the Middle East, is the most regulated in the region. Syrian Telecom owns the telecommunications infrastructure, and only a few journalists manage to get accreditation. But now, through digital platforms, an alternative narrative emerges: citizens voices reach out to the world after decades of media silence over Syria.

Decentralized Communications

Syrian demonstrator holds a mobile phone during a funeral

Internet media and platforms have been flooded for weeks, but especially since April 22, with images and videos taken by the protestors mainly through mobile phones, and shared by citizens and media worldwide. Some of these videos, which include very graphic content, can be watched here . One of the videos shows several hands raised holding mobile phones to record the funeral of a protestor killed the day before, illustrating the relationship between citizen communication and mobile technology.

This map includes the spots where mobilizations have taken place and helps visualize the scope of the protests:

Map of the protests on thenewsyria.net

The Internet Battle

We should be aware that the real communication battle takes place on the Internet. The Syrian regime has blocked sites and platforms like Youtube, Facebook, Blogger, and Wikipedia for years, and Syrians have grown used to accessing them through proxies. A few months ago Facebook and Youtube were unblocked, which was welcomed by many Internet users.

Pages like “Syrian Revolution 2011″, with around 150,000 followers from inside and outside the country (but mainly administered from abroad) have been sharing information for months and encouraging followers to take to the streets. This page was apparently hacked during April 23. A new page was opened and gained 2,000 followers in only a few hours, but the original page was back at the end of the day.

Other spaces, like the Syrian Women Observatory facebook group, called upon protesters not to take to the streets in order to stop the bloodshed. In a manifesto issued on April 22, the Observatory called upon the Government to undertake the reforms announced and called on protesters to give the government a 15 day chance to prove the reform process is real.

At the same time, there are other pages that are supportive of the government and the president. One example is the “Youth only for Asad’s Syria” facebook page where new users are welcomed with a cheerful picture of the President´s family.

The Internet battle between official narrative and citizen narrative can be found on Twitter too. This network, which allows for quick spreading of short messages, has proved to be very effective for citizens to organize and communicate from the beginning of mobilizations. Users like AnonymousSyria have been sharing many anti-government images, videos and slogans. For example, one of the posters designed and published on twitter has become a motto for Syrian protesters, in response to the official one: “God, Syria, Basshar and nothing else”.

God, Syria, Freedom and nothing else

To counter these messsages, two new kind of pro-government twitter users have emerged, as Syrian blogger Anas Qtiesh explains:

What twitter users call “twitter eggs”: Newly created accounts, mostly imageless, that verbally threatened anyone tweeting favoraly about the ongoing protests or criticizing the regime. Those accounts were believed to be manned by Syrian intelligence agents with poor command of both written Arabic and English. The user @AnonymousSyria has included some of these accounts on this list.
Spam accounts that are configured to publish tweets at predetermined intervals. The tweets are associated to the tag #Syria and include links to photos, soccer games, pro-government news and other random information about Syria.. This is an example of a picture shared by user Thelovelysyria

Imagen by Ali Mahfood on Flickr, shared by Thelovelysyria on Twitter

Pro-government users have also created twitter lists where users that support the uprisings or stand with the right to free speech in the country are added. The list Against Terror , Fake Massmedia includes media like BBC or Al-Jazeera, human rights organizations like Press Freedom and Amnesty International, journalists like Brian Whitaker and Dima Khatib and social platforms like Youtube, along with activists and members from the opposition. In reaction to demonstrations, authorities have also started to follow Egypt and Libya´s steps, preventing citizens from communicating with each other and the rest of the world through communication blackouts. Internet blackouts have been reported in Daraa, where the uprising started. On April 25, not only the Internet but also land phones and mobile phones were cut in Daraa, Duma and other towns and neighborhoods leaving them completely isolated amid escalation of repression against demonstrators.

The blackouts will fall short from preventing the world from hearing the stories that Syrians are sharing first-hand. In a context of growingly decentralized information, centralized narratives — characteristic of authoritarian regimes — become exposed as echoes of an official voice that hardly anyone trusts. But we should keep in mind that although citizens may be winning the communication battle, the weapons are still in the hands of those who have the power over people´s lives.

In the words of twitter user Syrianews:

“Another journalist expelled. Syria will suffer while propaganda and Youtube become the only sources in the country”