South Seas Conversation has captured some discussions in Netease's news thread before and after censorship. Here come the pre-censored opinions:

Aye, some people are afraid that the ‘crafty masses’ (diaomin) will have an example to look at… [2500 recommends]

The ‘China’ in the sentence ‘Rice indicated that Russia and China will be responsible for the bloodshed ahead’ has no relation with the Chinese people, it’s nothing more a crowd of of mainland mongrels (zazhong)! Regarding the ‘Russia’, that may be just one section of Russia’s high-level political hoodlums, like Putin – the little czar. [2412]

Everyone can see why this country [China] is not popular in the world, why you have the world beseiging you. [2211]

The new Axis of Evil [1824]

With the active intervention of web-censor, the opinions have been harmonized within several hours into the followings:

We are also angry about this but there’s nothing we can do. The Syrian people can only rely on themselves to get rid of this tyrant. Respect to all countries and people who support the Syrian people’s movement for justice. [5362 recommends]

Iraq, Afghanistan, it’s been 10 years already, should America take responsibility? Does Libya now need 10 years and then it can intervene in America? Why can’t America tell north from south? [4129]

Responsibility for incidents should start with those countries (people) who provoke trouble. On what basis are China and Russia responsible? This is entirely a case of the West looking for an excuse for their next evil deed. [2850]

Can this kind of inhuman government be popular (shou huanying)? [2354]

13 approvals, 2 vetos. [2343]

Public enemy of humanity. [2145]

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With all of the social media successes throughout the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, it would be all too easy to overlook the struggles faced by bloggers and netizens throughout the region. And yet, 2011 was an extraordinary difficult year for free expression, from Egypt's shutdown of the Internet to the numerous harassed, arrested, and detained bloggers from the Maghreb to the Gulf.

Iran: No room for free expression

Less than a week into 2012, Reporters Without Borders puts the number of jailed netizens globally at 126. Within the list, Iran stands out, as my colleague Fred Petrossian writes:

In 2011, the Iranian regime was faithful to its reputation as an enemy of internet as it continued to repress bloggers and even threaten their lives. Blogger Sakhi Rigi got a record breaking 20-year jail sentence. Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, who is serving 15 years in prison, struggled for his health and for a period was deprived of contact with his family and lawyer. RSF talked about the plight of seven netizens in Iran in July 2011. These cases are just the tip of the iceberg. While a few bloggers likeShiva Nazar Ahari andHossein Derakhshanwere released on bail, others like Mohammad Reza Pour Shajari may face charges of ‘Waging War Against God' (moharebeh), for which a death sentence can be pronounced. As Omid Reza Mirsayafi's tragic death shows, the more a blogger is isolated and deprived of a network, the more he is in danger.

Egypt, Syria, Bahrain among the region's worst

But while Iran may rank worst in terms of the number of bloggers detained, life for bloggers in much of the rest of the region has been no picnic. In Syria, where the uprising that started last spring shows few signs of abating, several prominent bloggers were arrested in 2011, threatening countless more into silence. Razan Ghazzawi, a former Global Voices contributor, spent fifteen days in prison in December until being released on bail, but still faces trial for “weakening the national sentiment,” among other charges. Hussein Ghrer, released in early December, also faces trial. Meanwhile, Tal Al-Mallohi, the teenaged blogger imprisoned in 2009, is serving a five year sentence.

Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd El Fattah poses with his wife and fellow blogger Manal Hassan in Tunis just one month before his arrest

A third country in the region ranks among the worst in 2011, though one wouldn't know it from following mainstream media coverage. Bahrain, where a nascent uprising was all but quashed early in the year, levied harsh punishments on several bloggers in 2011, including Global Voices Advocacy contributor Ali Abdulemam, who was sentenced in absentia to fifteen years in prison and is currently in hiding.

Bahraini blogger Ali Abdulemam at the 2009 Arabloggers Workshop in Beirut

Elsewhere in the region, the struggle continues

Though perhaps less systematically, other countries in the region targeted bloggers as well in 2011. Prior to the fall of Ben Ali, Tunisian bloggers Slim Amamou (a Global Voices Advocacy contributor) and Azyz Amami were briefly imprisoned. Amami was then arrested again and beaten by police in September. Though the arrest was not for his blogging but for a joke told near a police station, it demonstrated the tenuous state of free expression in the country.

In Morocco, a blogger and several activists were arrested in September, while Saudi Arabia went after video bloggers who had been documenting poverty in the oil-rich country. And in the UAE, a female blogger was summoned for interrogation over a tweet.

Fighting for a better 2012

Though this represents only a fraction of those intimidated, harassed, and imprisoned in 2011, it is illustrative of the continued struggle faced by bloggers, activists, and other netizens in the region. And as 2012 kicks off with such a large number of bloggers in prison, it is apparent that there is more work to be done to ensure that the right to free expression is guaranteed for everyone. And fortunately, a growing number of grassroots organizations in the region are taking up the fight for digital rights. But nevertheless, bloggers must be ever vigilant, and consider the risks they face as they take their activism online. Global Voices salutes these brave bloggers and will continue to make sure their voices are heard throughout the world.

Photo credits: Jillian C. York.

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A Free Razan poster

Syrian authorities have arrested blogger Razan Ghazzawi on the Syrian-Jordanian border today. Ghazzawi, who was arrested on the Syrian-Jordanian border, was on her way to Amman to attend a workshop on press freedom in the Arab world. Her arrest has drawn criticism and anger from bloggers and activists around the world, who called for her immediate release.

Ghazzawi is a US-born Syrian blogger and avid Twitter user, who has contributed to both Global Voices Online and Global Voices Advocacy. She is also one of the few bloggers in Syria who writes under her real name, advocating for the rights of bloggers and activists arrested by the Syrian regime, as well as the rights of gays and minorities.

Her last post, on December 1, celebrates the release of Syrian blogger Hussein Ghrer, who was held by the Syrian authorities for 37 days. She blogs:

Hussein is going to be home tonight, where he will be holding his wife tight, and never let go of his two precious sons again. It’s all going to be alright, and it will all be over very soon.

The irony is not lost among netizens who raised the alarm after her arrest on social media platforms.

Syrian Razan Saffour tweets:

@RazanSpeaks: Razan Ghazzawi used to raise awareness about detainees, write about them and support them. She has now become one of them. #FreeRazan #Syria

and adds:

@RazanSpeaks: Thoughts and hearts are with you @RedRazan. One of the bravest people I have come to know on twitter. #FreeRazan #Syria

Fellow Syrian Sasa notes:

@syrianews: Almost every tweet on my timeline now contains #FreeRazan. You hear us Syrian police? #FREERAZAN

And Global Voices colleague Syrian Anas Qtiesh recalls:

@anasqtiesh: Razan introduced me to the wonderful @globalvoices team and she's the reason I joined as a translator author. #FreeRazan

Syrian Shakeen Al Jabri vents off at the Arab League:

@LeShaque: Hey Arab League. How's your ill-advised strategy working out? Still believe Bashar will reform? #Syria #FreeRazan

While Chanad Bahraini laments:

@chanadbh: .@RedRazan, @alaa and @abdulemam were all at the first Arab Bloggers Meeting in Lebanon in 2008. Today they're jail or in hiding #FreeRazan

Veteran Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah is being held in Egypt under trumped up charges and Bahraini blogger Ali Abdulemam has been in hiding in Bahrain, where he too faces charges related to his blogging activism. Both are among the pioneering bloggers in their countries.

Meanwhile, trusted friends are managing her Twitter and Gmail accounts as well as her blog. Her Facebook page has also been deactivated by friends.

A recent tweet from her account reads:

@RedRazan: Razan Is not anymore managing her twitter account, we, her friends and supporters are ! #FreeRazan

For more reactions on Ghazzawi's arrest, please check the hash tag #FreeRazan on Twitter. A Facebook page calling for her release is also up [ar].

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.

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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.

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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.

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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

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

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.

Written by Leila Nachawati · comments (9)
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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.

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Twitter user @firasoo82 exclaimed earlier today:

And user @seemdu confirmed[ar] the report, while at the same time alluding to the fact that many Syrian Internet users are familiar with censorship circumvention tools after years of having some of the most popular websites blocked in the country (e.g. Facebook, Youtube). He said:

They blocked WordPress… as if people are still using the Syrian proxy. What stupidity! #Syria

It's still not clear if WordPress is blocked on all ISPs in Syria. This article will be updated with the details and screenshots as they become available.

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The post notes that the browser would alert users to the untrusted certificate issue, but says that most people would allow an exception for the suspicious certificate because they might not really understand what's going on. This coincides with multiple Syrian users reporting inability to access the site at all suspecting it was blocked again.

Ana Souri explained how to check for the authenticity of the certificate and linked to the company that issues Facebook's original SSL certificate:

Tools-> Page Info
then press the security tab
then click on view certificate

المفروض تكون مأصدرة من من هالموقع:[should be released from this site]
http://www.digicert.com/welcome/who-uses-digicert.htm

The following image shows a comparison between the fake certificate (left) and the original one (right).

“]

Fake vs. Original SSL certificates. Courtesy of Ana Souri. [click to enlarge

Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Encryption -> View Certificates -> Servers

There, they would be able to locate and delete the exceptions. It's also recommended that users use anonymity and security tools such as TOR to connect and then change their password.

Disclaimer: While the above post is being circulated with breathtaking speed among Syrian internet users, I'm still trying to verify the claims explained above as we don't have concrete proof of their validity beyond that tumblr post. If you have info you want to share on the topic, please use the contact form to reach me directly, or leave a comment on the post and I will update the article with any relevant info.

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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”

Written by Leila Nachawati · comments (10)
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