Blackout day gets personal

As Jan. 18th rolls around, I was left with no Reddit, no Wikipedia, and even no Rhett & Link! It was hard, but I made it through due to the importance of the cause. I somehow was able to make it through the day without Reddit, which is something previously unthinkable. Reddit also had in my opinion the best informative censorship of all the sites. I'll categorize all the sites into two different types: Informative and Censor-Shock. Informative is easy enough to understand, as the website blocks out its usual content and replaces it with information regarding the cause, including videos, links, and other information. Censor-Shock is more along the lines of Wikipedia, Google, and Wired. These sites as well as others simulating censorship with black bars and Wikipedia had a ominous all-black page. Both of these worked well in unison to create a shocking and thought-provoking surprise to regular visitors, leading to their action against the bill. Hopefully this interruption of millions of people daily routine will create an impact on this legislation.

Explanatory SOPA Videos

A good long video that explains SOPA in a simple, visual way. Sometimes reading about it can only help so much. Sometimes analogies really help in conveying the overall idea of a topic, and in this case I think he does a pretty good job in explaining SOPA.



PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
This video is short and to the point, covering the main aspects of SOPA, its downfalls, and the overall consequences. It looks nice, professional and would be a great introductory video to anyone you're trying to convince.

Act out against SOPA

With the new bill SOPA rearing its ugly head you may be wondering what there is to do about it, what actions been taken, and how you can help. Have no fear, the internet is here! Lately many campaigns against the legislation have been targeted at its supporters, and well as campaigns to raise public awareness. Both of these are key in order to beat SOPA. And there is no lack of things to do. I've found Reddit to be a prime source of information, discussion, and action. There they have their own SOPA subreddit, a sub community where thousands of people discuss the bill, ways to stop it, and any news relating to it. I've found this one of the easiest and most reliable ways to stay informed. Also, Reddit is holding a blackout on January 18th from 8am–8pm EST. At this time Reddit will be displaying a message alerting all visitors about the act, linking to relevant information, and streaming the live house hearing on the bill, where Reddit co-founder Alexis "kn0thing" Ohanian will be testifying along with other internet experts and representatives. Reddit has also proven to be lending a major handing in compiling all these different groups and organizations that are taking action against SOPA/PIPA. One such site, americancensorship.org, has been effectively organizing meetings with senators and representatives about the act, as well as advising people on how to go about convincing their government representatives of the grave implications of the act. Due to this outpouring of concern, many representatives have changed their minds about the act after hearing from their constituents and have signed this letter against the act. This works, representatives cannot ignore thousands of phone calls, letters, and emails expressing concern about one act. And the more we spread the word about this act, the more people will act against it. Time is of the essence as the house and senate have set up the bill for a quick-pass. Do your part and act out against it before it is too late. Contact supporters of the bill whether they're corporations or politicians. 

• List of supporting corporations
• Contact your representative
• Stay informed: 1      2
• Spread the word on Jan. 18th!

 
 


 

SOPA: Hypocrisy at it's Finest

Lately you may have heard some buzz around a new bill in congress. Or you may not have, if you get your news from the main network providers. But if you don't, and instead stay up to date by roaming the internet, then there's no doubt that you've heard of it. The ultimate censorship bill, SOPA has created quite a stir by effectively promising to create an internet blacklist and using that to block sites based off copyright terms. But the funny thing is, SOPA won't really be all that effective against piracy. Piracy on the internet will always find a way and the measures the bill proposes would not be all that effective against it. However, they would be effective against many large, popular sites that people visit everyday. Sites like YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, Google, and more would be immediately affected. Why? Because all of these sites would be host to at least one copyright-infringing document or video or picture. This would be enough for, if a suit was filed (Which a suit can be started just due to a complaint), then these sites would be blacklisted. This means basically any social media-sharing site would be subject to censorship by the government. While sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, and more may be large enough to put up a decent defense, other smaller sites would not be so fortunate, and would either be censored, or have to pay substantial legal fees in order to challenge a suit. 

Even large sites would not be totally invincible from the act. Links anyone would post on any media-sharing site would have to be processes and then censored if deemed as 'copyright-infringing'. Email providers would start censoring emails for these infringing links, and would remove any found. That cute cat video that you were going to send to your grandma? Too bad sonny, that's technically owned by this one website, so there's no way granny will ever see it. Ultimately the implications from this bill are even worse. Ad traffic would be significantly affected, and if any website was censored in any way, the ad revenue for that website would immediately drop. Websites would start going offline because they weren't making profits, and any new startups would think twice before trying to set themselves up in that kind of atmosphere. That means SOPA would get rid of potential jobs. Oh my, the all-mighty J-word. And we all thought politicians loved that. 

But one of the things that really bothers me about this bill is the pure hypocrisy behind it. For years the US has been in support of those in repressive countries and has aided them in getting around these regime's controls. In the Arab Spring the US government fully supported protestors and helped them to bypass these regimes firewalls to get their message out and voices heard. We even support programs that allow people to bypass these types of censorship, and one of the most notable causes is in China. The Great Chinese Firewall, as it is called, has long been the bane of internet free speech for Chinese citizens, and the US does not support it due to this fact. So why do so many of our politicians support this bill which shows remarkable similarities to China's own internet censorship?

It may be due to the fact that many of these politicians show an anti-internet bias, which is nothing new. These are old, white men we're talking about, many of whom see the internet as a place where people post everything illegally and where it is a lawless pit of despair. No wonder the bill is the way it is then, as it was written in such a way to be so legislative-languagey that normal citizens and businesses would have a hard time understanding all the legalese. To add to this, the bill shows a disturbing lack of understanding when it comes to the internet, both in its fundamentals and specifics. The case against SOPA is huge, the bill poorly written, and the consequences enormous. But the backing of it by those in power has kept it alive and well. Hopefully this time those in power will be thwarted before something drastic is achieved.

Old School Debate

Although most of my sources on news in the Middle East and other current events come from online, the fastest news source, today I'm going old school and using The Gazette. Not for another informative about a protest being violently repressed, or news of occupy protestors getting tear gassed. No, today the Gazette has bestowed upon my an interesting opinion piece on the effect of the Arab Spring on U.S. interests and foreign policy. One of the Gazette's Pro/Con pieces, the article is answered by Lawrence J. Haas, part of the American Foreign Policy Council, and John B. Quigley, professor at Ohio State University. Their opinions are both on either side of the political center, Haas being more right-oriented, Quigley to the left. However, though I must say I usually find my self leaning to the left, both of them give well thought out answers and raise important points when discussing the impact of the Arab Spring. 

Haas starts off stating that the US has short term goals and long term goals in the middle east. Short term we want to reduce terrorism, protect allies, and support regional stability. A tall order. Long term we want to encourage freedom and democracy in order to gain allies, reduce threats, and expand opportunity for millions of people as well as investments. I would agree with these points. But Haas then goes on to state that the recent uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, etc have given way to Islamic radical groups that challenge everything we're working for. Groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Nour Party in Egypt. He states that these groups interest in restoring Sharia and imposing radical Islamic beliefs is a threat to the US and the Middle East. This I would agree with to a point. It is certainly true that radical groups pose a threat to both outsiders and others of the same faith. Many Muslims are not radical and do not in fact welcome strict Islamic law. This is also true of many other radical groups among other faiths as well. Radical groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood CAN pose a threat to the stability of the reason, but maybe not to the extent that Haas has us believe. Basically, he is arguing these anti-western Islamic radical groups are going to fill the power vacuums left by the dictators and create a new Middle East that is totally against us. While that could happen, I'm pretty sure that's a worst-case scenario, as many of the protesters and public want freedom, something not always synonymous with restrictive Islamic fundamentalism.

Quigley takes another look at things and instead of pointing towards the radical groups as the source of problems, he instead points to the US as the instigators of these problems. He argues that because of US involvement in the Middle East, we've done more harm than good. By being inconsistent in our policy and often intervening when we shouldn't have or not doing enough in other places, we have brought these radical groups on ourselves. While this may be true, and he does a good job of stating specific examples, this may be another point of blaming everything on America because America just sucks. As always we have to take these with a grain of salt; radical groups are a potential threat, but singling out Islamic ones will only further increase their animosity towards us. Also, it is not always  America's fault, although we have made our share of politic blunders when it comes to the Middle East. As long as we can find a middle ground, stay consistent with a policy, and not meddle too much, I think the Arab Spring could be beneficiary to the US.

Syria: Observed

Recently in Syria the Arab League has sent in a team of observers to monitor Syria's uprising and the regime's promise to stop violence. However, many are not satisfied with this opportunity for observation as the regime is leading it, and many fear that they are misleading the observers into believing that it is not as bad as it seemed. Reports have surfaced of the regime planting supporters in hostile areas, changing street signs, and disguising military vehicles to make it seem like things are not as bad as initially thought. After over nine months of protests and violence, over 5,500 people have been killed according to the UN. And now it seems that Syria is trying to hide all of that in this recent visit. 

Arab League monitors check Daraa, Syria, on Tuesday. SANA/AP

            Hiding the crimes of the regimes is nothing new, as we've seen it before in Egypt, Libya, and even farther back to Hitler's Germany and the Soviet Union. It is expected to have regimes hide their intentions and actions. No regime would blatantly kill civilians and admit to it, the reaction from the international community would be swift and forceful against them. No, regimes will do everything in their power to quell any uprising, and even more so to keep their actions against such a thing quiet. So it looks like it is no different in Syria, where the regime is employing the "Act like nothing wrong and invite them to take a look to make it seem legit" plan. However, they will have to keep this act up as recent news has announced that the monitors will continue to stay in Syria and observe what they call 'mistakes'. In what could very well end up being a dangerous situation, these monitors will have to evaluate the atrocities of the Syrian government with the Syrian government breathing down their necks. Obviously this conflict of interest could result in retaliation against the monitors, but I feel that would be unlike what the Syrian government has shown so far. Based off of Assad's attempts and other government actions, I feel the Syrian government is trying to play it off as not something as important as most thought. Doing anything radical against this foreign observation would go against their stance of "openness" to the international community, and would definitely ruin their act of "Everything's alright."

An Arab League observer takes photos of anti-government protesters on the streets in Adlb on Dec. 30, 2011. (Reuters)

However, it seems Syria will have a hard time convincing the Arab League observers that everything is A-OK as violence continues to boom. Killings continued on Wednesday as observers were still there, with 12 reportedly shot dead by security forces. This continued violence has left some in the Arab League wary and some calls have been made to take the observers out of harm’s way, but they will continue to stay. However, the main reason may not be for collecting data, but rather their presence alone has resulted in heavy arms being removed from the cities as well as thousands of prisoners being released. The Syrian government has to try to hide what they've been doing, and the longer the observers stay in Syria, the longer the Syrian government has to put up this facade.Even though, violence against peaceful protests has continued and activists are skeptical about how big of an impact the observers are really having on the regime. The big question however, is what the observers will find, and what they will do with it.

Google's Doing it Right

Thought I'd share this cool new feature that Google now has. If you go to Google and type in Google elections (or just go to google.com/elections) it will bring up a page dedicated to news about current elections with sidebars on all the candidates, theirs parties, and the issues. But if you go to the drop done menu you can choose Egypt, where it gives you up-to-the-minute coverage of the elections going on in Egypt right now. I though it was very cool and hope to use it to it's greatest extent.Check it out!