(Fascinating article. Perhaps younger people take this technology for granted, it has always been there for them. But an techno illiterate old woman like me, I am constantly amazed by the power of the Internet. It is changing the world, and that is NOT hyperbole. Imagine if we had this in the days of Tienanmen? Activism then was typing letters for Amnesty International with carbon paper copies on an old IBM typewriter, responding to newsletter updates via snail mail. Now, via Twitter, I can read the thoughts of a protester in Tahrir seconds after posted, or the longings for freedom of a goat herder with a cell phone in Syria. I used to be a CNN news junkie, but now news breaks on Twitter hours before it hits the wire services, hell, the wire services get their news from Twitter feeds. What incredible times we live in.)
If you don't follow #mar15.info, you should. Only 552 followers is pathetic for courageous people getting their faces blown off for basic freedom. We are all in this together.
http://mar15.info/2011/11/cyberwar-explodes-in-syria/ Istanbul (CNN) — A familiar digital chime rang on the computer. Someone was calling via Skype from Syria.
It was a law student and opposition activist from the city of Homs who uses the pseudonym Musaab al Hussaini to protect himself from arrest. He had fresh reports that security forces were shooting guns wildly in the neighborhood Baba Amrr.
Hussaini was calling via Psiphon, an online encryption system he had just installed that morning. He said it protected him from detection by the Syrian security services, also known as mukhabarat. <more>