· March, 2011

Stories about Digital Activism from March, 2011

Haiti: Monsanto's Agenda

  31 March 2011

Haiti Grassroots Watch takes “a closer look” at Monsanto's seed distribution in the wake of last year's devastating earthquake.

China: The Interrogation (A Tale of AI and Revolution)

  31 March 2011

Stainless Steel Mouse, aka Liu Di, has seen many of her peers arrested or disappeared over the past several weeks. Looking at the unusual way in which China's failed Jasmine Revolution began, she has imagined a scenario which mixes fact with fiction.

Cuba: Meeting Carter

  31 March 2011

The Cuban Triangle summarizes former President Jimmy Carter's visit to Cuba, while Generation Y blogs about their meeting and the symbolic gift she gave him “in the name of several bloggers and other Cubans.”

Russia: The Most Fierce DDOS Attack On LiveJournal Analyzed

RuNet Echo  31 March 2011

Ilya Dronov, LiveJournal's head of development, told [ru] some details about yesterday's DDOS-attack on LiveJournal, popular blogging platform in Russia. That was the most fierce attack in the history of the platform. Anton Nosik, suggested [ru] that (despite that most of the attacking machines were outside of Russia) the main client...

Russia: Voting For The BOBs Blog Award Has Started

RuNet Echo  31 March 2011

On march 22, 2011 voting for "The Best Of Blogs" Awards, event annually organized by German media corporation Deutsche Welle, started. The award is getting more popular every year. This happens mostly because the role of blogs and online communities grows, as does their influence on social life.

Tensions Between Korea and Japan Intensified Over Territorial Conflict

  31 March 2011

South Koreans have expressed deep regret over the Japanese government’s decision to endorse middle school textbooks that defined Dokdo island as part of its territory. Reflecting people's anger, Korea's power Twitterer and bestselling novelist, Lee Oi-soo (@oisoo) harshly condemned [ko] Japanese government for approving the new textbooks.

Brazil: On Opening the Archives of the Dictatorship

  31 March 2011

A collective blogging was called to demand the opening of the archives of the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985), responsible for torturing of thousands and for killing 380 Brazilians. Of these, 147 remain missing and nothing is known about the fate of their bodies. Until now their families are suffering without knowing their stories.

Syria: Reactions to President Assad's Speech

President Bashar Al Assad finally made a speech Wednesday 30 March, 2011, at the Syrian Parliament after days of postponement and anticipation. The president's arrival at the Parliament was met with thundering applause and chanting by the Members of Parliament, and his speech was often interrupted by an MP reciting poems of praise. Twitter users did not receive this well.

Russia: Mapping Bribery Online

RuNet Echo  30 March 2011

Anton Nosik shares [ru] a link to RosKomVzyatka (‘Russian Committee for Bribes’), Ushahidi-based platform that allows users to map bribes (both given and taken) anonymously. It's another transparency project after rospil.info, gdecasino.ru, otmenta.ru, and others that crowdsource crime/injustice reporting.

Russia: Real Life Super Hero From Chelyabinsk

RuNet Echo  30 March 2011

Metkere.com shares [ru] a video-address of a real life super hero calling himself “The Avenger.” (see his Vkontakte fan group [ru]) The avenger, a man in a black costume with a green letter “M” (apparently M for Mstitel’, the ‘avenger’ in Russian) on it and a black mask, says he...

Russia: Blogger Translates Articles on Alexey Navalny

RuNet Echo  30 March 2011

LJ user vadda translates from English into Russian two recent texts about Alexey Navalny, a prominent Russian anti-corruption activist: one text, by Andrew E. Kramer, appeared in the New York Times on March 27 (the Russian translation is here; 266 comments); the other, by Julia Ioffe, was published in the...

Serbia: Gaddafi's Cyber Army Oppose Rebels and NATO

  30 March 2011

A Facebook page entitled "Support for Muammar al-Gaddafi from the people of Serbia" has become a show of support for the controversial Libyan leader, with over 62,500 members. Libyan opposition activists have also reported cyber attacks on opposition websites coming from Serbia. Sasa Milosevic reports on the online support for Muammar al-Gaddafi in Serbia.

Côte d'Ivoire: Where is Gbagbo's General, Philippe Magou?

  29 March 2011

Monday March 14, 2011, was a busy day in Côte d'Ivoire. After violence this past weekend in the Abobo district of southerly economic capital Abidjan, Ivorians in the city were woken up by Kalashnikovs and heavy artillery. For a few days now, the rumors in Abidjan have been growing as to Ivorian army General Philippe Mangou's responsibility in this crisis.

Lebanon: Ontornet instead of Internet

Frustrated with the very slow internet connection in Lebanon, a group of Lebanese bloggers started a campaign calling it “Ontornet” (“Ontor” in the Lebanese dialect means “wait”) to do something about it. They explained it all in this blog post.

Iran: “I am Comodo hacker”

Iranian hacker claimed responsibility over an attack on Comodo, a Jersey City, N.J.-based company that issues digital SSL certificates used by websites to validate their identity to visitors. The hacker wrote “I have no relation to Iranian Cyber Army.”

Syria: Complexity Behind the Protests

Unrest in Syria enters its second week, as anti-government protests continue in their bid to oust President Bashar al-Assad. Whilst it may seem that the unrest in Syria is a natural progression of the Arab revolution spreading throughout the region, there are unique dynamics in Syria that distinguish it from other Arab states.