Belarus Cracks Down On VKontakte 111
decora writes "On several recent Wednesdays, Russian language social networking site Vkontakte has been blocked by the government of Belarus. The blocks are partly to prevent the organization of 'Silent Protests,' in which citizens gather in city squares, and clap in protest against president Alexander Lukashenko. The government has designated the people involved as "social network revolutionaries" and charged many with disorderly conduct. One VKontakte user, Mikhail Karatkevich, is to be put on trial August 10 for 'organizing a mass rally' after he posted a meeting notice onto his page. According to Charter 97, the regime has even set up fake proxy servers to capture the unwitting; Tor is the suggested solution."
Facebook is equally complicity in allowing (Score:1, Informative)
authoritarian governments to track down dissidents. On Thursday, Al Jazeera, broadcast a documentary about how authorities in Bahrain were able to efficiently utilize Facebook to apprehend dissidents.
[quote]
It tells the story of Ayat al Qurmezi, a 20-year-old woman, who first attracted attention from authorities by publicly reading a poem that was critical of Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa and the king.
Her actions, at Pearl Roundabout in Manama, the focal point of the demonstrations, led to a Facebook page calling for her torture and arrest.
Thousands of pro-government supporters flocked to the page, where they goaded each other to post horrific messages such as "I spit on you whore!" and "God willing the security forces smash her mouth and teeth", before demanding the woman's arrest.
The film alleges that this page, and others like it, were allowed to stay live for months instead of being pulled down by moderators.
And as the documentary reports, those wishes were granted when with the help of the Facebook page, Ayat was tracked down and taken into custody.
"What we've heard is that Ayat was tortured and put in the military hospital," Ayat's mother says in the 50-minute film. "I'm going to die from worrying about her."
It was only three months later that Ayat turned up on state TV, to issue an apology that the family says was obtained by force.
The documentary also alleges that Facebook pages which showed photos of known protesters were set-up and left active for weeks, in order for authorities to track them down and arrest them. Each of the pictures was 'checked off' as the protesters were captured.
[/quote]
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/08/04/al-jazeera-documentary-to_n_918188.html
The documentary is titled "Bahrain: Shouting in the dark", and is available to watch here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaTKDMYOBOU .
Re:Not that surprising from Belarus (Score:5, Informative)
All the negatives of soviet style communism with none of the positives
Belarus avoided the collapse that plagued all other former Soviet republics (including Russia) by keeping its system intact and has a higher standard of living than the others because of it.
http://www.elenastravel.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?action=belarus#eco [elenastravel.com]
Better to have a corrupt dictator running the country who otherwise believes in what he's doing than to have normal business interests running things, it seems.