‘Do you want to date my avatar?’ The ‘New Jahiliyya’ of the internet…
Latest Updates: internet RSS
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johnpi
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johnpi
The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA agents may have been a prominent Jihadi blogger.
First reported by al-Jazeera yesterday, and picked up in the Wall Street Journal today, it appears that a spokesperson of the Pakistani Taliban has claimed that the suicide bomber at Forward Operating Base Chapman was Jordanian national Hammam Khalil Abu Milal, famous in the jihadi blogosphere as Abu Dujana al-Khurasani. If true, this news is sure to galvanize the online jihadi community, and would represent the most dramatic case to date of the potential for virtual-to-actual jihadi activism.
….He quickly rose to prominence – and eventually an adminstrator position – on the elite al-Hisba forum in 2007, and has long been widely regarded for a series of popular essays he wrote on the forums, especially on the course of the jihad in Iraq and in praise of al-Qa’ida in Iraq.
Via Thabet tweets.
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johnpi
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s chat room messages.
ABC News claims it has tracked down more than 100 posts that Abdulmutallab wrote.
One very sad post stands out:
He wrote of being lonely and sought friends on-line. “Can you be my friend?” he wrote. “I get lonely sometimes because I have never found a true Muslim friend.”
He still hasn’t found a ‘true Muslim friend.’
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johnpi
Pervez Hoodhbhoy, a Pakistani nuclear physics professor and writer on social and political issues, has seen the fury that drives men to take up violent causes during his meetings with members of the Pakistani community in the United States.
He says clamping down on militant networks on the Internet could be impossible for any government. But Hoodhbhoy emphasised that Pakistan’s policy of trying to modernise religious schools, some of which are seen as breeding grounds for extremism, may make the job more difficult.
‘The government put these computers and Internet into the madrasas as part of its reform package. The hope was that this would modernise the madrasas,’ said Hoodhbhoy, who has been called a traitor by militants on the Internet and received death threats.
‘In fact, it has given them means of networking with jihadist groups across the world.’
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johnpi
Radical hookups on the Web: Five held in Pakistan ‘wanted to join jihad.’
Five young Americans detained in Pakistan, which is fighting a violent Taliban insurgency, wanted to join a holy war and were in contact with militants through the Internet, officials said on Thursday.
The case will likely again focus attention on nuclear-armed Pakistan’s performance in fighting militants as Washington presses Islamabad to root out Islamist fighters crossing the border to attack U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan.
….The suspects were wary about being detected through sending emails so instead they shared a password so different members of their group could access the same email site and read messages saved there as drafts, he said. “This is the same method used by al Qaeda,” said the official.
The suspects also surfed the Internet to get access to Pakistan-based militant groups Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), he said.
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johnpi
Murdoch could block Google searches entirely.
Rupert Murdoch says he will remove stories from Google’s search index as a way to encourage people to pay for content online.
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johnpi
Web surf to save your aging brain.
Surfing the Internet just might be a way to preserve your mental skills as you age.
Researchers found that older adults who started browsing the Web experienced improved brain function after only a few days.
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johnpi
Does your social class determine your online social network?
Is there a class divide online? Research suggests yes. A recent study by market research firm Nielsen Claritas found that people in more affluent demographics are 25 percent more likely to be found friending on Facebook, while the less affluent are 37 percent more likely to connect on MySpace.
….MySpace users tend to be “in middle-class, blue-collar neighborhoods,” said Mike Mancini, vice president of data product management for Nielsen, which used an online panel of more than 200,000 social media users in the United States in August. “They’re on their way up, or perhaps not college educated.”
By contrast, Mancini said, “Facebook [use] goes off the charts in the upscale suburbs,” driven by a demographic that for Nielsen is represented by white or Asian married couples between the ages of 45-64 with kids and high levels of education.
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johnpi
Etisalat, a UAE-based telecommunications services provider, has blocked Corbis, an important multinational picture library.
A major site used by millions of creatives around the world, the Corbis picture library is an important resource. Blocking it sets a worrying precedent – does this now mean that other picture libraries are going to be subject to blocking? And what does that mean for the UAE’s creative industries?
Creativity comes with freedom of expression, they’re old (ahem) bedfellows. Where there is creativity you find people pushing the envelope.
Also where there is creativity you will find economic development, success in global competition, national and cultural pride renewed in new accomplishments, etc.
Souks goes on:
I think you need to take a position – make an evaluation of the cultural value of a site vs a couple of things you don’t like. Not just smash in a block the second your software catches sight of a naughty bit.
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johnpi
Another Muslim college student is blogging his marriage search. Last year, I recall reading a blog of a different young man who was blogging his marriage search. I found his blog through a Muslim woman’s blog who was posting about her experiences moving toward – and then away from – a potential.
I wonder how prevalent it is among young Muslim prospectives to blog the “single and looking” experience?
Anyway, here’s an excerpt:
The parents went for the initial meet and they said she was extremely impressive. Good marriage material.
They told me about the girl and the family and it all looked promising.
So, we arranged a date and we went to see the family. Initial impressions, the parents were extremely quiet and as the conversation progressed it seems they’ve lived an extremely sheltered life and imposed that lifestyle on their daughters.
The conversation progressed and a revelation was then made, the girl wasn’t even aware of the marriage. Okay . . They continued and told me she would obey everything I say or do. I sit, she sits – Great . . a doormat!
I couldn’t talk to her because her father thinks that daughters who speak to their potential husbands in front of their mahram are the bad girls. This comment threw me off.
Another day passed. Another experience gained.
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johnpi
Internet addiction center opens in U.S.
For a little over $14,000, up to six people at a time can spend 45 days sweating out their insatiable urge to be umbilically connected to cyberspace. Think cold turkey as experienced by heroin junkies, and you get the general idea.
Residents are given counselling and psychotherapy, as well as encouraged to bond as a group in activities such as household chores, walks in the grounds and exercising.
…..ReSTART offers anyone who suspects they are suffering from internet addiction the opportunity to test the hypothesis with a behavioural survey which, helpfully, can be completed via the internet. Question 12, for example, asks: “Are you experiencing chronic exhaustion due to lack of sleep, weight gain from lack of exercise, poor general health from poor nutrition, or other physical health problem due to excessive internet use or video gaming?”
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johnpi
Mohamed Bary is a doting Muslim father, intent on giving his daughter the best education he can. But he says he made a terrible mistake last October: He bought her a laptop computer.
Because of that laptop and access to the Internet, he says he lost his daughter to Christian extremists.
….In the weeks before she fled, her parents noticed she would sleep all day and stay up all night exploring the Internet.
Until this spring, Rifqa was a model student, an obedient daughter. She earned good grades, worked part-time at a Chinese restaurant and called home even if she were running just 10 minutes late.
But about the time school ended in May, she began all-night Facebook sessions. She started withdrawing from family members and longtime friends, her parents said.
Many of her chats were with evangelical Christians, her father said. They turned her against him, he said.
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johnpi
Bill would give president emergency control of Internet.
Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.
They’re not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.
The new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.
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johnpi
‘Cyber warriors’ trawl web for extremist threats.
When analyst Nur Azlin started monitoring the websites in early 2007, most of the content was in the form of articles urging Muslims to fight back against perceived oppression, she recalled. They were usually accompanied by photos like a child allegedly maimed during an attack by coalition forces in Afghanistan or by Israeli troops in Palestine.
In late 2007, computer hacking manuals started to appear on Southeast Asian websites, uploaded by individuals in online forums, she said. Forum participants, some of whom identified themselves as undergraduate students from Indonesia and Malaysia, urged each other to hack websites they considered to be promoting liberal Muslim views.
“By early 2008, we started to see bomb-making manuals and bomb-making videos,” Nur Azlin recalled. With the appearance of these manuals — taken from Arabic websites — the reaction from forum participants got more virulent, as they goaded each other to take action rather than stay passive supporters or sympathisers, she said.
In one of the exhanges, participants tried to organise arms training but some said they did not have money to buy AK-47 assault rifles, Nur Azlin said. A group called “Indonesian Airsoft Mujahideen” stepped in and offered to facilitate their training using air rifles and paintball machines, which are widely used for play sessions at corporate training seminars in Asia.
“They would rent the place much like a team-building activity,” Nur Azlin said. “They used this training in the meantime that they don’t have their AK-47s.”
The 101st air rifle commandos joined with the 101st keyboard commandos. You can probably add air rifle ownership to the list of activities that can get a Muslim on the government watch list.
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johnpi
Web war breaks out between pro-China and pro-Muslim bloggers.
Pro-China and pro-Muslim hackers have clashed online in a series of attacks on Web sites triggered by deadly ethnic riots in China’s Muslim region last month.
Messages left on defaced Web sites have either supported or condemned China’s rule over Xinjiang, the western province where rioting killed nearly 200 people. Chinese government Web sites have become the latest targets, adding to online attacks against an Australian film festival and a Turkish government site.
….Pro-China hackers last month defaced the Web sites of the Turkish Embassy in China and the Melbourne International Film Festival. The embassy was targeted after Turkish officials criticized China following the unrest in Xinjiang, and the film festival was targeted as it prepared to show a documentary about Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur leader accused by China of organizing the riots.
Attackers placed the Chinese flag and messages blasting Kadeer on the film festival Web site, and later organized a flood of the festival’s online ticketing system that left the showing of the Kadeer documentary sold out.
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thabet
A book review of Gary Bunt’s iMuslims by Ziauddin Sardar which includes the odd claim below:
(Bunt is an academic who specialises in Muslim activity on the internet, so he sort of knows what he is talking about.)
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plimfix
BT have announced that their free website service, GeoCities, will be closing in October. Actually, this was made public in June, but BT only bothered to send me an email about it today. My first website was on geocities, as are a number of Muslim mini-sites and homepages, including one set up by funky Malauna Farid Esack. Most notably, GeoCities also hosted the online translation of Message of the Quran by Muhammad Asad, but Masha Allah this site is in the process of being relocated and revamped.
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johnpi
As reported at NIAC:
A scary anecdote from Iran. A trusted colleague – who is married to an Iranian-American and would thus prefer to stay anonymous – has told me of a very disturbing episode that happened to her friend, another Iranian-American, as she was flying to Iran last week. On passing through the immigration control at the airport in Tehran, she was asked by the officers if she has a Facebook account. When she said “no”, the officers pulled up a laptop and searched for her name on Facebook. They found her account and noted down the names of her Facebook friends.
Anyone concerned about something like this happening to them should be aware that Facebook has extensive privacy controls.
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johnpi
Studies in arrogance.
Barry Diller’s perspective on blogging typifies the response of many a complacent media executive to the rise of blogging, according to Scott Rosenberg.
“Self-publishing by someone of average talent is not very interesting,” he told The Economist in 2006. “Talent is the new limited resource.” At a technology conference that year, he declared, “There’s just not that much talent in the world, and talent almost always outs.”
Diller’s view echoes that of avowedly elitist polemics like Andrew Keen’s “The Cult of the Amateur.” According to this perspective, talent is a resource of fixed supply. The existing institutions of the publishing and broadcast world are already doing an efficient and thorough job of finding all that talent and giving it a platform. And all this other stuff that’s spewing forth from the Web’s profusion of blogs and podcasts and videos? It’s just dross that obscures the real talent’s output.
Real Nietzschian supermen in the fields of journalism and political and social commentary don’t float to the top while maintaining a presence in the blogosphere, so if you’re ambitious you better get out of this guy’s cone of condescension and ditch the blogging.
In related news, Dan Froomkin, recently fired columnist for the Washington Post has been hired to be the Huffington Post’s Washington bureau chief.
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johnpi
Blogosphere 2.0: Why it ain’t what it used to be.
Norms and practices. Bloggers have undermined the blogosphere. Bloggers do not link to each other as much as they used to. It’s a lot of work to look for good posts elsewhere, and most bloggers have become burnt out. Drezner and Farrell had a theory that even small potato bloggers would have their day in the sun, if they wrote something so great that it garnered the attention of the big guys. But the big guys are too burnt out to find the hidden gems. So, good stuff is being written all the time, and it isn’t bubbling to the top.
Many have stopped using blogrolls, which means less love spread around the blogosphere. The politics of who should be on a blogroll was too much of a pain, so bloggers just deleted the whole thing.
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johnpi
At the same time that [some] actual Iranians are authenticly trying to protect their political rights, some Western right-wingers are attempting to co-opt their efforts.
A website called nedanet.org has been formed by a network of [probably mostly] right-wing hackers who are offering bandwidth for communication and Internet identity-obscuring technologies to assist “the Iranian revolutionaries.”
Who is nedanet? All of it’s participants are super-secret deep cover ‘interested citizens’ who wish to remain anonymous, but one brave man (turn on the fan so the wind blows in his hair) has opted to be the public face of nedanet: Eric S. Raymond.
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johnpi
Iranian officials use Internet ‘crowd-sourcing’ to stalk protesters.
From Global Voices Online:
Iranian protesters appearing in widely disseminated online photos from the ongoing post-election demonstrations in Iran, are now being targeted on a website of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The website is called Gerdab (which means ‘vortex’) and belongs to The Information Center of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for Investigating Organized Crime. It shows images of 20 people with red circles drawn around their faces claiming without evidence that they have been involved in creating “chaos” in Tehran.
Citizens are invited to call or email if they can identify the people on the photos. Gerdab also claims that two of the people depicted have already been arrested. The site provides no further information about any of the depicted people.
Some Islamist bloggers have republished the photos.
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johnpi
An appraisal of the usefulness – and failures – of Twitter as a news source on events in Iran.
With the almost hysterical outbreak of wannabe participants came disinformation – calls to change your location to Tehran to protect the student Tweeters meant that now anyone could ‘Tweet from Tehran’ – and so more chaff joined the flow of information. That was made worse by a call to remove the ID of anyone you RTed in order to protect them – effectively depriving any information of a source.
If you weren’t in the game early or close to people on the ground, and therefore following the right people, by now you were getting some pretty duff information – and fifteenth hand information, at that.
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razib, murtad fitri
Web Pries Lid of Censorship by Iranian Government.
i do think that the distinction between an “authoritarian” and “totalitarian” regime has some utility. north korea is the totalitarian regime par excellence. pakistan under pervez musharaf is an example of an authoritarian regime. though authoritarian regimes are recognizably not liberal democracies, they tend to allow more basic freedoms. totalitarian regimes operate often for reasons of ideology; authoritarians tend are often more narrowly pragmatic (or in the case of latin america or franco’s spain wish to freeze status quo social arrangements). i think china has arguably gone from being a totalitarian regime during the late 1960s to an authoritarian regime today.
but it’s not a black-white dichotomy. political systems can shift between being liberal democratic & authoritarian, and authoritarian & totalitarian. i always objected to people who described iran as “totalitarian,” because there was some wiggle room for civil society. clamping down on the internet does not a totalitarian regime make (china & saudi arabia are obsessed with this, and i wouldn’t necessarily say either are totalitarian today), but, if it is true that the past week has resulted in a repudiation of the regime on the part of the majority who no longer grant it legitimacy, for it to maintain its power it needs to move in a totalitarian direction. the state needs to accrue to itself all means of production, communication and expression.
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johnpi
How cyberwarriors are foiling Iran’s information crackdown.
Author Austin Heap has been a prominent American activist in helping Iranians continue to communicate despite government efforts to prevent it. He has also set up tools to attack government propaganda websites.
Now, less than 24 hours later, I am receiving more than 2,000 simultaneous connections per second from Iran. When I wake up, I will have received more than 300 e-mails from volunteers trying to contribute and lighting the path forward for a movement that is both new and old.
Americans ignored the subversion of their democracy. When a people better than us stood up to secure theirs, I could not let them down. The revolution may not be televised, but it will be tweeted.
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johnpi
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johnpi
Social hacktivism and the social denial of service (SDoS).
Also check out the “people’s information warfare concept” and various recent examples of it in action.
The recently discussed “people’s information warfare” concept highlighting China’s growing interest in the idea, is a great example of a culture of participation orbiting around hacktivism cause, a culture we’ve also seen in many other hacktivism tensions in the past, and will continue to see in the future. The entire concept is relying on the fact that the collective bandwidth of people voluntarily “donating” it, is far more efficient from a “malicious economies of scale” perspective, compared to for instance the botnet masters having to create the botnet by infecting users in one way or another.
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johnpi
Cyberwar guide for beginners and other cool stuff.
More and more of Iran’s pro-government websites are under assault, as opposition forces launch web attacks on the Tehran regime’s online propaganda arms….
San Francisco technologist Austin Heap has put together a set of instructions on how to set up “proxies” — intermediary internet protocol (IP) address — that allow activists to get through the government firewall. And the Networked Culture blog has assembled for pro-democracy sympathizers a “cyberwar guide for beginners.” Stop publicizing these proxies over Twitter, the site recommends. Instead, send direct messages to @stopAhmadi or @iran09 and they will distributed them discretely [sic] to bloggers in Iran.”
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johnpi
‘Denial of Service’ attack success update: Posted one hour ago to the Facebook page, an image of Dolatyar.ir page, which has gone down for the first time.
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johnpi
Another mass ‘denial of service’ attack tool for zapping propaganda outlets, per request of ‘persiankiki’ and many, many others…
