Internet activism during the 2009 Iranian election protests#NedaNet
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Internet activism and, specifically, social networking has been instrumental in organizing many of the 2009 Iranian election protests.{{cite news | title = Internet brings events in Iran to life | publisher = BBC | date = 14 June 2009 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8099579.stm | accessdate = 14 June 2009}} Online sites have been uploading amateur pictures and video, and Twitter, Facebook, and blogs have been places for protesters to gather and exchange information. Although some scholars in the West stress that Twitter has been used to organize protests,Sullivan, Andrew. [http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/twitter-vs-the-coup.html Twitter vs The Coup]. The Atlantic. 15 June 2009.{{cite web|url=http://www.softsecurity.com/news/blog-posts/iranian-opposition-ddos-es-pro-ahmadinejad-sites.html|title=In focus: Iranian Opposition DDoS-es pro-Ahmadinejad Sites|date=2009-06-16|access-date=2009-07-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008053713/http://www.softsecurity.com/news/blog-posts/iranian-opposition-ddos-es-pro-ahmadinejad-sites.html|archive-date=2011-10-08|url-status=dead}} Iranian scholars argue that Twitter was hardly used by Iranian citizens in the midst of the 2009 protests.{{cite journal|last=Honari|first=Ali|year=2015|title= Online Social Research in Iran: A Need to Offer a Bigger Picture |url=http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=9687|journal=CyberOrient: Online Journal of the Virtual Middle East |volume=9|issue=2}}{{cite book|title=Civil Society in Syria and Iran: Activism in Authoritarian Contexts|publisher=Lynne Rinner|location=Boulder, CO|url=https://www.academia.edu/2649933|author=Honari, Ali|editor1=Paul Aarts |editor2=Francesco Cavatorta |chapter=From Virtual to Tangible Social Movements in Iran|date=2014}}{{cite news|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/07/the_twitter_revolution_that_wasnt|title=The Twitter devolution|newspaper=Foreign Policy|first= Golnaz|last=Esfandyari|date=7 June 2010}}{{cite journal |last=Rahimi|first=Babak|year=2011 |title=The agonistic social media: Cyberspace in the formation of dissent and consolidation of state power in postelection Iran |journal=The Communication Review |volume=14|issue=3 |pages=158–178 |doi=10.1080/10714421.2011.597240 |s2cid=143717833 }}
==Use of social networking==
Twitter in particular has been seen a key central gathering site during the protests.{{cite news | last = Stone | first = Brad |author2=Noam Cohen | title = Social Networks Spread Defiance Online | publisher = NYT | date = 15 June 2009 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/world/middleeast/16media.html | accessdate = 15 June 2009}}
The U.S. State Department urged the company to postpone a scheduled network upgrade that would have briefly put the service offline.Reuters. [https://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSWBT01137420090616 U.S. State Department speaks to Twitter over Iran] 16 June 2009{{cite web|author=Ben Parr|url=http://mashable.com/2009/06/16/twitter-iran/ |title=U.S. Government Asks Twitter to Stay Up for #IranElection Crisis |publisher=Mashable.com |date=2009-06-16 |accessdate=2009-06-20}} Twitter delayed the network upgrade from midnight American time/morning Iran time to afternoon American time/midnight Iran time "because events in Iran were tied directly to the growing significance of Twitter as an important communication and information network", but at the same time denied that the State Department had "access to our decision making process".Twitter Blog [http://blog.twitter.com/2009/06/up-up-and-away.html Up, Up, and Away] 16 June 2009{{cite web|url=http://mashable.com/2009/06/15/twitter-iran-election/ |title=Twitter Reschedules Maintenance Around #IranElection Controversy |date=15 June 2009 |publisher=Mashable.com |accessdate=2009-06-20}} Social networking sites became the primary source of information, videos, and testimonials of the protests. Major news outlets, such as CNN{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/16/iran.twitter.facebook/index.html |title=Officials: Social networking providing crucial info from Iran |publisher=CNN |date=2009-06-16 |accessdate=2009-06-20}} and BBC News,{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8104318.stm |title=Twitter responds on Iranian role |publisher=BBC News |date=2009-06-17 |accessdate=2009-06-20 |first=Maggie |last=Shiels}} gained much of their information from using and sorting through tweets by Twitter users and videos uploaded to YouTube.{{cite news|url=http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13856224|title=Coverage of the protests: Twitter 1, CNN 0|newspaper=The Economist|date=2009-06-18|accessdate=2009-06-21}} The use of social networking became central enough to the reports from Iran to make Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown state that the way the internet has democratised communication has forever changed the way foreign policy can be carried out{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jun/19/gordon-brown-internet-foreign-policy | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Internet has changed foreign policy for ever, says Gordon Brown | first=Katharine | last=Viner | date=2009-06-19 | accessdate=2010-05-22}} and even suggest that web-based social networking could have prevented the Rwandan genocide.
Several reports disagree that the role of Twitter is central to the protests.{{cite news|url=http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2009/tc20090617_803990.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090619010049/http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2009/tc20090617_803990.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 19, 2009 |title=Iran's Twitter Revolution? Maybe Not Yet |publisher=BusinessWeek |date=2009-06-17 |accessdate=2009-06-23}}
The Economist magazine stated that the Twitter thread IranElection was so deluged with messages of support from Americans and Britons that it "rendered the site almost useless as a source of information—something that Iran's government had tried and failed to do".{{cite news|url=http://www.economist.com/node/13856224| title=Coverage of the Protests Twitter=1 CNN=0| date=2009-06-18 |accessdate=2011-09-26}} The Economist asserted that the most comprehensive sources of information in English by far were created by bloggers who pulled out useful information from the mass of information, of whom it singles out Nico Pitney of the Huffington Post, Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic and Robert Mackey of the New York Times. A study by social media analytics company Sysomos shows that of 65 million population, there are only 19,235 Twitter users who disclose their location as Iran.{{cite web |url=http://blog.sysomos.com/2009/06/21/a-look-at-twitter-in-iran/ |title=A Look at Twitter in Iran |publisher=Sysomos |date=2009-06-21 |accessdate=2009-06-23 |archive-date=2009-06-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090624133142/http://blog.sysomos.com/2009/06/21/a-look-at-twitter-in-iran/ |url-status=dead }}
Internet activism and hacktivism
=DDoS attacks=
Mousavi's supporters, through social networking sites, exchanged scripts for launching distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) against Ahmadinejad's website.{{cite web|url=http://www.scmagazineus.com/Iranian-election-protestors-use-Twitter-to-recruit-hackers/article/138545/|title=Iran election protesters use Twitter to recruit hackers|date=2009-06-18|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090719020214/http://www.scmagazineus.com/Iranian-election-protestors-use-Twitter-to-recruit-hackers/article/138545|archivedate=2009-07-19}} British citizens were reported to support the DDoS attacks against president Ahmadinejad by providing software for launching them.{{cite news|publisher=CNN|title=Briton's software a surprise weapon in Iran cyberwar|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/17/iran.elections.hackers/index.html?eref=rss_world|date=17 June 2009}} Many anti-Ahmedinejad activists have attacked the websites of Ahmedinejad and the government. The impact of the attacks remains unclear. At times the government's official website ([https://web.archive.org/web/20071003013439/http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/ ahmedinejad.ir]) was inaccessible.{{cite magazine|last=Shachtman|first=Noah|url=https://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/06/activists-launch-hack-attacks-on-tehran-regime/|title=Activists Launch Hack Attacks on Tehran Regime|magazine=Wired|date=2009-06-15|accessdate=2009-06-15}}
= Anonymous Iran =
Image:TBP The Persian Bay 20 June 09 front page.png of The Pirate Bay on 20 June 2009; it remained renamed in solidarity for several days, as Anonymous and TPB had collaborated on the launching of the website [https://web.archive.org/web/20110221211746/http://iran.whyweprotest.net/ Anonymous Iran].]]
Anonymous, together with The Pirate Bay, established the Iranian Green Party Support site [https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://web.archive.org/web/20110221211746/http://iran.whyweprotest.net/ Anonymous Iran] during the protests. The site, which has drawn over 22,000 supporters worldwide, provides several tools to circumvent the Iranian regime's Internet censorship; the site thus provides covert resources and support to Iranians who are directly protesting.{{cite web|url=http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/827036/internet-underground-takes-on-iran |title=Internet underground takes on Iran |date=2009-06-29 |publisher=Nine News |accessdate=2009-06-29 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703193202/http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/827036/internet-underground-takes-on-iran |archivedate=2009-07-03 }}Iranian Support Site http://iran.whyweprotest.net {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221211746/http://iran.whyweprotest.net/ |date=2011-02-21 }} Anonymous has published a [http://trancy.net/iran/anon/ short video on Iran] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090707080319/http://trancy.net/iran/anon/ |date=2009-07-07 }} and has released a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hUFv5c4lFg message to the Iranian government], manifestos in which Anonymous declares its reasons for supporting the protests.
In addition to providing support and resources, the site also features a daily report on events in Iran by underground journalist Josh Shahryar called the [https://web.archive.org/web/20101115211749/http://iran.whyweprotest.net/green-brief/ Green Brief].
= Haystack =
On July 4, an IT professional called Austin Heap announced together with Daniel Colascione their preparations to release Haystack, what would be a program designed specifically to bypass Iranian authorities' Internet monitoring and censorship mechanisms and allow the Iranian population to access an unfiltered Internet.[http://www.haystacknetwork.com HaystackNetwork.com]{{Self-published inline|date=March 2011}}
The program has begun to be tested with the help of collaborators from IranAustin Heap's blog, [http://blog.austinheap.com/2009/07/09/moment-of-truth/ "Moment of Truth"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090711091454/http://blog.austinheap.com/2009/07/09/moment-of-truth/ |date=2009-07-11 }} and development continued also for the supporting network of servers and its security policy.Austin Heap's blog, [http://blog.austinheap.com/building-the-stack/ "Building the 'stack"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111108010346/http://blog.austinheap.com/building-the-stack/ |date=2011-11-08 }}
Global advocacy group Avaaz.org donated a grant of $15,000 US for the ongoing project.{{cite web
|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2267262
|title=The Great Internet Freedom Fraud - How Haystack endangered the Iranian dissidents it was supposed to protect
|first=Evgeny
|last=Morozov
|publisher=Slate.com
|date=September 16, 2010
}}
However, independent reviews showed the software was dangerously insecure. Not only did it fail to encrypt secrets properly, but it could also reveal its users’ identities and locations.{{cite news
| title=Worse than useless
| publisher=The Economist
| url=http://www.economist.com/node/17043440
| date=September 16, 2010
}} Digital activist Danny O'Brien openly criticized Haystack over how it would leave its users vulnerable.{{cite news
|url=http://www.oblomovka.com/wp/2010/09/14/haystack-vs-how-the-internet-works/
|title=Haystack vs How The Internet Works
|first=Danny
|last=O'Brien
|date=September 14, 2010
}} Also, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has advised all of Haystack users to stop using it.{{cite news
|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11298022
|title=Anti-censorship program Haystack withdrawn
|publisher=BBC News
|date=14 September 2010
|accessdate=23 October 2010}}
There were critics about the hype made at the time of the software announcement, with the government and media accepting all the claims at face value.
The disclosure of the security issues with Haystack has led its sole programmer, Dan Colascione, to resign and ultimately, to the announcement in September 2010 that the software had been withdrawn over security fears.
Webcomics
A webcomic called Persepolis 2.0 was created in 2009 by Iranian-born artists Payman and Sina whose subjects were the re-elections of conservative Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the social turmoil that followed them. The novel uses previously published graphic material by Marjane Satrapi from the original Perspolis graphic novel and is ten pages long.
In an interview with Agence France-Presse, the pseudonymous authors said, "Marjane's images describe events from 30 years ago yet they mirror the postelection events so well."Itzkoff, Dave. "[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/arts/22arts-PERSEPOLISUP_BRF.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Persepolis%202.0.&st=cse Persepolis Updated to Protest Election]." The New York Times. 21 August 2009. Retrieved on 24 March 2012. The artists live in Shanghai, China, and use only the names "Payman" and "Sina."
In an e-mail, Sina said that visitors of the website came from 120 countries, that the reception "has been great," and that he received e-mails from many people wishing to support the Iranians.Weaver, Matthew. "[https://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2009/jun/30/iran-protest Persepolis 2.0: Iran poll inspires sequel]." The Guardian. Tuesday 30 June 2009. Retrieved on 24 March 2012.
See also
{{Portalbar|Iran|Politics|Internet}}
References
{{Reflist|2}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110221211746/http://iran.whyweprotest.net/ Anonymous Iran]
- [https://web.archive.org/*/http://www.spreadpersepolis.com Spread Persepolis] - The original site is defunct
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20090710234936/http://www.spreadpersepolis.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Persepolis_2.0.pdf Online archive of the Persepolis 2.0 comic]
- Doctorow, Cory. "[http://boingboing.net/2009/06/28/persepolis-20-fan-ar.html Persepolis 2.0: fan-art story about Iran elections]." BoingBoing. Sunday 28 June 2009.
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