Back to index of Nerve 18 - Summer 2011

Getting Connected

In a modern day Mad Men's dream, Google targets its users with online personalised adverts. Companies use Facebook to check on applicants for jobs. Face recognition software is now so sophisticated that it can sift through countless images from Britain's millions of surveillance cameras in seconds. One British police force has just bought software off the US military which follows peoples’ movements and communications in real time, by gathering information from social networking sites, satellite navigation equipment, mobile phones, financial transactions and computer data.
Meanwhile instant actions are organised on the net, 'flash mobs' by mobile and 'free' access to information is said to have brought about revolution in Tunisia and Egypt.
At Nerve we have been having 'Hot' debates about how we, as activists, should be involved with social media technology.
Below Adam Ford puts forward the case for Facebook, Ritchie Hunter takes the sceptical view and Sue Hunter looks at the Power of Proximity.

Defence of Facebook

There's a lot of criticisms you could make of Facebook and other 'social networking' websites such as Twitter and MySpace. Like any for profit business, it exists to make money, and its owners can't be trusted one kilobite. But my argument is that it is a powerful tool which, quite apart from 'throwing sheep' and other such time wasting, can help to bring people together and change the world.

Personally, I owe a lot to social networking websites. I met my long-term girlfriend on MySpace, we both moved onto Facebook, and now we live together. There's no way we would have met in ‘real life' without social networking technology because we lived at opposite ends of the country. But we started talking over shared interests, and the rest is history!

But of possibly even greater significance is the way Facebook and Twitter are being used to organise political change. When Noam Chomsky was asked about this on Newsnight in March, he replied that "a hammer doesn't care if it's being used to hammer in a nail or bash a prisoner's head in", and of course the technology itself is 'neutral' when it comes to politics, it can create or destroy. But the fact remains that it was widely used in the recent Egyptian pro-democracy movement, both to organise actions and to spread the news internationally - under conditions where the corporate media wasn't getting the story out properly. The regime of Hosni Mubarak tacitly acknowledged the power of social networking, when it shut down the internet for a short time. He also held Wael Ghonim - the Facebook organiser of major Cairo protests - in custody for twelve days.

While Facebook and Twitter are having a large impact in the Middle East protests - from Algeria to Yemen - they have also been used in the Wisconsin, USA protests against massive effective pay cuts for public sector workers and the restriction of trade union rights. In the UK too, it is being used to link up anti-cuts campaigns such as UK Uncut, student university occupiers, and others.

What links all of this is a beautiful and wonderful Twitter 'hashtag' - '#solidarity'. By subscribing to the hashtag, Tweeters from around the world can share info, offer suggestions, participate, or just sympathise with people in struggle against austerity and oppression - whether they be in Liverpool or Lisbon, Cairo or Caracas, Birkenhead or Bahrain. And when the working people of the world really do unite, the social networking billionaires better hide out with their friends on Wall Street.

We can't turn the clock back, so Facebook and Twitter are here to stay, for better and for worse. While taking care with exactly what we put online, let's put these tools to use in creating a better society.

The Power of Proximity

We all know the brilliant usefulness of the internet, mobiles, Facebook, Twitter etc. We also hear a long list of complaints about them: according to recent articles they are responsible for dumbing down, tiny attention spans, inability to concentrate, shallow thought, discourtesy, texting at funerals, lives controlled by need to stay ‘in the loop’, panic in case of missing latest tweet, no exercise or fresh air, can't sleep, children can't get parents' attention while on their blackberries...(not to mention cyber bullying and violent porn...)

Meanwhile I just want us to remind ourselves of the need for and often sheer joy of physical gatherings with other human beings: "Proximity". People often say, what's the point of going on demonstrations, they never change anything. Yet getting together, swapping jokes, resisting being kettled, wow, I haven't seen him for years, she's had 2 kids since the last march...the fastest typing fingers or texting thumbs can't keep up with all these interactions.
Look at the Egyptian revolution. Facebook and Twitter did a fantastic job bringing people out, but once people were on the streets, communication and numbers increased exponentially each day and hour. Discussions developed fast from the immediate practicalities - safety, food and water, setting up field hospitals, protection of neighbourhoods - leading to ongoing debates about what kind of new government was needed.

Ahdaf Soueif, the Egyptian writer, described the joy of everyone getting together, looking after each other.
To quote from her diary: "Look at the streets - this is what hope looks like." "In the square I met 2 women in the last stages of pregnancy...they wanted to give birth in a free Egypt. Now they can have their babies." "For 2 weeks we'd chanted 'come on Egypt, one more push, freedom will be born tonight'."

Everyone brought something: medicines, soup, mint tea. Once together in Tahrir Square, people lost their fear. Separated for years by terror of the torturers, at last community was recovered. This is the Power of Proximity!

The Sceptic's View

My dad used to drive a Ford Anglia van. It would run just fine all through the summer months; it would even tolerate a certain level of abuse and still chug along. Then, just when he needed it most, on a freezing cold morning, it would let him down. My dad would drag me out of bed to help push this van along the road to get it started.

I see this as an analogy for the internet. We are reaching the stage that we rely on this technology in everything we do, and as we enter a period of revolt, it is used to organise most of our actions. The powers that control this technology will put up with a certain amount of dissent, but when it starts to really hurt them they will pull the plug, leaving us without a communication system. We have given over to large corporations the means for them to control our lives.

Every time we use the internet, or our mobile phone, we leave a trail of information that, potentially, can be accessed by individuals, companies and governments. In our 'Free' society most of us don't bother too much about this. But this information, in the most intimate of detail, can be used by friendly and hostile agencies alike.

Most internet companies have their base in California, so they abide by US policy and legislation. This was shown when PayPal and Visa froze their banking service to Wikileaks, after they released US embassy information. PayPal (owned by ebay) also froze the account of a British registered charity because some supporters made donations to Cuba, subject to a US trade embargo.

Other examples are:

• Google is the world's most successful advertising agency, as well as the most powerful intelligence marketing company.
  Google bought the technology for Google Earth off the CIA's investment arm, In-Q-Tel, in 2005, and Google and In-Q-Tel have recently joined up to invest in the same social media monitoring company.
  Google owns YouTube, which removed videos of police brutality in Egypt.
• Twitter has been accused of silencing online messages during the brutal attack by Israel on Gaza in 2008, and of being influenced by the US State Department after a planned maintenance of the site in 2009 was postponed during the so-called 'Twitter' revolution in Iran.
• Facebook deactivated the accounts of pro-Tibetan activists in 2008 for "persistent misuse of the site" - interpreted as a censorship on political comment, and, in 2010, Moroccan activist El Ghazzali had his group of over 1,000 members deleted by Facebook without warning. When he complained he had his personal account deleted as well.

"Mobile activism" has recently become the way to organise protests. The signal, though, can be stopped in quite small areas. During the G8 protests in Stirling in 2005 the signal went down leaving many protesters not knowing where the action was taking place.

Websites and mobile networks are mostly said to go down because of overload; too many people using them at once. But even this can be engineered. Software has been developed that can infect thousands of computers which act as hosts. When activated they target an 'offending' site to overload it.

No one would disagree that in some cases, such as when racist, pornographic and abusive information is put out that there needs to be censorship, but who controls this censorship is the question, and most sites are just shut down without us knowing why. Pressure is put on website hosts by large companies, so rather than go through the bother of a legal fight the host will concede.

In 2006, Sonae tried to shut down our website. It was only because the hosts for the website informed us of this, even though they were warned not to, that we were able to prevent it.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't use social networking sites, they have proved extremely useful in organising events and actions. But we need to understand them and not have any illusions about their security. Having thousands of 'Friends' on Facebook is fine, but how do you know you can trust all these people? When the Sudanese government set up their own Facebook site, using it to organise a protest against themselves, people showed up at the specified place only to be arrested. Signing on-line petitions may make some politicians take notice, but to bring about real change there has to be some physical action.

So to return to my dad and the van. He started paying more attention to maintenance, parking it on a hill and also making sure of the bus times. In other words he made contingency plans, and so should we, by maintaining and building other forms of networks and communication systems that we can trust.

Sources:
Evgeny Morozov: The Net Delusion, How Not to Liberate The World
The Guardian

Printer friendly page

Comments:

Comment left by vkindzzrows on 22nd May, 2012 at 13:14
best hayfever medicine http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749909#136 - femara medication for pcos sher institute of reproductive medicine monrovia family pharmacy closing http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749908#022 - femara for ovarian cancer treatment louise brown medicine hat alberta canada pharmacies in mount vernon ny 15505 http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749906#386 - order letrozole london champlain center for natural medicine samuel's 3p medicine http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749901#916 - medication femara 2.5 mg letrozole matthew stamford pharmacy american board of pulmoary medicine http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749900#555 - liquid letrozole exercise side effects of zeta medicine veterinarian medicine practices http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749899#092 - liquid femara like government regulations for pharmacy compounding psy psychic medicine http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749898#476 - cost letrozole vs clomid steve roach big medicine natural medicine website http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749894#215 - letrozole vs arimidex medical abc medics pharmacy united pharmacy services valdosta http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749893#562 - letrozole tablets usp uses ssb pharm pcast personalized medicine http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749891#319 - letrozole used for infertility the peoples pharmacy book alternative medicine providers southern wisconsin <a href=http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749909#415 - pcos femara and prometrium success </a> items for a medicine bag montel pharmacy <a href=http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749908#123 - femara medication ovarian cancer </a> wilderness medicine and np kent medical pharmacy ottawa <a href=http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749906#261 - order letrozole fast </a> can i trust online pharmacy pharmacy technician cme <a href=http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749901#137 - medication femara 2.5 mg canadian </a> new bicarbonate acid medicine allopathic medicines view of man <a href=http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749900#233 - liquid letrozole defiance </a> wellstar cobb rehab medicine llc pallm pilot for medicine <a href=http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749899#897 - liquid femara </a> oregon city internal medicine medicine for yeast infections <a href=http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749898#112 - letrozole vs clomid problems </a> little brown drugstore sompraz d 40 medicine tablets <a href=http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749894#966 - letrozole vs arimidex gyn </a> pain medicine in mexico cannabis as a medicine ankylosing <a href=http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749893#044 - usp letrozole drug </a> benjamin and franklin drugstores feline flea medicine <a href=http://www.myspace.com/585740442/blog/545749891#903 - link </a> michael jackson pharmacy bill

Comment left by bkindzfrows on 22nd May, 2012 at 15:24
otc pharmacy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j0coxmmfRg#003 - buy rimonabant online canada 93 280 medicine pill american academy of manual physical medicine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtZBAGhR9Ck#415 - buy slimona india medicine for pad health medicine medical specialties pulmonary journals http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu2cIFZky0k#205 - buy zimulti cheap natural medicines for animals veterinary alternative medicine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWwcS8ZvUYE#943 - buying acomplia legally pharm control nj pharmacy schools http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tYbr9IyYQI#870 - acomplia novartis canada medicine for dog obsessive compulsive disorder center for restorative and regenerative medicine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV-8L9-Nh90#221 - cheap generic acomplia online traditional chinese medicine and western medicine pharmacy drug records new york http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_ivFoUPT9Y#042 - cheap buy acomplia illinois internal medicine jacquline fischer cosumel pharmacies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eW6IqvQ34M#734 - acomplia rimonabant canada cheapest canadian pharm 77 pharmacy technician online education http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IHfbnOSEow#872 - cheapest rimonabant pediatric medicine specifications danny's pharmacy tucson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWdGWlW8cQs#898 - acomplia diet drug usa pharmacies open chinese herbal medicine diagnostic <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j0coxmmfRg#393 - rimonabant to buy </a> pharmacy and soap note form conway orthopaedic and sports medicine <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtZBAGhR9Ck#227 - link </a> acute medicine algorithms herpes blister relief medicine <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu2cIFZky0k#192 - zimulti to buy </a> center for family medicine greenville sc utah school of medicine regional campus <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWwcS8ZvUYE#971 - buying acomplia </a> direct pharmacy services inc does walgreens pharmacy carry plan b <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tYbr9IyYQI#412 - acomplia canada pharmacy prescription </a> abington family medicine antient egyptian medicine <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV-8L9-Nh90#400 - buy cheap acomplia online consultation </a> decapitated woman defies medicine st bonadventure pharm program <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_ivFoUPT9Y#310 - buy cheap acomplia no perscription </a> veterinary medicine schools wiche victorian institute of forensic medicine <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eW6IqvQ34M#765 - order the cheapest acomplia </a> pharmacy colleges in tenn national college of oriental medicine <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IHfbnOSEow#331 - rimonabant cheapest </a> ut pharmacy program drugstore cowboys music <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWdGWlW8cQs#382 - acomplia drug diet </a> sc board of medicine

Comment left by Coupporce on 22nd May, 2012 at 19:52
Rqks http://saclouisvuittonpascher.webnode.fr/ Vwfe <a href="http://boutiquelouisvuitton.webnode.fr/">louis vuitton en ligne</a>

Comment left by catyfopepex on 22nd May, 2012 at 20:43
adoloscent depression medicine http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999137#976 - proair hfa aer ivax apr retail pharmacy inventory control software abrams royal compound pharmacy http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999152#976 - commonwealth college of medicine doctor saleh medicine aht http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999162#445 - henderson albuterol proair hfa institute of medicine hypertension pet homeopathic medicines http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999173#832 - pro air hfa albuterol sulfate drug anesthesia medicine commercial for heart medicine http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999185#803 - albuterol sulfate proair hfa lungs plantar fasciitis medicine vitamin c major pharm http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999194#816 - link symptoms of cold medicine allergy pharmacies shingles vaccination http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999205#649 - link medicine for kids stomachache limo services in medicine hat http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999224#147 - proair hfa albuterol coupons inhalation supervisor nuclear medicine pet ct pharmacy jobs in houston 20 http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999242#371 - proair hfa canada generic name chinese medicine near arlington hieghts gerrianne burke internal medicine http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999258#167 - albuterol sulfate inhalation aerosol drug interactions proair hfa website for fort bragg pharmacy refill veterinary medicines for dogs <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999137#688 - proair hfa aer andrx pharm </a> hillsboro pharmacy nj sport medicine colleges in minnesota <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999152#333 - aer ivax pharm albuterol proair hfa </a> coming out of traditional medicine internet discount pharmacy <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999162#886 - proair hfa albuterol drug </a> guirkin internal medicine donna eden and energy medicine <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999173#767 - pro air hfa albuterol sulfate drug </a> carrollton georgia sports medicine medicine hat spectrum festival <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999185#723 - proair hfa albuterol sulfate nebulizer </a> canadian online medications pharmacy by mail dog bleeding ulcer chinese medicine <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999194#364 - albuterol sulfate inhalation aerosol drug interactions proair hfa </a> integrated medicine learning maple medicine cabinet old <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999205#189 - proair hfa coupon cheap </a> foxwoods medicine chinese medicines plymouth <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999224#205 - proair hfa coupons discounts inhaler </a> natural medicine for infections pharmacy school oklahoma city <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999242#261 - proair hfa generic available albuterol </a> medicine in ww1 effective homeopathic medicine <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999258#413 - proair hfa inhalation aerosol ingredients bronchospasm </a> kroger pharmacy in maryville

Comment left by trartnarSkype on 22nd May, 2012 at 21:05
vLcephTohy <a href="http://www.jincheng.com/p90x.html">discount p90x</a> lSmqmqHakk http://www.jincheng.com/p90x.html

Comment left by ikindsvrows on 22nd May, 2012 at 22:48
news article a internal medicine doctor http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999271#825 - proair hfa aer ivax inhaler homeo medicine for blood pressure cvc pharmacy lansdale pa http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999290#185 - proair hfa mdi price tajikistan medicine ford pharmacy in moncton http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999303#958 - calgary faculty of medicine news smokey hill family medicine colorado http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999321#398 - holistic medicine benefits traditional medicine day http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999338#707 - proair albuterol hsa pharmacy technician in idaho dragon's blood medicine http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999348#581 - respironics proair ii custom compounding pharmacy ct medicines that cause miscarriage http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999366#782 - proair ii air compressor hp anti anxiety medicine buspirone west china university of medicine videos http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999382#021 - proair ii compressor gallon layton professional plaza pharmacy pharmacy solutions australia http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999397#717 - proair hfa albuterol sulfate inhalation aerosol asthma cyclosporine vet medicine canada tuberculosis medicines http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999413#976 - proair hfa inhaler us paxil cr online pharmacy flaws of socializing medicine <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999271#378 - proair proair hfa inhaler </a> watch degrassi bad medicine aetna on line pharmacy <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999290#485 - </a> esters are used medicine ted kurtz california medicine <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999303#983 - side effects of proair hfa inhalation aerosol </a> fucs medicine school colombia hypothyroidism and holistic medicine <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999321#702 - proair hfc </a> kroger pharmacy ypsilanti mi pharmacy vaccination <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999338#393 - hsa proventil vs proair </a> walmart angleton tx pharmacy cvs pharmacy lebanon missouri <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999348#632 - proair ii compressor </a> associates respiratory medicine butler pa infant medicine dosage chart <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999366#456 - proair ii air compressor size </a> eli lilly original pharmacy become a pharmacy rep <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999382#686 - proair ii air compressor gun </a> what kind of medicine is alprazolam doctorate degree in pharmacy texas <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999397#562 - proair b albuterol sulfate inhalation aerosol </a> alternative medicine maryland alliance occupational medicine <a href=http://dailybooth.com/proair/25999413#825 - pulmicort proair hfa inhaler </a> center for medicine and endocrinology

Comment on this article:

Name:
Email:
Comment:
Security Code (case sensitive):