Latest topics
Iraq shuts down social media to prevent government overthrow (updated)
Dinar Daily :: DINAR/IRAQ -- NEWS -- GURUS and DISCUSSIONS :: IRAQ and DINAR -- ARTICLE BASED INFORMATION and DISCUSSIONS
Page 1 of 1
Iraq shuts down social media to prevent government overthrow (updated)
Iraq shuts down social media to prevent government overthrow (updated)
Above: Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) celebrate on vehicles taken from Iraqi security forces, at a street in city of Mosul.
Image Credit: Reuters
June 13, 2014 7:39 AM
Updated 1 p.m. ET with initial responses from Facebook and Twitter. Updated 1:53 p.m. ET with Google’s response.
The Republic of Iraq today blocked Twitter, Google, YouTube, Facebook, and other sites, in response to the uprising of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, numerous media outlets claim.
The Iraq government ordered the country’s ministry of communications to block the sites, International Business Times reports, “over fears that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) was using the outlets to organise their insurgency.” Although other publications report that the cause for the block is unclear, it’s noteworthy that dozens of social media accounts claim to come from official ISIS leaders.
It’s currently unknown if the above social media sites are blocked nationwide. Twitter and Facebook have a lengthy history of countrywide bans, as we’ve previously reported.
Twitter was banned in Iran in 2009, in South Korea in 2010, and in Egypt since 2011, as well as in China. Facebook has reportedly faced similar censorship efforts in Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and Iran.
A YouTube spokesperson says Google is aware of the block: “We’re seeing reports that some users are not able to access YouTube in Iraq. There is no technical issue on our side and we’re looking into the situation.”
A Twitter spokesperson tells us that it is “looking into it now.” Twitter’s official Policy account has yet to release a statement on today’s block.
A Facebook spokesperson provided VentureBeat with a critical response:
ISIS, the acronym for the uprising, is (of course) not to be confused with the struggling ISIS payment standard, created to rival Google Wallet.
ISIS, known as an “extremist al-Qaeda offshoot,” has been criticized by both the United Nations and president Barack Obama and has so far taken over numerous major cities in Iraq. “Iraq is going to need more help from us and the International community,” Obama stated today in a press conference filmed by the BBC. Washington is considering “launching drone strikes” against ISIS, the BBC
Above: Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) celebrate on vehicles taken from Iraqi security forces, at a street in city of Mosul.
Image Credit: Reuters
June 13, 2014 7:39 AM
Updated 1 p.m. ET with initial responses from Facebook and Twitter. Updated 1:53 p.m. ET with Google’s response.
The Republic of Iraq today blocked Twitter, Google, YouTube, Facebook, and other sites, in response to the uprising of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, numerous media outlets claim.
The Iraq government ordered the country’s ministry of communications to block the sites, International Business Times reports, “over fears that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) was using the outlets to organise their insurgency.” Although other publications report that the cause for the block is unclear, it’s noteworthy that dozens of social media accounts claim to come from official ISIS leaders.
It’s currently unknown if the above social media sites are blocked nationwide. Twitter and Facebook have a lengthy history of countrywide bans, as we’ve previously reported.
Twitter was banned in Iran in 2009, in South Korea in 2010, and in Egypt since 2011, as well as in China. Facebook has reportedly faced similar censorship efforts in Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and Iran.
A YouTube spokesperson says Google is aware of the block: “We’re seeing reports that some users are not able to access YouTube in Iraq. There is no technical issue on our side and we’re looking into the situation.”
A Twitter spokesperson tells us that it is “looking into it now.” Twitter’s official Policy account has yet to release a statement on today’s block.
A Facebook spokesperson provided VentureBeat with a critical response:
We are disturbed by reports of access issues in Iraq and are investigating. Limiting access to Internet services — essential for communication and commerce for millions of people — is a matter of concern for the global community.
ISIS, the acronym for the uprising, is (of course) not to be confused with the struggling ISIS payment standard, created to rival Google Wallet.
ISIS, known as an “extremist al-Qaeda offshoot,” has been criticized by both the United Nations and president Barack Obama and has so far taken over numerous major cities in Iraq. “Iraq is going to need more help from us and the International community,” Obama stated today in a press conference filmed by the BBC. Washington is considering “launching drone strikes” against ISIS, the BBC
Ponee- Admin
- Posts : 38267
Join date : 2011-08-09
Re: Iraq shuts down social media to prevent government overthrow (updated)
Iraq tries to censor social media to disrupt ISIS communication, but its success is limited
By Craig Timberg June 13
The Iraqi government moved Friday to block access to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in a bid to disrupt the social media tools deployed by insurgents as they have swept through the country in a bold drive toward Baghdad.
But the initiative ran into a hard reality of warfare in the 21st century: Losing physical ground means losing control of cyberspace as well.
Companies that monitor Internet traffic reported significant declines in access to social media services in Baghdad and the immediate vicinity as providers complied with censorship orders from the Ministry of Communication. Internet access in other parts of the country were disrupted to a lesser extent, if at all.
Regions beyond government control often rely on alternative sources, such as satellite links and fiber-optic lines coming from telecommunications providers in Turkey, Iran and Jordan, analysts said. Service in semiautonomous Kurdish regions, for example, appeared to be flowing without a blip.
“It kind of echoes the larger themes in Iraq, of how little the Iraqi government controls in that country,” said Doug Madory, a senior analyst with Renesys, a New Hampshire-based company that tracks Internet performance worldwide.
Internet monitoring services detected several hours of outages Monday and Thursday in Iraq. Friday’s appeared to be more sweeping and longer-lasting, continuing throughout much of the day and into the night at a time when tensions were running high and President Obama was speaking openly of possible military action.
Governments under threat often seek to block online services, especially if they are widely used by their opponents. Syria has regularly interrupted Internet access during its more than three years of civil war. Egypt shut down social media sites during the Arab Spring uprising in 2011. Iran temporarily blocked access to encrypted sites in 2012, making it impossible to have online conversations free from government snooping.
In Iraq on Friday, overall Internet traffic was running at about one-third of its usual levels, according to Akamai, a network that delivers Internet content from servers across much of the world.
“Syria, from what we’ve seen in the past, has been an all-or-nothing proposition,” said David Belson, editor of Akamai’s State of the Internet Report. “What we’re seeing in Iraq is a decline in traffic but not a complete flatline.”
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a jihadi group that has seized a series of towns and cities in western and northern Iraq, has used social media to communicate and distribute its propaganda messages.
In addition to affecting Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the outages also curbed access to WhatsApp and Viber, both of which provide instant messages through cellphones, said Collin Anderson, a researcher affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication who tested access within Iraq to thousands of top Web sites.
“Anything that’s a social media site . . . that’s what they’re going after,” Anderson said.
Facebook confirmed the outages in a statement, saying: “We are disturbed by reports of access issues in Iraq and are investigating. Limiting access to Internet services — essential for communication and commerce for millions of people — is a matter of concern for the global community.”
Google, which owns YouTube, showed disruptions across its services on a tracking program, but analysts said that may have been an inadvertent consequence of efforts to block YouTube.
“We’re seeing reports that some users are not able to access YouTube in Iraq,” Google said in a statement. “There is no technical issue on our side and we’re looking into the situation.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/iraq-tries-to-censor-social-media-but-its-success-is-limited/2014/06/13/19e1e918-f325-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f_story.html
By Craig Timberg June 13
The Iraqi government moved Friday to block access to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in a bid to disrupt the social media tools deployed by insurgents as they have swept through the country in a bold drive toward Baghdad.
But the initiative ran into a hard reality of warfare in the 21st century: Losing physical ground means losing control of cyberspace as well.
Companies that monitor Internet traffic reported significant declines in access to social media services in Baghdad and the immediate vicinity as providers complied with censorship orders from the Ministry of Communication. Internet access in other parts of the country were disrupted to a lesser extent, if at all.
Regions beyond government control often rely on alternative sources, such as satellite links and fiber-optic lines coming from telecommunications providers in Turkey, Iran and Jordan, analysts said. Service in semiautonomous Kurdish regions, for example, appeared to be flowing without a blip.
“It kind of echoes the larger themes in Iraq, of how little the Iraqi government controls in that country,” said Doug Madory, a senior analyst with Renesys, a New Hampshire-based company that tracks Internet performance worldwide.
Internet monitoring services detected several hours of outages Monday and Thursday in Iraq. Friday’s appeared to be more sweeping and longer-lasting, continuing throughout much of the day and into the night at a time when tensions were running high and President Obama was speaking openly of possible military action.
Governments under threat often seek to block online services, especially if they are widely used by their opponents. Syria has regularly interrupted Internet access during its more than three years of civil war. Egypt shut down social media sites during the Arab Spring uprising in 2011. Iran temporarily blocked access to encrypted sites in 2012, making it impossible to have online conversations free from government snooping.
In Iraq on Friday, overall Internet traffic was running at about one-third of its usual levels, according to Akamai, a network that delivers Internet content from servers across much of the world.
“Syria, from what we’ve seen in the past, has been an all-or-nothing proposition,” said David Belson, editor of Akamai’s State of the Internet Report. “What we’re seeing in Iraq is a decline in traffic but not a complete flatline.”
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a jihadi group that has seized a series of towns and cities in western and northern Iraq, has used social media to communicate and distribute its propaganda messages.
In addition to affecting Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the outages also curbed access to WhatsApp and Viber, both of which provide instant messages through cellphones, said Collin Anderson, a researcher affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication who tested access within Iraq to thousands of top Web sites.
“Anything that’s a social media site . . . that’s what they’re going after,” Anderson said.
Facebook confirmed the outages in a statement, saying: “We are disturbed by reports of access issues in Iraq and are investigating. Limiting access to Internet services — essential for communication and commerce for millions of people — is a matter of concern for the global community.”
Google, which owns YouTube, showed disruptions across its services on a tracking program, but analysts said that may have been an inadvertent consequence of efforts to block YouTube.
“We’re seeing reports that some users are not able to access YouTube in Iraq,” Google said in a statement. “There is no technical issue on our side and we’re looking into the situation.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/iraq-tries-to-censor-social-media-but-its-success-is-limited/2014/06/13/19e1e918-f325-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f_story.html
Ponee- Admin
- Posts : 38267
Join date : 2011-08-09
Dinar Daily :: DINAR/IRAQ -- NEWS -- GURUS and DISCUSSIONS :: IRAQ and DINAR -- ARTICLE BASED INFORMATION and DISCUSSIONS
Page 1 of 1
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
Yesterday at 6:02 am by Ditartyn
» Dave Schmidt - Zim Notes for Purchase (NOT PHYSICAL NOTES)
Sat Mar 23, 2024 9:25 am by swizzlestick
» ZIGPLACE
Wed Mar 20, 2024 6:29 am by Zig
» CBD Vape Cartridges
Thu Mar 07, 2024 2:10 pm by Arendac
» Classic Tony is back
Tue Mar 05, 2024 2:53 pm by Mission1st
» THE MUSINGS OF A MADMAN
Mon Mar 04, 2024 11:40 am by Arendac
» Minister of Transport: We do not have authority over any airport in Iraq
Mon Mar 04, 2024 11:40 am by Verina
» Did Okie Die?
Mon Mar 04, 2024 11:34 am by Arendac
» Hello all, I’m new
Wed Jan 31, 2024 8:46 pm by Jonny_5
» The Renfrows: Prophets for Profits, Happy Anniversary!
Wed Jan 31, 2024 6:46 pm by Mission1st
» What Happens when Cancer is treated with Cannabis? VIDEO
Wed Jan 31, 2024 8:58 am by MadisonParrish
» An Awesome talk between Tucker and Russell Brand
Wed Jan 31, 2024 12:16 am by kenlej
» Trafficking in children
Mon Jan 29, 2024 7:43 pm by kenlej
» The second American Revolution has begun, God Bless Texas
Mon Jan 29, 2024 6:13 pm by kenlej
» The Global Currency Reset Evolution Event Will Begin With Gold, Zimbabwe ZWR Old Bank Notes
Sun Jan 28, 2024 3:28 pm by Mission1st
» Tucker talking Canada
Wed Jan 24, 2024 6:50 pm by kenlej
» Almost to the end The goodguys are winning
Mon Jan 22, 2024 9:03 pm by kenlej
» Dinar Daily Facebook Page
Mon Jan 22, 2024 3:34 pm by Ponee
» The Fundamentals of Finance and Pimpy Live
Thu Jan 18, 2024 7:17 am by Dinarhater
» Why Won't the Iraqi Dinar Scam Die?
Wed Jan 17, 2024 5:19 pm by RamblerNash