How Google has teamed up with Twitter to make sure peoples voices in Egypt are heard

As the final internet connections disappear in Egypt, people can still send their message out. Google acquired SayNow a company that can convert voice to Tweet. Users can now call in their messages which get converted into a Tweet and broad casted on Twitter. The last remaining ISP provider, Noor Group has also been abruptly disconnected.


 Numbers to use to call into the SayNow service: +16504194196; +390662207294; and +97316199855.The message is then sent out as a tweet with the hashtag #egypt. People can listen to messages by dialling the same phone numbers (+16504194196 , +390662207294, +97316199855).The service will be very useful for people to communicate as no internet connection is required.


People need to call into these numbers and their voice messages are then Tweeted. With the Government ban on internet people are turning to old technologies to get their message across like dial-up modem connections, ham radios and Fax machines. Anything to get their message out to the world.


So people remember those old modems your stacked away, one day they just might come in handy. They use your phone connections and can be very useful in some ways.

An original post by

Sociolatte

Did Wikileaks, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube bring about Tunisia's revolution

Story so far: Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, the Tunisian leader who fled the country after more than 23 years of dictatorship rule, may have fallen because of WikiLeaks and Facebook and the whole social media revolution.  This is what the Telegraph has to say "Mr Ben Ali may also have been the first victim of Wikileaks. Cables by an American ambassador giving colourful descriptions of the lives of luxury pursued by his family, and the business empire it controlled, were eagerly emailed around the country, despite a repressive system of censorship.

Descriptions by other ambassadors of other leaders' political and personal attitudes have not been much less graphic.

On the plus side, protesters also seemed to understand that despite the deaths of scores of rioters, there were limits to how far modern leaders could go in maintaining their rule by force. Maybe that was also a lesson of the crushing of Saddam Hussein, who knew no such limits, by George Bush and Tony Blair."

Protesters have now taken to Social Media to share the latest happenings in Tunisia. Facebook pages have been created, Tweets on Twitter have started flying and YouTube has videos on the riots and protests in Tunsia. t's really nice to see how far dictators can go in a modern world. Well, not too much, as we can see from the way events are headed.

Tweets from Twitter.
Tonight We Are All Tunisian http://www.counterpunch.org/ridley01142011.html #SidiBouzid #Tunisia

Deadly riots engulf Tunisia as interim leader sworn in http://on.msnbc.com/gAqZMT

LA Times has this to say:
As such, the Internet has been the largest source of documentation of the protests, much of it provided  by the demonstrators themselves, despite Tunisia's strict censorship of the Web.

Of course, given the nature of the Internet, information about the protests can range from propaganda to earnest documentation of the reality on the streets, and a critical, skeptical eye is needed to intelligently take in the flood and diversity of reports online.

The blog NDItech DemocracyWorks remarked on the situation, writing that despite remarkable levels of censorship the protesters "have been assisted by external online activists, notably the collective known as Anonymous. Allies of the regime have reportedly engaged equally enthusiastically, utilizing phishing, censoring, and hacking against activists."

 



[Images Credit: LA Times]

An original post by

Sociolatte

Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli PM users Social Media to explain his position

Benjamin Netanyahu took to Facebook, Twitter and his YouTube channel to post videos and spread his message saying that Israeli Soldiers were lynched. He says that the Israeli soldiers were not met with peaceful people but were met with clubs and other weapons. He further goes on to ask people to decide for themselves after watching the videos.

There is also a video on his Facebook page saying that the Flotilla crew were terrorists. This video has footage released in bits and pieces.  

This video is called keeping lies afloat. Made by a group who wants to bring the truth about Israel to American's aged 20 - 34

Video found on Benjamin Netanyahu YouTube Channel. 

"Israel is facing an attack of international hypocrisy," he said.

"If the blockade had been broken, it would have been followed buy dozens, hundreds of boats," he added. "Each boat could carry dozens of missiles."

He noted that the Israeli takeover of five of the boats went relatively calmly, but on the sixth ship, "we saw an action directed by terrorists affiliated with Hamas. This was not the Love Boat."

"There was an attempt to lynch Israeli soldiers," Netanyahu charged. "Are these peace lovers, pacifists? These are supporters of terrorism, extremists."

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Sociolatte

Chinese Government acuses the US of starting a Hacker Birgade in China.

A newspaper of the Chinese communist party published an article accusing the US of mounting a "Hacker Brigade in China". And says that are using YouTube and Twitter to apparently wage online warfare. They also said they do not need lessons from the united states.


With Google threatening to pull out of China and the US government backing them up and asking China not to censor results on the web. This seem to be fast developing into a war of words.


More of all this will come to light once President Obama gives his state of the union address and how and if he does address the issue of internet in China.

An original post by

Sociolatte

Same-Sex marriage trial to be aired on YouTube

The public will have access to a court room trial challenging the constitutionality of proposition 8. The ban an same sex marriage in California. 


Chief Judge Vaughn Walker and the U.S court of appeals for the 9th circuit ruled on Wednesday against airing the proceedings on live television but allowed it to be uploaded to YouTube a few hours later. 


Two gay couples filed a lawsuit last May challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 8. Their lawyers, former Bush administration Solicitor General Theodore Olson and David Boies, who represented former Vice President Al Gore in the U.S. Supreme Court case that decided the 2000 presidential race, argue that the ban violates the 14th Amendment.


The non jury trial is to being on the 11th in San Francisco. The rare decision to allow recording of the proceeding was allowed after intense media pressure. 


Opponents of the ban say it improperly altered the state's Constitution to restrict a fundamental right guaranteed in the state charter.
Ban supporters say Californians long have had the right to change their state Constitution through ballot initiatives.

An original post by

Sociolatte

Minnesota state Senate Candidate apologizes for Obama tweet

See what happens to people who run for public office and openly post things to Twitter that is later regretted. A Republican candidate for an open Minnesota state, John Perry, is apologizing for comments made on President Barak Obama and Democrats.


One of the posts on businessman Mike Perry account read " He is a power hungry black man"., and the other said  "whats with the Dems and Pedophiles?"


He has said that he apologizes for those tweets as they were written in frustration for the out of control spending in washington.

An original post by

Sociolatte