Recent posts

Contesting identities within cultural insecurity

14/09/18 12:32 Filed in: Research | Gender

Currently taking a look at this interesting thesis, which draws on a number of elements associated with the study of cyber Islamic Environments. Kathleen Woodhouse-Ledermann, Contesting identities within cultural insecurity: The case of Muslim women in contemporary France (Rutgers, 2018) [PDF download]

Tags: French Muslims, Gender , Research

Twitter reacts to Begum Kulsoom Nawaz’s demise

12/09/18 20:23 Filed in: Pakistan | Social Media

Express Tribune, Twitter reacts to Begum Kulsoom Nawaz’s demise, 11 Sep 2018

Tags: Politics, Nawaz Sharif

'The next billion users': Google targets India's lucrative mobile market

12/09/18 20:19 Filed in: Social Media | India Internet

Guardian, 'The next billion users': Google targets India's lucrative mobile market, 11 Sep 2018
"As mobile markets in developed world near saturation, Google rolls out Neighbourly, its first Indian-inspired social network"

Tags: Google, Social media

Women Warriors

11/09/18 10:56 Filed in: Islam and Gender

This looks like an interesting read:
Nickolay Nickolov, Mashable, Women Warriors

"“The situation doesn’t favour women,” says Maryam Ado Haruna who works with the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), a Nigerian organisation using tech to develop good governance. Religious beliefs and cultural trends can contribute to attitudes about who can and should access the internet. “The way parents deny access deliberately and husbands deny wives a— they think our religion, Islam, means that internet is not for Nigerian women,” Ado Haruna says."

Tags: Nigeria Internet, Gender,

Man arrested after breakfast with woman in Saudi Arabia

11/09/18 10:28 Filed in: Social Media

BBC News, Man arrested after breakfast with woman in Saudi Arabia, 10 Sep 2018 "In the 30-second video, the man and woman briefly joke about eating their breakfast together, with nobody else invited."
Contrasting views were expressed on social media from Egypt and Saudi Arabia in relation to this incident.

Tags: Saudi Internet, Egyptian Internet, Gender

Extremists exploiting small social media websites, experts warn

BBC News, Extremists exploiting small social media websites, experts warn, 1 Sep 2018 "The likes of Facebook and Twitter have responded to calls to remove extremist content over the last 18 months."

Dina Torkia interview: the Muslim fashion blogger talks Boris Johnson and burkas

The Times, Dina Torkia interview: the Muslim fashion blogger talks Boris Johnson and burkas

Profile of Dina Torkia, high profile fashionista based in Wales. Interesting in terms of her social media use in particular. (Pay walled article).

 "Dina Torkia is a social media sensation, a Muslim fashionista with more than two million followers. But her fans get a lot more from her controversial posts than how to look fab in a hijab. Julia Llewellyn Smith meets her at home in Wales."

This is an excellent article.

Social media and conflict

David Patrikarakos, Independent, War in 140 characters: How social media has transformed the nature of conflict, 14 Feb 2018 "It was the reinvention of reality, and the likes of Twitter and Facebook were at its heart. In an extract from his latest book, author and journalist David Patrikarakos says we need a new narrative to understand where battlefield now lies."

May at Davos

ITV News, Theresa May to demand more from Facebook and Google to fight online terror - but has she identified real enemy?, 24 Jan 2018 "Governments are more likely to see them as ‘publishers’ or ‘broadcasters’, just like ITV, which should be entirely accountable for the content it hosts." Also see BBC News, Davos: Theresa May to warn tech firms over terror content, 25 Jan 2018

Qatar profile

An excellent long read on Qatar, including reference to social media issues: Declan Walsh, NYT, Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It "The Qataris appear to have returned fire on the hacking front. For months American news media outlets have received stolen emails intended to embarrass Mr. Otaiba, the Emirati ambassador. The emails appear to come from Russia, but Saudi media reports say Qatar was behind them.
"Qatar denied any involvement in the hacking. “Qatar, as a matter of policy and principle, does not engage in cyber crimes or traffic in ‘fake news,’” the government said in a statement to The Times on Sunday."

May and regulation

CNN, Theresa May: Internet must be regulated to prevent terrorism  I agree with the comments of Peter Neumann here: " Peter Neumann, a professor who studies political violence and radicalization at King's College in London, said that blaming social media is "politically convenient but intellectually lazy.""

When Hatred Goes Viral

Larry Greenemeier, Scientific American, When Hatred Goes Viral 
"A key researcher behind PhotoDNA says he is developing software called eGLYPH, which applies PhotoDNA’s basic principles to identify video promoting terrorism—even if the clips have been edited, copied or otherwise altered."

Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf : The Alt-Right in Pakistan

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid, The Nation, PTI: The Alt-Right in Pakistan, 21 Nov 2016 "The Alt-Right flourishes in online forums like 4chan or Reddit and has snowballed on Twitter. The movement’s archetypal adherent relishes online anonymity to engage in social media meme warfare, exhibiting supremacism, populism, conspiracism and masculinism – basically the sketch of the infamous PTI troll."

ISIS Twitter Guide

Jerusalem Post, ISIS publishes a ‘how to’ outfox Twitter guide "The terrorist entity has published a guide on how to outfox Twitter’s efforts, according to an advance copy of a report by the Jihadi Websites Monitoring Group of IDC’s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism obtained by The Jerusalem Post."

Turkey blocks social media

turkeyblocks.org, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp shutdown in Turkey

Source: @TurkeyBlocks

also see:

ZDNet, Turkey blocks WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter across the country

Independent, WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and more down in Turkey in apparent internet ban "Turkey Blocks, a website that tracks issues with the internet in Turkey, claimed that web traffic including that for WhatsApp was subject to throttling, where connections are slowed down to the point they are unusable. It claimed that the internet ban was related to the arrest of some political activists the night before the outage went into effect."

Kuwait royal jailed for three years for 'insulting' ruler

Middle East Eye, Kuwait royal jailed for three years for 'insulting' ruler "A Kuwaiti royal was ordered to pay $16,500 in compensation after being convicted of insulting the emir and several other royal family members."

Qandeel Baloch

PBS, Pakistani social media icon's brother arrested in her death "With posts that defied conservative social norms, Baloch drew support from those that viewed her as an advocate for women’s rights. She spoke openly about the expectations she faced as a woman, discussing issues such arranged marriage in interviews with Pakistani media." Also see NYT, In Death, Qandeel Baloch, Pakistani Social Media Star, Is Celebrated as a Feminist Hero, 19 Jul 2016

Despite recent attacks, ISIS still losing social media war

globalnews.ca, Despite recent attacks, ISIS still losing social media war opinion piece "Alberto Fernandez, a former U.S. State Department official and vice-president of the Middle East Media Research Institute, believes ISIS’s most prolific days of spreading online propaganda are in the past."

'Hajbit'

DailyMail, Pilgrims to Hajj to be given bracelets containing personal information "The bracelets are water resistant, connected to a GPS location system, and store each pilgrim's personal information including address and medical records, the Arab News and Saudi Gazette reported."Also see Arab News, 
E-bracelets a 'must' for pilgrims this Haj, 30 June 2016 and aljazeera.com, Hajj 2016: Saudi Arabia introduces bracelets for safety. It sounds like a good idea...

Analyzing How Islamic State Recruits Through Social Media

eurasiareview.com, Analyzing How Islamic State Recruits Through Social Media, 17 June 2016 "The researchers, who identified and analyzed second-by-second online records of 196 pro-ISIS groups operating during the first eight months of 2015, found that even though most of the 108,000-plus individual members of these self-organized groups probably never met, they had a striking ability to adapt and extend their online longevity, increase their size and number, reincarnate when shut down–and inspire “lone wolves” with no history of extremism to carry out horrific attacks like the nation’s deadliest mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando this week." Report is here: N. F. Johnson et al., Science, New online ecology of adversarial aggregates: ISIS and beyond”, June 17, 2016 [one for the reading list]

RSA 2016

govtech.com (USA), RSA 2016: Terror Groups Propagate, Recruit on Social Media Platforms with Greater Efficiency "John Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security at the DOJ, said groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS, IS) are using popular social media platforms to propagate and recruit with greater efficiency than ever before." Not exactly a headline

'Police close more than 1,000 terrorist websites and social media accounts every week'

Daily Star, Police close more than 1,000 terrorist websites and social media accounts every week, 6 Mar 2016 "The Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit – a police squad which fights online extremism – has removed 140,000 items of propaganda in the past five years."

'Owning Qadri, disowning Sharmeen'

The Nation, Owning Qadri, disowning Sharmeen, 3 Mar 2016 "#WeDisownSharmeen was the top social media trend on February 29. On a day the most illustrious terrorist in Pakistan was executed, petrol prices were slashed by almost 12% and Pakistan won an important cricket match at the Asia Cup, the most urgent message that the nation wanted to give out on social media was its denunciation of its only Oscar winning director."

Anti-Islamic Memes

Rose Deighton, huffingtonpost.com, Anti-Islamic Memes: The Ugly Side of Ignorance on the Internet, 29 Feb 2016