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Tweeting the Police State in Syria

(Al Jazeera) Hugh Macleod - Syrian cyber activist "Rami Nakhle," operating from a safe house in Beirut, is a hub of a growing and impressively organized network of activists using social media to break the bonds of one of the world's most tightly controlled police states and publish news and images of the unprecedented protest movement which has broken out against the regime in Syria. Every 10 minutes or so Rami's laptop chirps with the sound of an incoming Skype call. The Internet phone system allows for anonymous users and its encryption is complicated enough to make it almost impossible for authorities to listen in. All the time Rami's "Tweet Deck," a platform for advanced Twitter users, is humming and pulsing with messages from colleagues inside Syria. Activists on the street in Syria's major cities gather testimony from eyewitnesses and feed it back to the computer crew who cross reference the information with other sources before sending out updates on Facebook or Twitter.
2011-04-12 00:00:00
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