However, by no means were social media and the internet in general responsible for the success of the revolution (at least, if success is defined as the ousting of President Mubarak from power). They can certainly be credited with facilitating and accelerating the pace of the revolution, as well as maintaining its momentum and providing it a global audience, where traditional media might have been slower to report on it or even deliberately not reported it with as much depth in coverage, as state-controlled Egyptian news organisations might have done. In fact, even the internet in the country was shut down, along with Short Message Service (SMS) in an attempt to subdue the movement. This had the opposite effect, as middle-class Egyptians, the population sector most affected by the blackout, left home to join the protests and keep up with what was going on.

Nevertheless, online action had resulted in real life political activism and contributed to change in the country’s political climate.

Sources: 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428596.400-was-the-arab-spring-really-a-facebook-revolution.html

“When Do States Disconnect Their Digital Networks? Regime Responses to the Political Uses of Social Media” – Philip Howard, Sheetal D. Agarwal and Muzammil M. Hussain,  2011

Available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1907191

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/pda/2011/dec/06/twitter-top-hashtags-2011 

Since nowadays many rely on technology in general to stay connected and informed, the blackout, naturally was kind of a biggy. The blackout ended on Wednesday and was not the first to happen. A similar two-day blackout had occurred November 2012. At the time some feared that it “was a sign of major government crackdown.

In this case the blackout was blamed on a technical fault but some beg to differ. Activists and watchdogs suggest the regime deliberately cut the connection to “shield military operations.” It is plausible that this was the case especially because activists use communication networks to disseminate videos and information during the two-year conflict.

Syrian Electronic Army has already hacked a couple of publications in America so if the regime tried  halting communication via the blackout, I would honestly not be surprised.

Situations like these really goes to show how powerful information really is and how much power people providing the information could have. If it was not so powerful people in high positions would not tremble with the thought of having their power taken away or having sensitive information released etc.

That is why I find it ridiculous when people underestimate what journalists do and the risks they take. I do not think we have a 9 to 5 job so to speak and some of them even put their lives on the line just to make sure people are informed and stay informed about the world around them and how something in one country could affect another.

The evolution of technology is now making people more impatient to stay informed. People want to know what is going on and they want to know as quickly as possible. Of course citizen journalism is becoming more prevalent but regardless, people want to know what is going on. Internet blackouts, hacks and so forth, in my opinion they are all a way to keep up in the dark about certain events going on in our town, state, country and so on.

Correction, two days ago

Wretch32 and Shakka’s ‘Blackout’ is on my Summer 2013 playlist. Download it this Sunday 12.5.2013 and sit back and sip the Disaronno.

INSIDEN ‘black out’ PRU13 nampaknya menjadi begitu heboh dan viral sehingga menular ke segenap lapisan masyarakat.

Lebih ironis lagi, sehingga ‘profile picture’ di lama Facebook juga ramai yang menggunakan gambar hitam gelap sebagai simboliknya kepada insiden ‘black out‘ ketika berlangsungnya pengiraan undi di kawasan yang terlibat.

Rata-rata menyalahkan dan menuduh ini adalah konspirasi SPR bersama BN yang kononnya ingin menambah kertas undi untuk memastikan mereka menang di kawasan yang di sasarkan.

Namun hari ini ADUN Kuang, Shukor Idrus meminta pembangkang menyenaraikan semua lokasi pengiraan undi yang didakwa mengalami masalah bekalan elektrik, sehingga membawa kepada manipulasi kertas undi.

Beliau berkata dakwaan sebegitu tidak berasas dan menggesa perkara itu dibawa ke muka pengadilan bagi membuktikan tidak berlaku apa-apa ‘salah laku’ membabitkan Umno Barisan Nasional (BN) dengan kerjasama Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR), seperti yang didakwa.

Shukor menambah bahawa dakwaan itu tidak berasas sama sekali dan jika benar sekalipun dakwaan mereka, beliau meminta untuk pembangkang menyenaraikan kawasan yang terbabit.

Hakikanya, bukan Shukor sahaja, ramai yang hendak tahu di mana tempat itu suapaya dapat dipastkan benar ataupun tidak dakwaan yang digembar gemburkan pembangkang.

Dan jika benar perkara itu terjadi, mereka tidak dihalang untuk membuat aduan dan kalau tidak benar itu boleh membuktikan mereka berniat jahat.

Mereka juga sengaja membesar-besarkan isu ini dan lebih memeranjatkan mereka sudah bersiap sedia dengan lampu suluh seperti sudah makluam akan terjadinya insiden b;ack out di kawasan itu.

Selepas tewas dalam Pilihan Raya Umum ke-13 (PRU13), penyokong dan pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat mendakwa terdapat manipulasi kertas undi dilakukan bagi memastikan BN memenangi pilihan raya pada Ahad lalu.

Manipulasi itu dikatakan dilakukan dengan menggunakan taktik memutuskan bekalan elektrik ketika proses pengiraan undi berlaku. Bagaimanapun tinjauan di laman sosial Facebook mendapati beberapa petugas SPR menafikan hal itu.

Malah mereka menyatakan rasa hairan apabila ejen mengundi Pakatan Rakyat bersedia dengan lampu suluh sejak dari jam 5 petang.
Ia seolah-olah telah bersedia untuk kejadian bekalan elektrik terputus.

Farah Wulan yang bertugas pada pilihan raya lalu menafikan dakwaan tersebut sekali gus menyifatkan pembangkang terlalu ‘paranoid’.

Farah juga dilihat turut mempersoalkan lokasi kejadian terputusnya bekalan elektrik memandangkan beliau sendiri merupakan petugas SPR yang turut terlibat mengira undi di hadapan ejen parti yang bertanding.

Paling menimbulkan syak wasangka apabila terdapat ejen DAP yang awal-awal agi sudah memabawa masuk lampu kecemasan dengan alasan takut sekiranya terputus bekalan elektrik.

Ini yang menjadi persoalannya sekarang ini. Namapaknya operasi ini adalah sat operasi terancang pembangkang dan menjadikan BN sebagai mangsa untuk dipersalahkan.

Red Bean Army yang merupakan cybertroopers DAP juga disyaki terlibat dengan konspirasi operasi black out PRU13 ini apabila video black out disiarkan lima miniti selepas ‘kejadian’.

Ini menunjukkan persediaan awal telah dilakukan dan persiapan itu ternyata amat rapi sehingga mereka dapat bergerak secara pantas dan sangat efisien. Kalau ada akal, maka bolehlah menilai mana yang betul mana yang silap.

Tapi kalau akal ada tapi digunakan untuk menebas dan menunding jari saja pon tak ada gunanya.  Syabas pembangkang dengan ‘game black out’ anda!

Black Sun Empire launch their new Blackout Imprint in style with an EP of huge new beats from Optiv & BTK. Fans of the duo’s previous work on Virus, Dutty Audio and beyond should definitely check this out, big bad neurofunk stompers all the way and engineered with the precision we’ve come to know and love. Check out the clips below and look out for the EP dropping May 16th via Beatport.

Tolak Penipuan PRU13.

Itu intipati utama perjuangan Pakatan Rakyat kali ini. Hari ini, 8 Mei 2013, sejarah Malaysia sekali lagi diukir oleh Pakatan Rakyat dimana lebih 120,000 rakyat Malaysia berkumpul di Stadium Kelana jaya bagi memprotes Pilihanraya Umum 2013 yang diadakan baru-baru ini.

Saya berada disana, kebetulan mungkin. Bukan untuk menyokong, tetapi sebagai seorang rakyat Malaysia yang mahu mendengar hujah dari ketua Pembangkang negara mengenai soal PRU13 tahun ini. Dikhabarkan PRU13 kali ini dicemari dengan segala bentuk penipuan.

Ramai yang mengatakan kepada saya supaya jangan pergi, katanya tiada permit. Tapi sebagai seorang photojournalist, alasan budak-budak ini tidak menghalang saya untuk merakam detik bersejarah ini sebagai koleksi peribadi saya. Tidak banyak yang berjaya saya kupas kali ini, mungkin faktor lautan hitam manusia yang terlalu ramai yang membuatkan saya sukar bergerak. Eh, ini alasan kan?

Enjoy hasil nurkilan saya untuk malam ini.

Salam sayang buat semua.

Selamat Malam,
KHAIRUL HAZWAN

Notakaki: Teringin juga nak shoot gambar PM kita buat himpunan sebegini.

Internet connections across Syria went down Tuesday night, according to several global monitoring sites.

On Wednesday, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said an optic cable malfunction caused the outage.

A repair was under way to restore services “as soon as possible,” SANA said, citing communications official Bakr Bakr.

Google reported that its services became inaccessible in Syria around 9:45 p.m. (2:45 p.m. ET) Tuesday. The Renesys, Akamaiand BGPmon Internet tracking companies also reported the loss of Syrian Internet connectivity at that time.

“It seems Syria has largely disappeared from the Internet,” Dan Hubbard, chief technology officer for Umbrella Security Labs, wrote in a blog post about the apparent outage.

For a while, the website for Syria’s state-run news agency and several government websites were not accessible.

At one hotel in the capital, employees said the Internet was down “in the hotel and all of Damascus.”

Opposition activists said the communications cutoff could be an ominous sign.

The Local Coordination Committees of Syria said the activist network would put “all responsibility on regime forces for any violation or massacres against civilians.”

Hubbard said Syria has a history of Internet outages.

“Although we can’t yet comment on what caused this outage, past incidents were linked to both government-ordered shutdowns and damage to the infrastructure, which included fiber cuts and power outages,” Hubbard wrote.

After a similar situation in November, U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford said Syria had shut down the Internet in the past.
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