[iDC] [Fwd: Re: [Radical-techies] twitter, anarchists]

Gabriella Coleman biella at nyu.edu
Wed Oct 7 14:11:12 UTC 2009


fyi.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Radical-techies] twitter, anarchists
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:03:30 -0400
From: Ivan Boothe <web at rootwork.org>
To: Radical Techies List <radical-techies at lists.mayfirst.org>
References: <4ACAC9E7.4050307 at mlcastle.net>

This looks great Mike, I posted it on my Twitter.

Democracy Now did an interview with Elliot Madison and his lawyer
yesterday that had a few more details, including that the FBI seized,
among other things, "Curious George stuffed animals." He was quite on
point in regards to Twitter and police repression, when the host said
they were the first activists to have been charged with crimes for use
of Twitter to monitor police activity at protests:

"We’re not the first. We’re the first in this country. During the
Twitter revolution going on in Iran, in Moldova, in Guatemala, in the
earlier newscast about Honduras, in all those cases, repressive
governments have arrested folks for using Twitter. The only difference
is, in all those cases the State Department, the US State Department,
has condemned the arrest of these Twitter activists and had gone so
far in the Iranian situation, the State Department, according to an
article, asked Twitter to postpone its regular maintenance so as not
to interfere with Iranian protesters to be able to send out their
tweets. So the only difference is we’re the first arrested here. But
this is a—over the past two years, repressive governments have been
arresting people. The only difference is, the State Department has
supported—I’m expecting the State Department will come out and support
us also."
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/6/twitter_crackdown_nyc_activist_arrested_for

Amy Goodman subsequently wrote an article in Truthdig, "Watch What You
Tweet":

"Rather than encourage and support the use of distributed,
decentralized social networks to strengthen our democracy and dissent
(remember, the Obama campaign itself relied extensively on these
online and mobile tools), the government seems headed in the opposite
direction. Los Angeles Chief of Police William Bratton recently won
acclaim at the annual meeting of the Major Cities Chiefs Association,
a professional organization of police executives representing 63 of
the largest cities in the United States and Canada. Bratton has
launched 'I Watch LA,' described as 'a community awareness program
created to educate the public about behaviors and activities that may
have a connection to terrorism.' The iWatch program, despite Bratton’s
assertion otherwise, is about spying on your neighbors and turning
them in to the police."
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20091006_watch_what_you_tweet/?ln

Free Speech Radio also interviewed the head of the CDT about this, who
said more or less similar things to Elliot's lawyer.
http://www.fsrn.org/audio/activist-elliot-madison´s-twitter-case-
sparks-criticism-police-and-fbi/5555

Mikes site links to the EFF's posted versions of the search warrants
and legal documents, if you haven't seen them:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/10/man-arrested-twittering-goes-court-eff-has-documen

--ivan


On Oct 6, 2009, at 12:39 AM, mike castleman wrote:

> I'm not particularly sure it'll accomplish much, but do see my new  
> project:
> http://twitterrevolution.us/
>
> Suggestions for improvements (content, code, design) with or without
> patches much appreciated.
>
> mlc
>
> -- 
> mike castleman
> mailto:m at mlcastle.net
> tel:+1-646-382-7220
> http://mlcastle.net/
>
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Gabriella Coleman, Assistant Professor
Department of Media, Culture, & Communication
New York University
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