Here's how to tell what's really happening in countries where the press is controlled
There was a lot of talk, last year, about Twitter as a tool of democratization, particularly during the Iranian elections. The hope was obviously exaggerated. I haven't seen much discussion of the way social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are being used to promote Islamism, terrorism, anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism in this region.
Facebook has no handle on this situation. I doubt anyone at their corporate headquarters reads the languages in which this propaganda is spread. I suspect, although obviously I can't prove it, that Iranian intelligence, Hamas and Hezbollah are behind a lot of this. They're not stupid. They can listen to TED talks and read Seth Godin like the rest of us. They've figured out how to use social media; they're using it.
Try an experiment. The word for "Jew" in Turkish is yahudi. Put that search term in Facebook and set the language parameters to include Turkish. You don't need to read Turkish to have a sense of what's going on. The photos of Hitler should be your clue that these aren't Klezmer music fan pages.
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Re: Here's how to tell what's really happening in countries where the press is controlled
Claire, I'm reminded a bit of what your mysterious friend, the intelligence guy, Timothy Thompson, said about figuring out what various intel agencies are up to:
Facebook and Twitter streams create a pretty interesting wake.
Which reminds me: can we get regular stuff from that guy? He's awfully interesting....
Re: Here's how to tell what's really happening in countries where the press is controlled
He says: "Facebook and Twitter streams are huge sources of up-to-the-minute data for data mining. It would be surprising if they are not already being mined and analyzed by intelligence agencies." I assume that's true. What I don't see is much discussion of what's going on in the press.
May '10
Re: Here's how to tell what's really happening in countries where the press is controlled
One would think that Mark Zuckerberg (ahem) might want to get a handle on this.