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Cartoon by Nikahang Kowsar
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced new initiatives to improve cyber-freedom in countries like Iran. Lisa Mullins speaks with Iranian cartoonist and editor Nikahang Kowsar of Khodnevis.org about what the best use of the money would be and how both Iranian online activists and Iranian authorities use social media to thwart each other. Download MP3
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Lisa Mullins: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH in Boston. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today that the United States is giving $25 million this year to help dissidents get around internet repression by autocratic regimes. But she said that governments’ misuse of the internet is only a symptom.
Hillary Clinton: Iran isn’t awful because the authorities used Facebook to shadow and capture members of the opposition; Iran is awful because it is a government that routinely violates the rights of its people.’
Mullins: That’s Secretary Clinton earlier today. Thousands turned out in Teheran yesterday to protest their government. Nikahang Kowsar [SP] is an Iranian cartoonist in Washington. He moderates an online news site for Iranians who are in and outside of Iran. He has praise for another State Department initiative: a new twitter feed in Farsi.
Nikahang Kowsar: That possibly wouldn’t help exactly those people on the streets but it’s very encouraging and it shows the online activist inside and outside Iran that somebody is actually caring for what they’re doing. It’s very symbolic. Many people in Iran are connected through Facebook and they would like to actually post news materials, videos and everything that they get on Facebook to share. So there could be a lot of internet sources or internet material that could really help people inside Iran. Like for instance, yesterday I got three videos from one of the demonstrators and posted it possibly just half an hour after he had just shot those videos. By that so many people could see what was happening on the streets of Teheran. But through the website that I was working on it in the States and those people were in Iran. It’s a very weird connection and it’s working actually. But we have to find better ways to empower the people who are under a lot of pressure inside of Iran because of firewalls and also being tracked by the Revolutionary Guards and the administrative intelligence.
Mullins: In terms of the Iranian government itself, does it use social networking tools, Facebook, twitter, to its own end?
Kowsar: We’ve had reports that many members of the Basij or the Voluntary Militia and also the Revolutionary Guards are using fake names and appearing on Facebook, becoming members of different fan pages or becoming friends with activists. They try to actually give false information and even sometimes discourage people from going and acting on the streets or performing what they want to do. Or even they try to crack down smaller networks by entering these…I call them ‘viruses, human viruses’.
Mullins: Did any of that happen yesterday preceding or during the protest yesterday?
Kowsar: I’m not sure about that still but when I was posting a few notes on Facebook I got a few comments from members and they didn’t sound right. I felt that one of those people was trying to say that nothing is happening on the streets and people are just listening to the wrong wave. I just cut the guy off because I was actually witnessing what was happening through reliable sources. So I found out that these guys are really active in trying to discourage people.
Mullins: Can you tell who’s one step ahead? The government or the dissidents, the protesters?
Kowsar: There are times that let’s say the activists are saying, ‘We’re going to have this action next week on that very specific time,’ so then the government would be ahead. But on the other hand, when people are using fake identities, pseudonyms and the government cannot detect who’s who it’s working in a way. There are problems for many activists in Iran and they believe that probably the American government or other governments can help them pass through these firewalls and be protected from these human viruses or these hackers working for the government.
Mullins: Thank you very much. Nikahang Kowsar, an Iranian cartoonist and editor. He moderates the website havaees.org [SP]. We’ll make a link on our website, theworld.org. Thank you very much. By the way we also have a few of your own cartoons up there as well.
Kowsar: Thanks, thanks.
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