Repression 2.0

Authoritarian Repression in the Age of e-Dissidence Traditionally, Arab regimes have used a large repertoire of repressive means ranging from massive torture (as it was the case pre-occupation Irak, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, and to a lesser extent Morocco and Jordan), to the complete control of the press, the banning of the opposition, the diffusion of [...]

Celebs <3 Egypt

Egypt is big news everywhere these days; while it’s little surprise to see the world laying down support, it’s no longer just the masses, but the celebs as well. On Twitter, celebrities share their support, news items, and, well, occasionally use the Egyptian people’s uprising to capitalize on their own fame. First, we’ve got P. [...]

To you, the new ‘expert’ on Iran

A guest post by Mohamed of The Traveller Within, republished with permission

Yes, you.

Who, until this morning, thought that ‘Shiraz’ was just the name of a wine

Who’s beaming with pride you can now write ‘Ahmadinejad’ without copy-and-pasting it from a news website

Who only heard of Evin prison when Roxana Saberi was there (Roxana who?)

Who changed your Facebook profile picture to a green rectangle

Queen Rania Steals Facebook Page

Queen Rania of Jordan (or as I tend to call her, Queen YouTube) seems to be taking the social media world by storm…and by force. Shortly after joining Twitter, the Jordanian royal hopped on Facebook, having the admin rights of the user who created her fan page taken away. According to the user, who blogged [...]