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Artists rise up as Ugandan MP ‘Bobi Wine’ faces fresh charges of treason · Global Voices
Rosebell Kagumire

Nairobi, Kenya: Organizer Boniface Mwangi (center) leads a protest against the torture and arrest of Ugandan MP ‘Bobi Wine’, August 23, 2018. Photo by Peter Meshack Mwangi, used with permission.
Ten days after the arrest of independent Ugandan MP Robert Kyagulanyi (“Bobi Wine”), Uganda's General Court Martial suddenly dropped charges of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, stating the military was “no longer interested” in pursuing the case.
However, Bobi Wine now faces fresh charges of treason “for stoning the Presidential motorcade” brought forward by the Gulu Magistrates’ Court.
The arrest of Bobi Wine, a popular former singer-turned opponent of ageing Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni has ignited public anger and sparked protests. Many Ugandans argue that achieving free, peaceful elections and political justice will now require continuous demonstrations and shows of solidarity.
Bobi Wine was in Arua campaigning for independent candidate MP Kassiano Wadri when supporters of Wadri — who claimed victory over a pro-government candidate in a tense by-election — allegedly stoned a government convoy.
While Bobi Wine was not present during the incident, he was still targeted, arrested, and reportedly tortured by police:
EARLIER: Hon. Kyagulanyi at the Gulu Magistrates court appeared to be in excruciating pain while being assisted to walk and sit. He was charged with treason and remanded to Gulu Main Prison until 30th August. #NTVNews https://t.co/MZkaLHTm7m pic.twitter.com/nCnhCrPfYB
— NTV UGANDA (@ntvuganda) August 23, 2018
In court on August 23, Bobi Wine appeared frail on crutches and required assistance to walk. He was also seen crying having traveled from a military detention center in the capital city of Kampala back to Gulu, some 335 kilometers away:
UPDATE: General Court Martial sets @HEBobiwine free, @PoliceUg re-arrests him minutes later while walking out of the court. He'll be driven to Gulu Chief Magistrate's Court where he will be charged with #treason. We'll seek his release on bail at the court.#FreeBobiWine pic.twitter.com/6oyhH8QNYU
— Chapter Four Uganda (@chapter4uganda) August 23, 2018
Bobi Wine now waits in Gulu prison for a court appearance on August 30, 2018. He joins three other independent MPs who have also been charged with treason — MP Kassiano Wadri of Arua, MP Paul Mwiru (Jinja East) and Gerald Karuhanga (Ntungamo Municipality). Thirty other people including former parliamentarian Mike Mabikke await trials on various charges.
MP Francis Zaake remains hospitalized in critical condition having been arrested and allegedly tortured. Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah visited both Bobi Wine and Zaake and strongly condemned the violence, stating:
The extent to which violence is escalating in this country is worrying and we should all be concerned. We need to reflect on these matters and find a way forward.
Before his arraignment on August 23, Bobi Wine wrote an emotional letter to his family, stating, “I'll be home soon.”
After last week's protests, security patrols in Kampala have increased.
Kiwatule/Najeera road under "surveillance or intimidation"
This will not stop Ugandans from speaking. #FreeBobiWine pic.twitter.com/lOmCaRjnJd
— Chanwat  G. Brian (@CengChanwat) August 23, 2018
Prayers were held at Kampala's Lubaga Cathedral:
Several musicians, drama artists, politicians & civil rights activists fill up Lubaga Cathedral for celebration of mass for the #FreeBobiWine #FreeArua33. MPs from the ruling party are also present @observerug pic.twitter.com/cY455lbZ2O
— Sadab Kitatta (@sadabkitatta79) August 22, 2018
Leading opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye was arrested in Kampala as tensions grew in the build up to Bobi Wine's court appearance.
Every way out of my home is barricaded since very early today. The intention is to deny us freedom to move & to be at the Military Court where @HEBobiwine is to be produced this morning.
The struggle for freedom &sovereignty won't be blocked! Museveni Must Go.@PGovUg @ntvuganda pic.twitter.com/3AbXlChF0n
— Kifefe Kizza-Besigye (@kizzabesigye1) August 23, 2018
Widespread attacks on journalists attempting to report on recent election violence have been met with condemnation.
We urge the police to immediately and unconditionally release @ntvuganda journalist @zziwaherbert & correspondent Ronald Muwanga. Journalists have a right to gather & report news. Targeting of journalists in #Arua for doing their job is very concerning. https://t.co/trDXacrPlL
— Chapter Four Uganda (@chapter4uganda) August 14, 2018
Reuters photojournalist James Akena's beating and arrest by soldiers in Kampala has sparked outrage. Human Rights Watch warned that these actions “curtail the public's access to information — information they could use to question the government's policies.”
In this video, Ugandan police are seen pouncing on Akena while he was attempting to report from the streets of Kampala:
Beyond the streets, Ugandans have expressed their outrage through the arts. Musician Pallaso released a song “Free Bobi Wine” that was heard throughout Kampala's suburbs last week:
Nshuti S. Mbabazi performed Bobi Wine's “Situka”, a song he did shortly before the 2016 presidential elections.
Over 80 influential people including Angelique Kidjo, Femi Kuti and Wole Soyinka signed a petition demanding Bobi Wine's release, medical treatment, and an investigation into his arrest.
In Nairobi, Kenya, the activist group PAWA254 organized a solidarity concert on August 22:
Happening now: #FreedomConcert in solidarity with Uganda. Artists have come together @Pawa254 to speak truth to @KagutaMuseveni. We demand the freedom of @HEBobiwine, Arua 33, 300+ people who were arrested in Arua, and Uganda. Images -@alaminkimathi #FreeBobiWine #FreeUganda pic.twitter.com/6BFWuBVNR9
— Maskani Ya Taifa?? (@Maskani254) August 22, 2018
South African reggae musicians also added their voice to the collective call to end the political violence.
Cartoonists in Uganda and the East African region meanwhile have been commenting on current events in their own unique style.
Kwizera Alex drew Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni as a young man staring in the mirror only to see Bobi Wine in the reflection:
Illustration by Kwizera Alex. Used with permission
Jim Spire Ssentongo, the editorial cartoonist for The Observer, drew out the complexities of power:
#FreeBobiWine pic.twitter.com/sYc3ewllZb
— Jim Spire Ssentongo (@JSsentong) August 22, 2018
Tanzanian political cartoonist Gaddo based in Kenya weighed in:
Artwork of the day.✊✊
c/o @iGaddo
This is not just about @HEBobiwine#FreeBobiWine #FreeArua33 pic.twitter.com/CrSsfEq9D4
— Jenifa Ochwo (@JenifaOchwo) August 23, 2018
Ugandan comedians came out in unison to denounce the treatment of Bobi Wine:
We the comedians of Uganda ?? condemn the torture and persecution of @HEBobiwine #FreeBobiWine
Share our pictures in your various social media platforms. Thank you ?? pic.twitter.com/yKp1hZcc6v
— Bugingo Hannington (@bhannington) August 21, 2018
In Nairobi on August 23, protestors chanted for change with Bobi Wine's songs played in the background and delivered a petition to Kenya's parliament:
NOW WE ARE ONE ….. EAC!!!  In the darkness we stumbled upon the brightest of lights  .THANK YOU KENYA.. this the beginning ..UNITY is such a beauty ??. #EastAfricaIsOne #FreeBobiWine pic.twitter.com/8Y3QY5x4qu
— BIGTRIL (@bigtrilkaiza) August 23, 2018
Other protests have taken place in Washington D.C. (United States), Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan.
After being forced to taste political defeat by Bobi Wine and his allies, Museveni's regime will no doubt attempt to bury the emerging opposition in legal battles.
While this tactic has been effective in the past, only time will tell whether it will work again now that new faces have breathed fresh air into the Ugandan political scene.


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Russian social media giant evades hard questions about privacy failures · Global Voices
Christopher Moldes

Screenshot of the Russian social network Vkontakte's 404 page.
After news broke of VKontakte users getting fined and jailed for resharing memes, the Russian social media giant has announced some changes to its privacy policy. Activists, however, remain skeptical as the company has been catching flak for readily supplying information to Russian authorities on their users when requested.
Announcing the new privacy measures on August 13, Vkontakte’s managing director Andrey Rogozov responded to the public outcry by assuring the company would introduce new steps to protect users’ privacy. He explained:
ВКонтакте как крупнейшая коммуникационная платформа обязана выполнять российские законы и содействовать поиску настоящих преступников, но мы решительно выступаем против необоснованных преследований за публикации в Интернете
As the largest communication platform, VKontakte is obligated to comply with Russian laws and help find real criminals, but we are categorically against groundless persecutions for publications on the Internet.
Currently, any user can share a post which then appears in the user’s feed, thereby increasing the post’s reach. Several infamous prosecutions for meme-sharing are based on this very function — sharing someone else's offensive meme have been grounds enough for prosecution. Once a post is shared, a list of everyone who shares it is visible. Rogozov says this list will soon only be visible to the original author.
This suggests that Russian authorities were using the list to track users’ posting activities. However, given VKontakte’s demonstrated willingness to hand over this information, it remains to be seen how this new measure will protect users from prosecution.
Another proposed change is the ability to make one’s profile private and accessible only to friends. Right now, anyone logged on to VKontakte can view various aspects of another’s profile such as timelines, regardless of privacy settings.
While some users welcome these changes, others feel that it is too little, too late and that it sidesteps the issue of providing information to authorities behind the scenes. Commenters on VKontakte and Twitter blasted Rogozov’s announcement:
«ВКонтакте» анонсировала «самую важную реформу приватности за последние несколько лет», которую готовят к запуску в течение месяца. Профиль можно будет оставить открытым только для друзей и ментов.
— agatha (@athawld) 13 августа 2018 г.
“VKontakte” announced “the most important privacy reforms in recent years”, which they’re prepping to release in a month. It’ll be possible to make profiles open only to friends and cops.
VKontakte employees have not been spared in the blowback. When one of their designers tweeted an innocuous anecdote about his mother, users seized upon it to shame him for working at the company.
Maksim Kats, a Russian opposition figure, also joined the fray, saying it was shameful to be working for a company that actively works to jail people. The official VKontakte Twitter account intervened, hoping to distract users from targeting their designer:
Мы не потерпим буллинга наших сотрудников. Если есть вопросы к ВКонтакте, пишите этому аккаунту — нам нечего скрывать, мы ответим на любой вопрос.
— VK (@vkontakte) 16 августа 2018 г.
We won’t tolerate the bullying of our employees. If you have questions for VKontakte, write to this account, we have nothing to hide, we’ll answer any questions.
Kats immediately took them up on their offer, tweeting several questions about the company’s backroom dealing with the Russian security services.
One question referred to assertions made on Telegram, a popular messaging and social media app, about how employees of Mail.Ru Group, VKontakte’s parent company, not only share information but also testify against users at trial.
The VKontakte Twitter account replied saying authors of the Telegram post in question were mistaken. Kats went on to his second question:
Вопрос второй. Сколько раз вы оспорили в суде требование силовиков выдать им информацию о пользователях? вы имеете такое право
— Максим Кац (@max_katz) 16 августа 2018 г.
Question number two: How many times have you challenged the security services in court over their demands to hand over user information? You have that right.
VKontakte evaded the question, saying they would make the whole process more transparent in the future.
His third question was about an official VKontakte email address seen in court documents showing exchanges between the company and security service officials. Kats wanted to know if they were using this email informally to hand over information to the authorities.
VKontakte refuted these claims, saying they require official documentation after receiving requests from the authorities by email. Without these documents, they added, the request goes unanswered.
Kats pressed further, asking how many requests go unanswered, and the VKontakte account stated that statistics would be available in an upcoming report. Kats continued unassuaged, urging them to share this information immediately, which they did not.
His last question was why users were not notified when the authorities requested their data.
VKontakte answered that they were forbidden to share any material related to preliminary criminal investigations by Article 161 of the Russian criminal code. Kats and other users wrangled with VKontakte over legal terminology, pointing out that the majority of the requests in meme cases were actually part of a pre-investigation probe and were therefore not subject to confidentiality under Article 161.
The VKontakte Twitter account fell silent.
This tense public exchange left many unimpressed. Lentach, a Russian news aggregator, summed up the Twitter exchange like this:
«ВКонтакте» ответила на вопросы о работе со следствием, но понятнее не сталоhttps://t.co/2ckNP1oVAV pic.twitter.com/s3T9DYxhbX
— Лентач (@oldLentach) 17 августа 2018 г.
“VKontakte” answered questions about working with investigators, but nothing was cleared up.
Meme captions: “Awkward questions” on the arm, VKontakte logo on the dog
As the company’s public image falters, statistics provided by Liveinternet, an internet traffic analyzer, show that traffic to VKontakte has been steadily declining since the end of 2016. Stats for 2018 undo the previous year’s modest increase. VKontakte denies these stats. The user who initially discovered these stats later reported that they were no longer accessible because VKontakte had seemingly blocked access by requiring a password.
The social media giant is in full damage control mode, and it remains to be seen if these overtures toward transparency will translate to real measures. Their defensive, evasive stance indicates otherwise.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Christopher Moldes


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Will France’s new street harassment law really benefit women? · Global Voices
Jade Dussart

Photo by Magnus Franklin posted on Flickr under license CC BY-NC 2.0.
On August 1, 2018, the French National Assembly unanimously approved a bill supporting the fight against sexual harassment and violence. One key element of the law, proposed by Gender Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa, is the creation of a policy against sexual harassment, or “sexist outrage,” defined as:
Imposer à une personne tout propos ou comportements à connotation sexuelle ou sexiste qui soit porte atteinte à sa dignité en raison de son caractère dégradant ou humiliant, soit créé à son encontre une situation intimidante, hostile ou offensante (Art. 621-1.-I.)
The fact of repeatedly imposing on a person remarks or actions that have a sexual connotation and that affect such person’s dignity because of their degrading or humiliating nature or that create an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment for such person. [Article 621(1)1]
“Sexist outrages” are now punishable by a fourth-class fine (EUR 90-750/USD 104-867) and even a fifth-class fine (up to EUR 3,000/USD 3,476) in the case of serious or repeated offenses. This differs from sexual harassment, punishable by two years in prison and a fine of EUR 30,000 (USD 34,756).
In the United Kingdom, journalist Libby Brooks celebrated the passing of the law:
New French law to outlaw street harassment sets the bar. Shame that @PoliceChiefs chose not to record misogynist hate crime across the UK earlier this month, but perhaps its time for Westminster to act now? https://t.co/FYrrDsTgZh
— Libby Brooks (@libby_brooks) 31 juillet 2018
Manal Faheem Khan, a Pakistani journalist and founder of the feminist platform Laraka Larki, called for a similar law in Pakistan:
France just passed a law in which catcallers can face on-the-spot fines upto $870! Can we please have something like this in Pakistan? Why isn't catcalling a crime here ?
— Manal Faheem Khan (@ManalFaheemKhan) 3 août 2018
El Desconcierto, an independent Chilean media site, tweeted:
¿Y Chile cuándo? Francia ya tiene ley contra el acoso callejero tras viralizado video de agresión contra universitaria https://t.co/1GzV0WOSTJ pic.twitter.com/lAR91tWyF0
— El Desconcierto (@eldesconcierto) 3 août 2018
When will this happen in Chile? France now has a law against street harassment after a video of a female university student being attacked went viral.
French activists have criticized the law, pointing to its many deficiencies and problems.
On Vrai-Faux (a radio program), Journalist Geraldine Woessner discussed the ineffectiveness of similar laws adopted in other European countries like Portugal, where there has not been a single conviction since 2015. She points to Finland, where out of 550 cases in a year, only 31 fines were imposed.
Police also have doubts about the law's enforceability. In an interview with Le Figaro, police officer and union representative Linda Kebbab questions how “already-swamped police officers” would be able to catch a “sexist outrage” in the act:
The idea that we will be able to patrol for this kind of offense is totally idealistic.
In fact, Madmoizelle.com emphasized that police are part of the problem, as revealed on Paye Ta Police, a Tumblr site that tracks sexual harassment testimonies:
Screenshot of an anonymous post on Paye Ta Police on Tumblr
[image text:] “Don’t get upset over that – when I see a nice butt, I tell the lady too.”
Coming back from a festival in Brussels with my boyfriend and a friend of his. Passing by a group of young guys, one of them says something to me and my boyfriend reacts. Two policemen arrive, my boyfriend explains the situation, and one of the cops casually comes out with this.
In September 2017, Anais Bourdet, founder of Paye Ta Shnek (a Facebook page that collects sexual harassment testimonies), pointed out several flaws in the bill including the burden of proof, fear of confrontation, and potential racial profiling.
Fifteen researchers also spoke out against criminalizing street harassment in an opinion piece published in Libération, arguing that a specific bill for catcalling distracts from the larger challenge of adequately prosecuting crimes such as rape and sexual assault.
After the law was passed, the association Stop harcèlement de rue [Stop Street Harrassment] criticized a missed opportunity to work toward “a policy of prevention, education, and training aimed at returning public space to women.”
In Slate, American journalist Christina Cauterucci warned:
In France, as in the U.S., police forces have brutalized and killed black men with impunity, making communities of color wary of giving officers of the law more reasons to make arrests. In all likelihood, police officers and prosecutors will disproportionately enforce any street-harassment law against men of color, as they do with every other civil and criminal offense.
In October 2017, the Muslim feminist platform Lallab published an article entitled “8 reasons to oppose the criminalization of street harassment,” including the danger of racial profiling.
They pointed out that street harassment is often associated with low-income racial minorities who have already been “heavily criminalized, surveilled and brutalized by the police.” They worry that this law could trigger the deployment of police to enforce the law in “working class neighborhoods, reinforcing police surveillance of the populations that live there.”
We refuse to let feminism be used to reinforce the French government’s tendencies toward racism and over-policing.
Queer and Trans Révolutionnaires [Revolutionaries] (QTR) and the Afro-feminist collective Mwasi voiced their opposition to the law, citing that police frequently dismiss women's testimonies of rape and sexual assault. The group questioned how “profoundly sexist, racist homophobic, and transphobic” police will ultimately “be in charge of penalizing street harassment.”
Other measures of the law — particularly sex crimes against minors and limitation periods for reporting rape – have also been opposed by feminist groups.
Le Groupe F (Group F) listed the law’s major omissions:
Aujourd'hui est adopté à l'Assemblée Nationale le projet de loi contre les violences sexuelles. Bilan. #PJLVSS pic.twitter.com/X9LPoLk1fX
— Le Groupe F (@LeGroupe_F) 1 août 2018
Bill against sexual violence. Report card.
–       An age limit to protect child rape victims.
–       Mandatory training for all professionals (health, justice, police).
–       Education on non-violence starting at an early age.
–       Measures against workplace harassment.
–       Measures against domestic violence (the most common).
–       Obligating doctors to report violence against children.
Today the National Assembly passed a bill against sexual violence. Report card. #PJLVSS
Their final verdict:
[T]he text of the law, accompanied by large amounts of communication, turns out to be empty.
The Fondation des Femmes (the Feminist Foundation) echoed the sentiment in a press release, calling the law an “ultimately disappointing text.“
Concerned activists have organized #NousToutes [all of us women] on social media with plans for a “feminist surge” on November 24, 2018, the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

author: Jade Dussart


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Another Australian prime minister deposed by internal party coup · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Sit-in prayer vigil at Scott Morrison's office 2014 – Image courtesy Love Makes a Way Flickr account (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been deposed in a bitter week of political infighting in Australia. His replacement, Scott Morrison, is the country's sixth PM since John Howard’s defeat in the 2007 general election. It was the fourth consecutive time that a prime minister has been toppled in an internal party revolt.
The dramatic events were brought about by the government’s inability to get support from backbenchers for its proposed National Energy Guarantee (NEG), the aims of which were to achieve reliable energy, lower power prices and a 26 to 28 per cent reduction on Australia's 2005 levels of carbon emissions by the year 2030. In fact, some Liberal parliamentarians wanted to pull out of the Paris climate accord.
In response, then prime minister Turnbull called a surprise secret ballot for the leadership of the government on Wednesday August 22, 2018, which he won by 48 votes to 35. The unsuccessful challenger was Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who announced his resignation from the Cabinet — and his intention to pursue another tilt at the top job.
Chaos erupted: government ministers offered their resignations and key political figures switched sides. Citing his support of same sex marriage, one of Turnbull's ministers, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, resigned from the ministry and accused him of ignoring the party’s conservative base, but not all of her Liberal colleagues agreed.
In an unprecedented move, Turnbull responded by demanding the signatures of a majority [43 members] of his Liberal party room before he would call a special meeting. The party room comprises all Liberal Party members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Turnbull also referred Dutton’s constitutional eligibility as a member of parliament to the Solicitor-General for his opinion, a sideshow that proved inconclusive:
According to the Solicitor-General, Peter Dutton ‘is not incapable’ …
Don’t you just love a double-negative before your first coffee of the day?  #LibSpill
— Joan Evatt (@Boeufblogginon) August 23, 2018
Following the PM’s declaration that he would not be a candidate if the meeting passed a spill motion, Scott Morrison, the party's treasurer, and Julie Bishop, who served as both foreign minister and deputy Liberal leader, declared that they would be candidates if that happened. Both were Turnbull supporters.
Despite his being regarded as a divisive politician with little popularity outside his crucial home State of Queensland, mainstream media predicted a Dutton victory. As the minister responsible for immigration, he angered many Australians who saw his treatment of refugees and asylum seekers as harsh and heartless. In particular, the plight of offshore detainees on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island has been very controversial. One detainee, Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani, tweeted several times during the week about how he saw the minister’s role:
While Peter Dutton is runing for PM, another 12 year old on Nauru is fighting for her life. This girl should be in school now not on the hospital’s bed. This is the reality of Australia, not Dutton’s smiling face on the national Tv.https://t.co/khGT48ea6r
— Behrouz Boochani (@BehrouzBoochani) August 23, 2018
Dutton was the spearhead of the conservative right of his party, many of whom were against the NEG. Instead, they support coal-fired power and oppose climate action and emissions targets. Dutton has been attacked as a puppet of former PM Tony Abbott, whom Turnbull replaced as PM in a party room vote in 2015. Theirs is a long-standing rivalry: in another internal coup back in 2009, Abbott deposed Turnbull as opposition leader over a proposed emissions trading scheme.
Political scientist Dr. Chris Pepin-Neff casts Abbott as the villain:
I hope history will record that it was @TonyAbbottMHR whose vengeance  permeated the failed Dutton #libspill. He wrecked the Gillard Government, his own Government, & the Turnbull Government. Surely this is the story of the week. How one man has trashed 3 Prime Ministers. #auspol pic.twitter.com/rd09koM98H
— Dr Chris Pepin-Neff (@christopherneff) August 25, 2018
Actor Rhys Muldoon, meanwhile, articulated how many voters were feeling:
Tony Abbott just blew up the Liberal Party. His nincompoop sidekick, Dutton, was just the hand grenade. The hatred in that party room could be an alternative energy source. #auspol
— Rhys  Muldoon (@rhysam) August 24, 2018
It wasn't just prominent journalists and political commentators who interpreted the Dutton challenge as revenge by Abbott supporters — other Liberal parliamentarians held similar views about the former PM and his party allies.
With Dutton’s defeat by one of Turnbull's own supporters, it seems that the besieged PM outmanoeuvred his opponents and had the last laugh. In 2015 the Abbott camp felt betrayed, believing that Scott Morrison had not backed him wholeheartedly, despite being a Christian conservative.
There was a further twist: when Julie Bishop did not stand for deputy leader, her replacement was Josh Frydenberg, the minister responsible for the aborted National Energy Scheme.
Some Twitter users mocked both Turnbull and Dutton. Earlier this year, both men had accused Victoria's state government of not addressing alleged gang violence by African youths in the state's capital, Melbourne, with Dutton even suggesting that people were scared to go out to restaurants:
People are too scared to go out to dinner in Canberra. There are gangs of old white men with blue ties stabbing each other in the back. They should go back to where they came from.  #libspill #Dutton #Turnbull #LiberalParty #auspol
— DavidW2035 (@DavidW2035) August 23, 2018
It was not lost on asylum seeker supporters, however, that Scott Morrison was the architect of Tony Abbott’s stop the boats policy:
We do forget how bad Morrison was in his vile cruelty towards asylum seekers. His religious beliefs mean nothing when it comes to desperate people struggling for a safer life from war.
— James Dunstan (@snowycats) August 24, 2018
Despite the change in leadership, it just seems to many Australians that they will simply be getting more of the same. New Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi tweeted:
Morrison as Prime Minister is more of the same handouts to corporation, failure on climate change and cruelty to asylum seekers.
His terrible record speaks for itself:#Auspol #libspill
— Mehreen Faruqi (@MehreenFaruqi) August 24, 2018
Environmentalist Sam Regester from the activist group GetUp was much harsher:
Reminder Scott Morrison is every bit as evil as Peter Dutton, but just looks less creepy. His cruelty as Immigration Minister was unimaginable.
— Sam Regester (@samregester) August 24, 2018
Kyle Bolto summed up the overwhelming reaction of Australians in this tweet:
A pox on all their houses! Seriously, this is getting embarrassing to explain to people when overseas. #auspol #libspill
— Kyle Bolto (@KYADBO) August 23, 2018
Voters agree on one thing: prime ministers should be allowed to govern for their three-year term and be removed by the electorate rather than their parliamentary colleagues:
Since I have been allowed to vote not a single prime minister has lasted a full term… What a joke. Funny how they call young people snowflakes and entitled when they are the most emotional, inconsistent and self serving lot in this whole country. #libspill #auspol
— Benjamin Potter (@ben___potter) August 24, 2018
It's an old cliché that a week in politics is a long time — but considering that a federal election does not have to be held until the middle of 2019, it may well seem an eternity until the voters get to decide who leads them.
You can follow the continuing fallout on Twitter by searching for the hashtag #libspill, or the new PM's nickname, #ScoMo.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Nicaragua’s diaspora activists bear a ‘double burden’ · Global Voices
Elisa Marvena

Photography shared by Voice of America on Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
Three months after numerous protests began taking place in Nicaragua over already revoked social security reforms, hundreds of people — mostly youth — have either been imprisoned, in hiding or attempting to leave the country.
Those who have managed to leave are leading their own brand of resistance from abroad, offering support to those back home in Nicaragua, where the number of victims varies broadly depending on the source. While the government maintains the death toll is at 198, human rights defenders suggest that over 448 have been murdered and several hundreds disappeared. Either way, one thing is certain: the count keeps increasing.
Organizations like Amnesty International have denounced the deployment of vigilante groups, as well as the attacks and constant threats against civilians, which cast doubt on whether the government intends to have a dialogue. The human rights situation is grave, and street protests demanding that Daniel Ortega's government leaves office are ongoing.
Meanwhile, more and more Nicaraguans are managing to flee to escape repression. Many of them go to neighboring Costa Rica; others cross the Atlantic, where they can access support networks that have been long established by Nicaraguans in countries such as Spain, France, and Germany.
These European-based communities have been active in recent months, organizing marches and events in solidarity with their compatriots, which are mostly coordinated through social networks.
The political and emotional challenges of diaspora activism are diverse and complex. The politics of most activists fall somewhere between the anti-Ortega right-wing groups that offer them support, and the European left, which gives them a lot of pushback, thanks to their belief that Western powers are setting up Ortega's government for failure. Interaction with the European left-wing can be a difficult space for dialogue, since, in many cases, political allegiances demand withholding support from citizens protesting in the Nicaraguan streets.
Ana Sierra (whose name we have changed for safety reasons), a doctorate student in comparative literature in Barcelona, understands these contradictions very well. She is part of the Self-Convened Feminists (Feministas Autoconvocadas) collective, and spoke with Global Voices about the violation of human rights and the abuse of power in Nicaragua, and also about the campaigns that support anti-government demonstrations from abroad.
Event in Barcelona organized in support of the protests and in commemoration of the victims. Public photograph shared on the Facebook group: “Nicas Catalunya”. Used with permission.
GV: Ana, you've told us that many people are arriving by plane from Nicaragua.
AS: Sí, desafortunadamente. Para muchos es una cuestión de vida o muerte. Todos pensamos que cuando se resuelva esto vamos a regresar, porque no es fácil migrar y menos de manera involuntaria.
AS: Yes, unfortunately. For many, it is a matter of life or death. We all think that when this is resolved, we will return, because it is not easy to migrate and it is even more difficult when it is done involuntarily.
GV: Do you organize any kind of emotional support for members of the Nicaraguan diaspora?
AS: Hay una madre en Bélgica, por ejemplo, que perdió a su hijo en las primeras manifestaciones. Lo primero que hice fue conseguirle ayuda psicológica desde Nicaragua, por Skype. Además, en el grupo de Feministas Autoconvocadas ha habido espacios para desahogarse. Desde la diáspora uno no termina de disfrutar y de estar tranquilo del todo. Somos conscientes de esta necesidad, pero claro, tampoco es la preocupación número uno.
AS: There is a mother in Belgium, for example, whose son died during the first set of demonstrations in Nicaragua. The first thing I did for her was to get psychological help via Skype. In addition, the group of Self-Convened Feminists created spaces where people can talk about their problems. People in the diaspora are not able to be completely relaxed. We are aware of this, but, of course, it is not the primary concern, either.
GV: What are the objectives that you consider most important at this time?
AS: Buscamos alcanzar la mayor difusión posible. Uno de nuestros objetivos es generar incidencia en los partidos políticos de izquierda. Lamentablemente piensan que criticar a Ortega es asumir un fracaso, pensar que la revolución [sandinista] fracasó y que el apoyo y la cooperación internacional no sirvieron para nada. Es un error. El hecho de que haya jóvenes manifestándose es porque crecieron con el relato de la revolución y con una conciencia política rigurosa, fuerte y clara.
AS: We seek to achieve the widest possible dissemination of our goals. One of our objectives is to have an impact on the left-wing political parties. Unfortunately, they think that to criticize Ortega is to buy into failure, to believe that the [Nicaraguan] Revolution amounted to nothing and that international support and cooperation did not help at all. It's a mistake. Young people are demonstrating because they grew up being aware of the Revolution and having a rigorous, strong and clear political conscience.
GV: Have you made progress in that regard?
AS: Es complicado. Creo que con el número de asesinados, desaparecidos y la represión en aumento es cada vez más difícil aceptar que haya personas que crean que todo esto es falso. Hemos recibido algunos mensajes de apoyo de personas de la CUP [partido de izquierdas, anticapitalista e independentista catalán]. Sin embargo, es muy triste que dentro de este partido, que personalmente he admirado muchas veces, haya gente que no sea capaz de ver lo que ocurre en Nicaragua. Tengo un amigo de la CUP y me dice que, según sus fuentes, la oposición está siendo financiada por la CIA. Yo le digo que yo soy de la oposición también y que a mí no me está financiando nadie. Mi madre ha tenido que huir de ataques con balas, mi hermano también. La gente salió a manifestarse a raíz de los asesinatos que ocurrieron en las protestas. Decir que son financiados es una ofensa.
AS: It's complicated. I believe that, as the number of those murdered or missing increases along with the repression, it is difficult to accept that there are people who believe this is a false crisis. We have received some messages of support from people from the Popular Unity Candidacy (Candidatura d'Unitat Popular) [CUP is a left-wing, anti-capitalist political party that supports the pro-Catalan independence movement]. However, it is very sad that within this party, which I have personally admired, there are people who are not able to see what is really happening in Nicaragua. I have a friend from the CUP and he tells me that, according to his sources, the opposition [in Nicaragua] is being funded by the CIA. I tell him that I, too, am part of the opposition, but that nobody is financing me. My mother and my brother had to flee from bullet attacks. People came out to demonstrate following the killings during the protests. To say that they are being paid is offensive.
GV: How do you interpret this gap, this contradiction, with those closest to you politically?
AS: Lo que más me molesta son estos movimientos que aparecen desde el “primer mundo” y se asumen de izquierda, sociales, comprometidos. Si a mi misma, que vivo aquí, me cuesta muchas veces comprender el sufrimiento de mi madre, que vive allá, no sé con qué valor o autoridad estas personas son capaces de decir que lo que está sucediendo no es real.
Yo recibo muchísima información directa desde Nicaragua. Recibir noticias de primera mano es también sentirlas de primera mano. Yo he recibido audios de mi madre con los morteros detrás.
AS: What bothers me most are these movements from the ‘First World’ which consider themselves left-wing, social, responsible. If I, who live here, find it difficult to fully comprehend the suffering of my mother, who lives there, I do not understand how these people have the audacity or authority to say that what is happening is not real.
I get a lot of direct information from Nicaragua. Receiving news firsthand also means feeling it firsthand. My mother sent me audio recordings in which I can hear the sound of the mortars.
GV: Have you had contact with other political parties?
AS: Es triste, pero hay muchos partidos de derecha que se quieren apropiar de [las protestas]. En el Parlament de Catalunya el partido político que quería realmente llevar la denuncia [contra el gobierno de Ortega] era Ciudadanos, [partido de tendencia derechista]. Desde el grupo de Feministas dijimos que no. El fin no justifica los medios.
AS: It's sad, but there are many right-wing parties that want to appropriate [the protests]. In the parliament of Catalunya, the political party that really wanted to denounce [the Ortega government] was Citizens [a centre-right party]. Our group, Feministas, did not agree with this. The end does not justify the means.
GV: Given the level of violence, how do you stay in contact with people in Nicaragua and manage your role from so far away?
AS: A nivel personal me afecta más de lo que puedo demostrar. Me cuesta mucho ver redes sociales o hablar con mi madre porque luego no duermo, se me quita el apetito. Creo que le ha pasado a muchas personas en la diáspora, este doble sentimiento de querer estar allá para poder hacer algo, pero al mismo tiempo ser consciente de que tienes una posición privilegiada porque desde aquí puedes tener otro tipo de incidencia. Es una responsabilidad, un doble peso.
AS: On a personal level, it affects me more than I can show. I find it hard to spend time on social networks or talk to my mother, because after that I cannot sleep, I lose my appetite. I think many people in the diaspora have this experience, this conflicting feeling of wanting to be there to do something, but, at the same time, being aware that you have a privileged position because, from here, you can have another type of impact. It is a responsibility, a double burden.

author: Elisa Marvena


text:
Remembering Kofi Annan’s forgotten efforts in Timor-Leste · Global Voices
Ian Morse

Kofi Annan, portrait by the Kof Annan Foundation, 2015, used with permission via Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
The people of Timor-Leste (also known as East Timor) join the world in mourning the death of international diplomat Kofi Annan who died in Switzerland at the age of 80 on August 18, 2018.
Annan left a legacy of global peacemaking during international crises that defined the post-Cold War era. His peacekeeping efforts in Timor-Leste are often forgotten, but in the small coastal capital city of Dili, candles were lit for the former United Nations (U.N.) secretary-general who had negotiated peace in the nation following two decades of violent occupation from Indonesia that began in 1975.
Timor-Leste is part of a Southeast Asian archipelago comprised of roughly one million people who gained independence from Indonesia in 1999 and joined the U.N. in 2002.
Facebook user João Martins posted about the candlelight tribute:
Dozens of Timorese conducted candle light vigil in remembrance of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who passed away 2 days ago and his contribution to the Independence process of East Timor during his time at UN. Thank you Mr Kofi Annan and May his soul rest in peace in heavenly God’s Kingdom.
Outside Timor-Leste, tributes for Annan flooded news outlets and social media. However, some called out Annan's missteps in foreign affairs when he served as the head of U.N. peacekeeping, citing the war in Iraq and atrocities in Rwanda and Bosnia.
In 1975, the Indonesian military invaded Timor-Leste and occupied the region, imposing Indonesian language and culture. They silenced all dissent, leading to atrocities such as the Santa Cruz massacre in 1991 when 250 East Timorese pro-independence peaceful demonstrators were shot to death.
Throughout the occupation, the Indonesian military separated roughly 4,000 children from families in the resistance, taking the children as a way to “weaken and humiliate” their enemies.
Fifteen years of peace talks had amounted to nothing until Annan took the U.N. helm in 1997 and pledged to resolve the crisis in Timor-Leste. By August 1999, Annan and Indonesian president B.J. Habibie were speaking daily, according to historian Geoffrey Robinson's book If You Leave Us Here, We Will Die: How Genocide Was Stopped in East Timor.
On September 4, 1999, Annan talked late into the night with Habibie, who was putting up a fight against Annan on the other side of the world.
The week before, Annan and Habibie had negotiated an independence referendum that shocked and angered the Indonesian military. After 24 years of brutal occupation, nearly 80 percent of Timor-Leste voters had voted for full independence from Indonesia.
Annan knew he could not operate a peacekeeping mission without Habibie's consent and contacted world leaders to put pressure on Indonesia. Annan secured support for an intervention alongside Australia on September 12, 1999.
Habibie eventually accepted the referendum results and pleaded for peace and security, but his government lost control of the military, and reports of massacres poured in throughout Timor-Leste.
Three hundred thousand people fled into West Timor, but thousands of people died in assaults around the country, including the deaths of 200 people in a single day inside the Suai Church in the southwest region.
Annan ensured a U.N. intervention with support from Australian troops who restored calm on the island. Even after establishing stability, Annan insisted on peacekeeping forces in the country for nearly three years, delaying Timor-Leste's independence until May 10, 2002.
Historian Robinson asserts that Annan's humanitarian intervention in Timor-Leste was pivotal in securing the island's safety and stability.
During Annan's tenure as the head of U.N. Peacekeeping, he says that Timor-Leste and the simultaneous conflict in Kosovo (1998) demanded a serious reflection on the politics of intervention. In his memoir Interventions: A Life in War and Peace, he wrote:
…the world had confronted two separate crises – Kosovo and East Timor – that had triggered a global debate on intervention and sovereignty, the rights of peoples and the responsibilities of states. I have combined my own intense diplomatic engagement on both crises – with the UN playing a central role in the case of East Timor – with a determination to reframe the question of intervention, and restore the United Nations to a central place in setting the boundaries of what states could do within their borders.
Marianne Jago, an aid worker and academic expert on Timor-Leste, proclaimed Annan's role as crucial and unprecedented:
Annan had determined to take an active role on the East Timor question. His predecessor Javier Pérez de Cuéllar had publicly indicated that he saw his role in the East Timor question as that of a ‘go-between’ rather than one of leadership and innovation.
By contrast, soon after he took office Annan contacted the governments of Portugal and Indonesia, and informed them of his desire to use his good offices to help find a solution to the question of East Timor.
She emphasizes how Annan's bold leadership in Timor-Leste stood out as the most successful in his career:
In contrast to Annan’s own much-regretted reticence during the Rwanda and Srebrenica massacres, when as Head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), and then as secretary-general, he submitted to the ‘institutional tendency’ of the UN Secretariat to ‘follow rather than lead the Security Council’, the Secretary-General’s office was at the heart of intense international diplomatic efforts to coerce Habibie into accepting an international force in East Timor.
José Ramos-Horta, former president of Timor-Leste and co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, last week praised Annan for his work in Timor-Leste.
The East Timor & Indonesia Action Network, an organization that continues to advocate for reconciliation from decades of violence and occupation, expressed its lingering dissatisfaction with unresolved conflicts:
Former #UN SG Kofi Annan died today. Nobel Peace Prize cited his efforts for #Timor in 1999. https://t.co/HoXOTjcNf8 However, his pledge on behalf of UN of justice and accountability for crimes agt humanity committed by Indonesia and others remains unfulfilled. pic.twitter.com/0HdsizLOYa
— ETAN (@etan009) August 18, 2018

author: Ian Morse


text:
Syrian refugees in Lebanon continue to play the resettlement waiting game · Global Voices
Marika Sosnowski

Samir, originally from Syria, sits inside his home in a makeshift Syrian Refugee Camp in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon. Photo by Darrian Traynor. Used with permission.
“The camp is better now than it was,” Abu Iday told Global Voices. As the informal leader of a small gathering of Syrian refugees at Al-Rihaniya Shelter Centre in Akkar in northern Lebanon, Iday adds: “Although it’s still like a prison.”
Resettlement is the only hope for a better life for Lebanon's roughly one million Syrian refugees, but it often involves unpredictable waiting in dire circumstances.
While some electricity exists, refugees must collect water across the road and use communal toilets. Roughly 1,000 inhabitants live in makeshift tents provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), despite living at the site for several years. Residents can theoretically leave the centre but they must pass through security checks.
Abu Iday recalls:
One resident went out and got stopped at a checkpoint near Tripoli [Lebanon] and put in jail for three days because he didn’t have the proper ID. On his way home after his release, he got stopped at the same checkpoint in the other direction and spent another three days in jail.
Syrian refugees in Lebanon commonly experience this type of “Waiting for Godot” story. While most aspire to return to Syria, many have deserted from compulsory military service or have had previous run-ins with the current regime, which complicates the possibility of a return — even if the war ends.
Most Syrian refugees in Lebanon do not possess a security identification card, restricting their freedom of mobility despite the supposed benefits of UNHCR’s official policy on providing alternatives to refugee camps. In reality, many refugees do not receive aid without an official address and must pay extortionate rent for substandard accommodation or small plots of land to place their tents. Locations, where refugee families congregate (from a few up to hundreds), are known simply as “gatherings.”
A few years ago, families received rations of around 260,000 Lebanese British Pounds (about $175 United States Dollars-USD) per family, per month from the UNHCR. But the UNHCR’s funding reduced so drastically that refugees no longer receive cash, only a food parcel. Payment for medical care or gasoline for heaters (a necessity in the winter) must come from their own pockets.
Children play in a makeshift Syrian Refugee Camp in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon. Photo by Darrian Traynor. Used with permission.
“We would go anywhere,” says Abu Adel, an Al-Rihaniya resident. Nearly 18 months ago, he and his family were invited to attend a resettlement interview by the UNHCR.
After two long days of interviews in the UNHCR offices in Tripoli where every detail of their lives in Syria was laid bare, the family was elated when authorities informed them that their story checked out and met all the criteria for resettlement in France.
Congratulations flowed from the UNHCR office staff as the family returned to al-Rihaniya to receive yet more congratulations and say goodbye to their neighbours and friends. A few days passed; then weeks; and then months, without hearing any word from the UNHCR about their resettlement.
After five months of waiting, Abu Adel finally received a call: “Apologies for the delay, but France did not accept your file.” Nearly a year later, the family is still under consideration for resettlement in other countries.
Abu Adel and his wife Umu Adel sit inside their tent in a makeshift Syrian Refugee Camp in the north of Lebanon. Photo by Darrian Traynor. Used with permission.
The resettlement process is often fraught with these kinds of vagaries.
Samir, originally from Hama, Syria, now lives in an informal gathering in the Bekaa Valley. On his wedding night in 2012, security forces of the government of Bashar al-Assad came to arrest him on suspicion that he was involved in the rebellion.
The soldiers took pity on Samir on his wedding night but warned that they would return the next day. After the nuptials, Samir and his wife Hiba fled to Lebanon. Almost five years later, in March 2017, the pair took part in a series of interviews with the UNHCR and also received approval for resettlement.
However, Samir has a 17-year old son from a previous marriage who lives with Samir and Hiba. As a minor, in order for the son to be resettled with them, Samir first needed to get approval from his son's mother who was also now a refugee living in the Zaatari camp in northern Jordan. Completing the paperwork proved too difficult.
A few weeks ago, Samir's son turned 18 and no longer needs his mother’s permission to travel. Samir and his family are hopeful that the UNHCR’s resettlement offer still stands.
Sara, an Iraqi refugee from Mosul also now living in Lebanon, tells a similar story about her brother Ahmed who was resettled in Australia about 18 months ago. Since then she’s been waiting in Lebanon to hear about her own family’s resettlement application under the family reunification scheme.
“Many people have been resettled,” she says. “We also applied to Australia but we’ve been waiting for over 18 months.”
A week ago, Sara heard that her brother received a rejection letter for her family’s application almost six months ago but because of his poor English, he hadn't properly understood the message.
Disappointed and frustrated, Sara is waiting to try again through another Australian government refugee resettlement channel – the revised Community Support Program (CSP). The program effectively makes refugees with valid claims pay for resettlement costing as much as $50,000 Australian Dollars ($36,500 USD) per person.
“The details of the revised CSP were meant to be finalised by July 2017,” said a staff member at the Brotherhood of Saint Laurence (an Australian-approved organisation accepting refugees), “but we didn’t hear any details about the program until March 2018.”
This delay prevented many refugees in Lebanon from applying elsewhere.
Refugees like Sara, Samir, Abu Adel and thousands of others in Lebanon continue to ‘hurry up and wait’ in a series of delays and false promises.
Upon arrival in Lebanon, refugees feel pressured to register their status to begin the resettlement process only to wait for indefinite periods of time while highly bureaucratic procedures run their course.
Meanwhile, many refugees experience the hollow, infuriating emptiness of waiting that seems like a dark requirement of the resettlement process itself.

author: Marika Sosnowski


text:
The ‘Khan Meter’ will assess the new Pakistani prime minister’s performance · Global Voices
R Umaima Ahmed

Screenshot from the Khan Meter website, a new site designed to monitor and track Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's performance during his first 100 days in office.
Imran Khan was sworn in as Pakistan's new prime minister on August 18, 2018, after his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won the general elections on July 25.
On August 19, Khan gave a speech to the nation highlighting the first 100 days of his office and his five-year plan. He also announced government austerity measures to control expenses and improve the economy.
A widespread debate in Pakistan questions Khan's ability to deliver on his promises. In response, a young technology entrepreneur named Salman Saeed introduced the ‘Khan Meter,’ a digital tool to measure and record Khan's 100-day performance as the ruling PTI chairman.
Thirty-five points comprise PTI's 100-day plan. The Khan Meter will upload relevant data as soon as authentic news about the government's actions appears in print or online. When the new administration achieves a concrete action, the Khan Meter reflects this in its “achieved” section. The site uses Disqus, a global commenting system, to integrate comments with Facebook and Twitter, allowing monitors to delete posts that violate the site's ‘rules of conduct.’
If the Khan Meter project is successful and can secure more funding, Saeed plans to continue to monitor Khan's government for the full five years including any new promises added to PTI's agenda.
Portrait of Salman Saeed, KhanMeter developer, used with permission by Saeed.
The concept resembles the Obama Meter (USA) and the Morsi Meter (Egypt).
The Khan Meter is currently monitoring three projects: ‘Depoliticise and Strengthen Police’, ‘Spearhead Creation of a South Punjab,’ and ‘Initiate Civil Services Reform’.
Dubai-based entrepreneur Salman Saeed runs online ventures alongside his work as a mentor, trainer, and consultant focused on innovation, communication skills, and entrepreneurship.
Global Voices talked with Saeed to learn more about his Khan Meter project.
Global Voices (GV): How did you come up with such an idea?
Salman Saeed (SS): The inspiration came from Imran Khan himself, who introduced the concept of accountability in the public. In the past, we truly never had any idea of the promises these political parties made with us before we got them elected. If you go back and read their manifestos, you will be shocked how good those manifestos were and how bad they have been at their job by not following their own book. These manifestos are truly filled with such great plans to help our country prosper that if we stick to it, it's going to be truly fruitful for our country. This is why I thought at least this new guy brought so much HOPE due to his image that he should be pushed to stick to the book.
GV: Is there any political agenda or aim behind it?
SS: The kind of family I am from, politics has always been the least favorite of all fields. There isn’t any political agenda behind the initiative but one thing I have felt after developing this is that I can possibly help the new governance use my digital skills and help them develop tools to make sure their whole governance is being monitored for their performance and tasks. In simple words, I can help the new government in the civil services reforms they talk about.
GV: How resourceful will it be for the general public?
SS: The general public has been loving it so far since I bring the whole agenda to them in a more user-friendly way. As everyone has not read the 100 Days Agenda or Manifesto of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf. So this is really resourceful in the sense of educating them about what has been promised and how good the new governance is sticking to it.
GV: How have people responded? Have they engaged?
SS: At first people believed that I had a political agenda but slowly they have understood the whole objective here. People from overseas as well as in the country have been emailing appreciating the effort and offering if they can help in any way possible.
GV: What do you aim once the 100 days are over?
SS: If I get any proper support to continue it for the coming five years, I actually plan to continue it for the complete five years and then also do the same for the past 10 years and compare all the three parties on their performance by comparing the promises they completed and the standing of Pakistan in certain indicators used by global organisations to study a country’s standing.
GV: Has anyone contacted you from Imran Khan's party?
SS: No, no one has contacted me yet.
GV: How do you collect your data?
SS: I am keeping my eyes on the PTI accounts since they post every action that their new governance takes. Plus I keep my eyes on the news websites like Dawn and e-Tribune for each new action that take and compare it with their promised and how it affects them.
GV: Will this strengthen democracy?
SS: I think it already has. The Khan Meter has been a good addition to the reform of true democracy in Pakistan. This is a unique incident that someone who is a fan of the new government because of their image is not going to sit on the sidelines and be blind like the people have been for past so many years. It’s time to start monitoring our government, discuss where they went wrong as well as appreciate what they did right. It helps us think logically about the new government’s performance since we will be able to see that they couldn’t perform in just 20 percent of their promises and so we can give them credit for the successful 80 percent.
GV: Any message for our audience?
SS: Start holding your bodies accountable question their work, words, and attitude as they are public servants.
Just like ObamaMeter , #KhanMeter introduced to monitor performance of @ImranKhanPTI .? lets see what #KHANMETER will look like after some time. pic.twitter.com/so4jhZm5Bw
— Ali Raza Sherazi (@AliSherazi1990) August 24, 2018
Fantastic!
Khan meter to track, evaluate promises. https://t.co/NpFgSgldl9
— Dr Shahid Rehan (@SShahidrehan) August 23, 2018

author: R Umaima Ahmed


text:
Can a controversial in-vitro fertilization process save the northern white rhino? · Global Voices
Prisca Daka

“Sudan,” the last male northern white rhino. Image posted by Make It Kenya on Flickr and shared via Public Domain.
On March 19, 2018, wildlife conservationists mourned the death of a 45-year-old northern white rhinoceros named Sudan, one of the last three remaining northern white rhinos on earth, and the only surviving male. Keepers at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, where Sudan lived, euthanized the ailing rhino to end his age-related suffering.
With Sudan's passing, there are only two remaining northern white rhinos left in the world — both female and part of Sudan's bloodline — daughter Najin and granddaughter Fatu. Scientists now hope for the continuation of the species via a controversial and highly debated in-vitro fertilization (IVF) process.
Researchers have already produced successful hybrid embryos using unfertilized eggs harvested from closely-related southern white rhino females, combined with the frozen sperm of deceased northern white rhino males. For the first time, the resulting embryos grew to the blastocyst stage in the lab, filling scientists with the hope of saving the northern white rhino from extinction.
Now, with Najin and Fatu under 24-hour guard in Kenya to protect them from poachers, scientists intend to harvest their eggs to create viable embryos with Sudan's frozen sperm and then implant them into female southern white rhinos (a closely related subspecies), to create the first “pure” IVF northern white rhino calves.
At this point, however, the proposition is hypothetical: scientists have not yet been granted permission to extract eggs for the experimental process, but hope to receive clearance from the Kenyan government before the end of 2018.
The complex and invasive IVF process has caused a great deal of debate. For one, the technology is expensive — experts estimate that the cost could be as high as $9 million USD — and some have questioned the practicality of pouring such heavy financial resources into saving a species that is already at the brink of extinction, rather than using the money to protect existing healthy rhino populations:
As much as we're outraged about the loss of the last male white rhino #Sudan, I find it rather (whats the word?) that we want to raise US$9 million for IVF to raise a herd (which poachers willl find a way of killing) .
Can we just let go and address other problems? pic.twitter.com/nnO0oo1eJy
— Frank Hook (@FrankHook) March 20, 2018
The activist group Save the Rhino penned a statement on the controversial treatment:
A practical concern for any future Northern white rhinos successfully bred through IVF is the question of where they would live. Much of the sub-species’ former range has lost rhinos in its entirety, with limited conservation programmes or expertise for managing a rhino population, and large-scale habitat loss. In any case, for rhino population to be genetically viable, a minimum of 20, unrelated ‘founder individuals’ are needed. Otherwise, a population becomes inbred and prone to genetic abnormalities – and fertility problems.
Northern white rhinos (a subspecies of the white rhino), used to roam parts of Uganda, Chad, Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but they are now extinct in the wild due to years of poaching and civil wars.
Overall, rhino numbers — regardless of species — have dropped dramatically in recent years, primarily fueled by demand for their horns. In some Asian countries, people believe their horns can treat fevers and heart disease. In other areas, the horns are thought to symbolize wealth.
While the IVF debate continues, Sudan's death has raised awareness of the plight of rhinos throughout the African continent. Zimbabwe, for instance, is home to both the white rhino and black rhino. In a 2009 rhino population count, there were approximately 425 black rhinos and 300 white rhinos roaming Zimbabwean national parks and private conservancies.
In an effort to stop the illegal killing and exploitation of wild animals, the Zimbabwean government has implemented legal protections for them, under provisions set out in the Parks & Wild Life Act [Chapter 20:14] (PWA), which has strict consequences for offenses. A rhino is now classified as a “specially protected animal” — hunting and killing them is prohibited, and offenders face a mandatory jail sentence of nine years on a first conviction, and 11 years on a second.
Even with a stiff penalty in place, poachers are still willing to take the risk but end up as pawns in a complex network of organized crime. Many are poor, unemployed villagers, lured by the lucrative promise of poaching. Combating the illegal wildlife trade must (and often doesn't) involve the arrests of those organizing it at the top.
The PWA demands forfeiture of any equipment, vehicles or weapons used for committing wildlife offenses, giving the state the right to confiscate and dispose of them as it sees fit — but despite these legal protections, change is slow in coming, and limited by a lack of adequate funding, lax law enforcement, and corruption.
A South African daily online newspaper, the Daily Maverick, reported that corruption is linked to illegal rhino horn trade not just in Zimbabwe, but in eight other African countries.
Conservationists are urging activists and everyday citizens — especially those who reside in close proximity to the home ranges of wildlife — to take an active stance on rhino conservation.
In Zimbabwe, where 62 percent of the population is below the age of 25, the hope is that youth will play a central role in this activism thrust. However, as more young people spend increasing amounts of time online rather than out in nature, activists must focus heavily on youth recruitment in the fight to save rhinos.
As an umbrella species, rhinos are an integral part of a rich ecosystem whose daily habits directly impact the quality of life for other species. Their grazing, for instance, keeps the grass trim, making the terrain easier for smaller mammals to navigate.
#Researchers have proven that without #Rhinos all other animals that graze on the plains suffer.  With rhinos, the number and types of plants multiply. They give back nearly as much as they take, as the fiber in their gullet goes straight through and ends up as fertilizer. pic.twitter.com/MrSJyyDe2O
— The Big White Lie (@ErrantNatives) July 17, 2018
While scientists acknowledge that extinction is a natural part of evolution, the process is occurring at a much faster rate because of poaching, habitat destruction, over-exploitation of wildlife, and even political conflict. Rhino extinction will have a profound ripple effect on other species, and Sudan's death is a glaring reminder.

author: Prisca Daka


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In Mozambique, new licensing fees have raised the cost of doing journalism — and may threaten media freedom · Global Voices
Alexandre Nhampossa

Display of newspapers published in Mozambique. Photos by author.
New licensing fees for media workers that went into force in Mozambique on August 22 could make it prohibitively expensive for journalists do their jobs. Many see them as a threat to press freedom in the country.
Approved by the Mozambican government on 23 July 2018, the new fee structure was introduced with a legal decree setting fee rates for media accreditation that will affect news outlets and foreign correspondents — and could be especially painful for those with small budgets.
The decree document defines the administration, licensing, renewal, endorsement, and advertising for outlets of written press, radios, television, and digital platforms, as well as the accreditation for foreign and Mozambican journalists and freelancers.
Since the measure was announced by Mozambique’s Bureau of Information, GABINFO (an entity answering to the prime minister) it has been contested by various organizations, including Amnesty International which described it as “a blatant attempt to clamp down on journalists”. The decree comes just a few months ahead of municipal elections in October 2018. Mozambique will hold national elections in 2019.
Drafted secretly and without consultation or debate with members of the media, the decree establishes a media regulator — a first for Mozambique — and imposes a fee structure under which journalists and media outlets will need to pay high fees in order to establish and maintain accreditation.
Mozambique's new media decree fee structure requires media workers and outlets to pay a set of fee in order to establish and maintain their accreditation, with renewals every five years.
Media workers and outlets that fail to pay licensing fees will have their licenses revoked.
The fees were described by Mozambican online newspaper @Verdade as “astronomical”. The independent weekly publication Savana called them “draconian“.
Indignation with the measure led a group of Mozambican media professionals to submit a petition to the national ombudsman calling for the decree to be declared unconstitutional.
Fee schemes of this nature can have a disproportionate effect on small media outlets along with independent and freelance media workers, who may be unable to pay the fees and thus forced to either stop reporting, or seek out unauthorized means of doing so, which could lead to other consequences.
Fátima Mimbirre, a researcher at the Centre for Public Integrity, said that no private media outlet would be in a position to pay these taxes, citing community radio as a case in point:
Muito recentemente, as rádios comunitárias tiveram de pedir isenção do pagamento das taxas anuais do uso do espectro radio-eléctrico porque nenhuma estava em condições de pagar, pelo que, com as novas taxas, é certo que muitas irão à falência, o que seria uma pena, sabido o papel que estas rádios têm na democratização do direito à informação e garantir outros direitos aos cidadãos principalmente das zonas rurais.
Very recently, community radios had to ask for exemption from paying annual taxes for the use of radio frequencies because none of them were in a position to pay, and so, with the new taxes it is certain that many will go into bankruptcy. This would be a shame given the role that these radios have in the democratization of the right to information and guaranteeing other rights to citizens mainly in rural areas.
The Order of Lawyers of Mozambique (OAM), considered the fees to be “excessive” and said that they could restrict the right of access to information:
Olhando para nossa realidade as taxas parece-nos serem tão exageradas que irão eventualmente eliminar alguns órgãos de comunicação social, o que é mau porque de forma indirecta estamos a coarctar o direito à informação… a OAM não é contra a introdução de taxas na comunicação social, o que defendemos é que devam ter em conta a realidade moçambicana.
Looking at our reality, the taxes seem to us to be so excessive that they will eventually eliminate some media outlets which is negative because, in an indirect way, we are restricting the right to information… OAM is not against the introduction of taxes on media outlets, what we argue for is that they must account for the Mozambican reality.
Similarly, the coordinator of the Africa Program for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Angela Quintal, said that this is probably the worst fee structure in sub-Saharan Africa and it would constitute an attempt to block the independent press:
Estou surpreendida. Creio que Moçambique apresenta provavelmente uma das piores taxas de acreditação de jornalistas. Já vimos tentativas de governos tentarem fazer algo parecido…Na África subsariana, já vimos a imposição de taxas nas redes sociais no Uganda, mas este caso de Moçambique é exagerado. Para o Comité, esta é uma tentativa do governo impedir a imprensa independente, bloquear a diversidade de vozes, fechar o espaço e privilegiar a imprensa estatal
I am surprised. I think that Mozambique has probably one of the worst fee structures for journalists’ accreditation. We have already seen attempts by governments to do something similar…In sub-Saharan Africa, we have already seen the imposition of taxes on social media in Uganda, but this case in Mozambique is excessive. For the Committee, this is an attempt by the government to hinder the independent press, restrict the diversity of voices, close space, and privilege the state press
Alongside Uganda's “social media tax”, the fee also brings to mind the recent so-called “blogger tax” law in Tanzania, which establishes a blogger registry and requires bloggers to pay a USD $900 annual fee to publish online. Breaches of the law can result in astronomical fines, or imprisonment.
Mozambique's decree does not set out the rationale for fixing the high rates, nor does it explain how the fee revenues will contribute to the improvement of press freedom, only mentioning that 60% of the fees coming from this measure will go to the state budget and 40% to GABINFO.
In an interview with the newspaper Savana, GABINFO President Emilia Moiane addressed criticism of the new decree, stating that the fees are intended to make the communications sector a “robust and sustainable industry” similar to other economic sectors which contribute to state finances:
Nós queremos uma indústria que possa ser sustentável. Nós queremos que os jornais estejam na praça com sustentabilidade. Quem entra para o mercado da comunicação social tem de ter capacidade de se sustentar. Não estamos a coarctar nenhuma liberdade. Estamos a criar condições para que quem está no jornalismo diga “sim senhor”, está no mercado, numa indústria. Não queremos eliminar os mais fracos. Nós queremos ter um mercado da comunicação social sustentável.
We want an industry that can be sustainable. We want the newspapers to be operating sustainably. Whoever enters the communications market has to have the capacity to sustain themselves. We are not restricting any freedom. We are creating conditions for whoever is working in journalism to say “yes sir”, they are in the market, in an industry. We do not want to eliminate the weakest. We want to have a sustainable media market.
The Institute of Media in Southern Africa (MISA – Moçambique) interpreted this comment as a statement of noncompliance with the principle of free public services:
O decreto parte do pressuposto de que os media, em primeiro lugar, são um sector comercial e lucrativo, o que viola o princípio funcional e democrático do papel dos media – que são um espaço público que deve ser acessível a todos e promovendo a informação aos cidadãos a custo zero. Ao incrementar taxas de licenciamento, o Governo está a transmitir a ideia de que o produto dos media pode ser vendido a qualquer custo, o que viola o princípio de acessibilidade para os cidadãos, pois pode tornar os custos operacionais mais elevadas…. o Direito à Informação não pode ser medido sob ponto de vista de valores monetários.”
The decree starts from the presupposition that media, first of all, is a commercial and lucrative sector, which violates the operational and democratic principle of the media – which is a public space that should be accessible to all and offering information to citizens at zero cost. In increasing licensing fees, the government is conveying the idea that the product of the media can be sold at any cost, which violates the principle of accessibility to citizens, since it could make operational costs higher… the right to information cannot be measured from the viewpoint of monetary value.
Human Rights Watch called on the government to cancel the fees, stating that they are a “huge setback” for press freedom and access to information in Mozambique.
A day before the decree came into force, GABINFO met with journalists, correspondents, and freelancers to create a commission to analyse how the fee rates could be improved so as to benefit the different parties. However, this will happen while the decree is already in force.
It should be noted that the high fees add to numerous other problems affecting media professionals in the country. Various media outlets and journalists continue being targeted by threats and intimidation, especially in rural areas, as Reporters Without Borders noted in its World Press Freedom Index for 2018, where Mozambique ranked at 99 of 180 countries.
Recently, a study published by MISA said that threats to press freedom rose from 11 reported cases in 2016 to 21 cases in 2017.

author: Alexandre Nhampossa


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Is Russian social media giant VKontakte sidestepping the GDPR? One user is trying to find out. · Global Voices
Christopher Moldes

As if revealing their users’ personal data to Russian authorities wasn't bad enough, VKontakte may now run in serious trouble in Europe // Martinsson Serg, CC2.0
Russian social media network VKontakte has been having a bad few months. Multiple platform users have been prosecuted for their posts, and the company has been publicly shamed for its lack of transparency regarding how it shares user data with law enforcement authorities.
Now, VKontakte (VK) is facing a new privacy-related challenge: Kristian Shinkevich, a Belarussian activist living in Poland, is demanding that VK give him all the personal data that it has pertaining to him. The company has yet to comply. And in the meantime, it has suspended his access to the account.
Shinkevich first began wondering about VK's data collection practices after he faced legal threats for participating in a demonstration in Belarus. Shortly thereafter, he was expelled from his university, where he says an administrator told him that the school had access to all their students’ VKontakte data, including which posts they had liked. In his case, this would have revealed his involvement with demonstrations.
Between this, and the fact that other Belarussian activists have been arrested for VKontakte posts promoting protests (an indication that authorities in Belarus also monitor activity on the social network), Shinkevich found himself wanting to know more about VK's data collection practices.
So he looked to the European Union’s newly-instituted General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a set of policies aimed at standardizing the handling of personal information by companies and organizations. Under the GDPR, any company that processes the personal information of EU subjects must comply with certain rules regarding the protection and transfer of such data.
Another provision stipulates that EU subjects have a right to access the personal information that companies retain about them, and that they have a right to know how this information is used.
Although Shinkevich is a citizen of a non-EU state, Belarus, he is entitled to request this information under the GDPR, as an EU resident (or “subject”, as described in the GDPR) in Poland. Additionally, despite the fact that VKontakte is a Russian company, it must still comply because it is providing services to EU subjects abroad and handling their information.
Noncompliance would give EU authorities the power to levy a fine of either 20 million euros or 4 percent global gross revenue, depending on which is higher.
When Shinkevich filed a request to VKontakte Support to get access to all the data VKontakte had collected about him, he received the requested file. He described what he found on Facebook:
Today I have received the file, and that's freaking serious.
They store:
1. the whole name and surname changes history
2. groups and public pages I've managed
3. name of files uploaded, from which IP address, city, links to the deleted files, moreover, even simple voice messages from deleted conversations are there
4. complete list of files I've removed from my page, their exact address, name, date added, direct link – no matter that they all have been removed – voice messages, PDF documents etc.
5. adresses [sic] of pictures from Saved Photos album (protected). Direct links can be opened without being logged in
6. complete history of conversations, including removed, up to 27.06.2018 20:43:51 (the first message is dated 01.09.2016 21:40:30), with all the attachments including removed ones.
7. complete history of phone number ever linked to the account
8. history of password retrieval requests
9. all the comments and posts from my page timeline, including ones removed about 1-2 years ago (the section is titled “Messages posted on the user's wall”)

This file is about 1,5 Mbytes but it has al [sic] the history of my activity on VK since 2016 (when my page was created).
Shinkevich was not surprised by what the file contained — but he was surprised at what it lacked. “I am pretty sure that what they have sent me is not the whole information, and they have much more,” he wrote on Facebook.
Indeed, VKontakte's privacy policy indicates (in section 4.2.1) that the company processes a wide range of information about users and their activities, including but not limited to information about the “user's operating system, type of a browser, geographic position, the Internet provider, contacts, data obtained accessing the camera, microphone and similar devices.” The policy does not clearly define how this data is treated after being processed. VK's terms of service (7.2.5) indicate that “the Site Administration has the right to keep archive copies of the user Content for an indefinite period.”
Do these and other types of information qualify as “personal data”? It depends on where you ask the question. While Russian Federal Law 152 defines personal information as any information directly or indirectly related to a specific individual, the GDPR has a very specific breakdown of this wide interpretation. But as the terms of the GDPR apply to all companies providing services to EU subjects, VKontakte is required by law to follow these terms when dealing with customers in the EU.
When Shinkevich asked VKontakte for the rest of the information, it evaded his request. The company later blocked his access to his account at the end of July. His page is still online, but he cannot log in to it or reset his password.
When Russian news aggregator TJournal reached out to VKontakte, they said:
Страницу пользователя мы не блокировали. Доступ к ней был ограничен после того, как пользователь изменил несколько ключевых параметров, в том числе имя, фамилию, пол и другие. Такие действия считаются подозрительными и могут свидетельствовать, например, о продаже аккаунта или передаче другому лицу.
Ограничение доступа к странице никак не связано с запросом пользователем информации по GDPR.
We didn’t block the user’s page. Access was restricted after the user changed several key parameters, including first name, last name, gender, and so on. Such activity is considered suspicious and could be proof that the account was sold or given to another person.
Restricting access to the page isn’t in any way related to the user’s GDPR information request.
Shinkevich has since filed a complaint with Poland’s personal data security service and has taken the controversial step of advocating that VKontakte be blocked in Poland.  He joins a growing number of voices urging users to stop using VKontakte and delete their pages.
Last year, VKontakte's total revenue was over $200,000,000.If found in violation of GDPR, their fine would be ten percent of that amount. With upwards of two million EU users, the social network could soon pay a hefty price if it doesn't address privacy concerns.


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A path to independence paved with marijuana · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Trinidad and Tobago flag image, public domain. Cannabis leaf by Oren neu dag (CC BY-SA 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Images remixed by Georgia Popplewell
By Nazma Muller
The prohibition against cannabis—or marijuana, as the dried form of the plant is commonly known—was introduced in Trinidad and Tobago and the rest of the English-speaking Caribbean during the colonial era by the crown colony government. It was reinforced by the signing of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, an international treaty to prohibit the production and supply of certain (nominally narcotic) drugs, and of drugs with similar effects except under licence for specific purposes, such as medical treatment and research.
Today, as Trinidad and Tobago celebrates its 56 anniversary of independence, this convention and all its derivatives, including cannabis’ classification by the World Health Organization as a Schedule I drug, continue to be used as obstacles to any kind of legal reform of our drug laws. This even as the illegal drug trade wreaks havoc in the country, taking hundreds of lives and corrupting the police force, the Coast Guard, the Defence Force, and customs officials with lucrative bribes and payoffs. Even as hundreds die from a cancer crisis rooted in our industrial/consumerist lifestyle, thousands are arrested and jailed for possession of cannabis while a corrupt, overburdened justice system collapses.
For Trinidad and Tobago, currently facing the sudden shutdown of a major oil refinery at Petrotrin, this is a sobering moment, but one that has long been on the cards. And there is little time to wallow in regret. The country’s citizens are used to crying over spilt billions but there isn’t much left in the Treasury, and we are going to have to think fast as we become forcibly “independent” of the oil/gas cushion on which we have been floating for the last 100 or so years.
For decades, economists have been urging the government to diversify the economy. Well, they have no choice now. And one obvious option would be cannabis. I mean, if Canada feels they need to legalise recreational cannabis, who are we as a small tropical island to turn up our noses at the green gold?
In the lead-up to the last general elections in 2015 both the current prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Keith Rowley, and his predecessor, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, both responded to questions about the decriminalization of cannabis by saying that they would leave the matter to the regional body CARICOM, which established the Regional Commission on Marijuana in 2014.
The members of the commission, led by Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, dean of the Faculty of Law at the Trinidad campus of the University of the West Indies, are among the most distinguished practitioners in their respective fields. The deputy chair is Professor Wendell Abel, a consultant psychiatrist at the University Hospital of the West Indies and the head of Psychiatry at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies’ Jamaica campus. Professor Abel has worked in the field of mental health for many years in Jamaica and the Caribbean and holds a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, among other qualifications. Professor Abel has published several peer-reviewed book chapters, technical papers and journal articles focusing on mental health and health policy issues such as suicide, depression and community mental health services. He has been at the forefront of leading empirical research in the Caribbean on the mental health effects of cannabis. Another commissioner is Esther Best, manager of the National Drug Council of Trinidad and of the country’s overarching drug policy and strategy. She has represented the country and the region at a number of important international fora on drug reform and policy.
The Regional Commission released its final report to the public on August 3. “On balance, after evaluating the scientific data and testimonies from the public, the Commission is of the view that the proven medical benefits of cannabis/marijuana in several areas outweigh the risks,” the report states. According to the report, which is entitled “Waiting to Exhale—Safeguarding our Future Through Responsible Social-Legal Policy on Marijuana”:
“This finding is consistent with those of numerous other national bodies/ Commissions in the region and globally and that of international bodies, the most influential of which have labelled the current legal regime ‘redundant’ and ‘obstructionist’. . . . The scientific data supports law reform to permit the use of marijuana, but in a controlled regulatory environment. A public health, rights-based, non-prohibitionist approach focused on high‐risk users and practices – similar to the approach favoured with alcohol and tobacco – allows for more control over the risk factors associated with cannabis‐related harms than the current, ineffective prohibition, which heightens health risks and induces social harms.”
The report recommends three possible options individual governments could take toward implementing its findings: decriminalise, legalise with state production, or legalise with private sector production and state oversight.
The government of Trinidad and Tobago is well positioned to harness the immense technical capacity and infrastructure of this oil and gas producing nation to become a leader and key mover in a CARICOM-wide cannabis and hemp industry. We have within CARICOM all the conditions and expertise required for technical collaboration and for the cultivation of sufficient volumes of cannabis and hemp. And unique to this region is a nearly century-old indigenous religious and social movement—Rastafari—in which marijuana use plays a central role, an activity for which adherents have unjustly paid the price. A developed cannabis industry could meet the medical needs of our people, create value-added products that can be sold intra-regionally (nutraceuticals, paper hempcrete, etc), create jobs and raise the standard of living for the working-class and marginalised people of the region. That would be a truly independent move.

author: Guest Contributor


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‘Fake news’ is in the eye of the beholder: China is centralizing efforts to stop online ‘rumors’ · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Screen capture from Piyao's promotion video on Weibo.
A new state-run platform is now centralizing efforts to stop online “rumors” in China.
This is a significant step for China, where any piece of information that does not come from official government channels can be considered a rumor.
Since 2012, Chinese authorities have undertaken a series of measures and campaigns to control online speech. Major social media platforms have been forced to implement community rules and reporting systems intended to curb the spread of rumors and false information.
In September 2013, an official “rumor rule” was issued, under which high-profile internet users could face up to seven years in prison for posting unverified information, if it were viewed 5,000 times or shared more than 500 times.
According to a 2017 rumor governance report from WeChat, China's popular social media and chat site, the platform blocked more than 500 million messages deemed to be rumors in 2017, and penalized more than 180,000 WeChat public accounts for spreading rumors.
In July 2018, state internet regulators received 6.7 million reports of illegal and false information.
But it seems authorities felt these efforts were still inadequate. So on August 29, 2018, they launched Piyao, an official platform that integrates existing initiatives for cracking down on “rumors” and upholding “truth” on the internet.
Piyao, meaning “rumor-squashing”, is hosted by the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission and operated by the official Xinhua news. The platform, which includes a website and mobile app, has integrated data from 40 other rumor report platforms and generated a rumor database with 30,000 incidents. It encourages the public to file reports, but also uses artificial intelligence to identify rumors spreading online.
Upon collecting and analyzing the “rumor” data, reports are disseminated through the platform’s website and mobile apps, as well as its WeChat and Weibo account. Censorship authorities also issue instructions to social media sites to block the relevant information.
The platform has various sections, including official releases from government bureaus, instant response from local governments, media fact checking, expert analysis and resources for stopping rumors.
According to Xinhua’s report, the platform is a joint effort of 27 government departments, including the Central Party School, and is working with more than one hundred media experts.
On Weibo, which is heavily censored, the majority of the comments about Piyao echoed the messages of authorities. Below is a typical message of praise:
俗话说，“三人成虎”。我们的生活经常遭遇各种谣言，诸如“紫菜是塑料袋做的”、这些谣言侵犯个人隐私，制造社会恐慌，有的谣言借助网络实现病毒式传播，向网络谣言亮剑已经刻不容缓！
There is a saying that when three people said that there was a tiger in the market, everyone took them seriously. We always encounter rumors in our daily life, such as the seaweed was made of plastic, etc. Rumors have infringed on individual privacy and created social panic. Some rumors have become viral online and we have to point our sword to crackdown online rumors.
But Radio Free Asia pointed out that the very definition of “rumor” in China quite often refers to politically sensitive information that is proven to be true. A Mr. Yuan points out:
从中国的现实情况来看，政府严加打击的一部分谣言通常是“遥遥领先”的“预言”…像薄熙来事件、周永康事件。当时传言北京政变。还有令计划儿子（令谷）车祸死亡的事情。
In China, some of the so-called “rumors” are “predictions” of the reality [that has not been reported by official media outlets]… Like the Bo Xilai incident, the Zhou Yongkang incident, [prior to the official reports] there are rumors about a coup. Also the car accident of the son of Ling Jihua [the news was spread on the internet].
Yuan believes that the new platform is to strengthen stability control:
一个是中共高层斗争比较激烈，政治八卦特别多。政府可能想从这方面引导一下。再一个社会矛盾激化，各种事情层出不穷。好像最近昆山砍人、老兵群体维权、还有P2P暴雷。这些维权事件特别多。（当局）有点控制不住，就想引导舆论。
The internal struggle within CCP is rather serious, and juicy political gossips keep circulating online. The government may want to deal with this. Furthermore, social conflicts have been intensified and incidents keep popping up, like the recent self-defense stabbing incident in Kunshan, military veterans’ protests and the social outcry following the collapse of P2P lending platforms. The authorities have lost control and wanted to channel it instead.
Since there are already a few dozen rumor-squashing platforms in operation and most Chinese netizens already avoid making critical comments and sharing politically sensitive information online, many have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the integrated platform.
Some are taking the news as a joke, like @guobaoj from Twitter:
中共集团真是奇葩集团，他们又鼓捣出一个互联网联合辟谣平台，真让人类笑掉大牙。中共几十年天天一本正经的造谣传谣，什么亩产万斤超英赶美伟光正，把所有中国人蒙的一愣一愣的都深信不疑，怎么又出来个联合辟谣的东西？互联网你们控制了，民众被你们割喉了，老百姓早说不出话来了，你们辟的哪家子谣？
— guobaoj (@guobaoj) August 30, 2018
CCP [Chinese Communist Party] is such a weird clan. Now they've launched an integrated rumor crackdown platform, this is such a joke. The CCP has been spreading rumors for decades, the great leap forward success and glory in surpassing Britain and US. They cheated all the Chinese people, how can they crack down on rumors? You have the internet under control, you have cut people’s throats and they can’t talk anymore, who can produce the rumors for you to squash?

author: Oiwan Lam