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Fighting Fire With Fire: African Regional Body Proposes High Costs for Internet Shutdowns · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

A sign for an Internet cafe in Tanzania. Tanzania is one of the top 10 countries with most Internet users in Africa. Creative Commons photo by Flickr user Aslak Raanes.
Grace Mutung'u is an associate of the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet). She is currently an OTF Senior Fellow in Information Controls at the Berkman Klein Center for Information and Society.
“Shut down the Internet and we'll take it away from you.” This is a new response, from telecom industry advocates, to African governments threatening to shut down the Internet in the face of political uncertainty.
In mid-April, members of the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) put forth a proposal to deny resources to African governments that shut down the Internet. As one email list member described it, if successful, it would result in “shutting down the Internet for governments that shut down the Internet.” Liquid Telcom and Tespok, a telecommunications sector association, were the main drivers of the proposal.
Those who have been watching this trend rise in recent years cannot fail to see the poetic justice in the move. Nevertheless, if it were actually implemented, it is not clear that it would achieve the desired effect.
AFRINIC is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa responsible for allocating IP addresses and numbers in the continent. In the proposal, published on 10 April 2017, the authors define an Internet shutdown as having occurred when:
…it can be proved that there was an attempt, failed or successful, to restrict access to the internet to a segment of the population irrespective of the provider or access medium that they utilize.
It goes on to recommend that governments that implement shutdowns be denied access to IP addresses and numbers for a period of 12 months. Those found to have implemented three or more shutdowns within ten years would have their resources revoked for five years.
Andrew Alston, one of the proposal's co-authors, explained the rationale behind the proposal:
…it goes to a question that has been lurking in the background for a long time and I believe the time is now to have that discussion. What role do the community, the I* organizations and other internet structures have when faced with abuse of power by state actors? ((i* organisations are African Internet governance organisations eg AFRINIC, AFPIF, ISOC https://www.afrinic.net/images/doc/af_brochure.pdf)
But these restrictions would apply to not just government entities, but also to parastatals and entities that have direct relationships with the government in question. This could affect a lot of people, many of whom may have been opposed to the shutdown in the first place.
If governments were to go offline, the effect would unquestionably be felt by the public.
The proposal has lit debate on what the role of Internet registries such as AFRINIC ought to be. The AFRINIC Board had earlier expressed concern about the rising trend of shutdowns, stating that they were a threat to the open nature of the Internet. Since 2011, there have been intentional network disruptions, commonly referred to as shutdowns, in 18 states in Africa. In 2016 alone, 18 shutdowns were recorded in 11 countries and from January 2017 until mid-April, there was an ongoing shutdown in Anglophone regions of Cameroon. All of these shutdowns have happened during political moments such as elections and protest.
Other than the obvious disruption in social ties, shutdowns have significant economic effects. But at a policy level, they also invoke the question of the vision and intent of African governments when it comes to the Internet.
Governments speak of leveraging information and communications technology (ICT) to achieve development goals such as SDGs or Agenda 2063 in the African Union. But shutdowns are contrary to these development aspirations — and the very same governments that have committed to these goals are also implementing shutdowns. For example, the three-month shutdown in Cameroon forced those who were relying on the Internet for their businesses to abandon those businesses or move to other towns.
List commenter Seun Odejedi expressed concern about the implications of the proposal for people apart from government leaders and employees:
…there is a proverb that says “if we are to burn a snake in its length we will burn the house as well”. We should be very careful what we ask at RIR policy level because in the long run, it would not hurt the government more than AFRINIC members (current and future).
The proposal is currently under consideration by the AFRINIC community, which is comprised of technical and policy experts in the region. Some say they are uncomfortable with an RIR taking up the role of policing use of the Internet. Others are concerned about the effect of the proposal, as denying governments resources could limit their abilities to deliver public services through the Internet — this could have significant impact in countries like Rwanda, where the government is moving services such as business registration online in an effort to improve efficiency. On top of these concerns, massive amounts of public information are primarily available on government websites, such as laws and location of services. If governments were to go offline, the effect would unquestionably be felt by the public.
Then there is the question of ICT markets in Africa. Countries like Ethiopia, which had three shutdowns last year, have a single, state-owned ISP. This means that denial of resources to the Ethiopian government and related entities would result in lack of resources for the whole country. While more African countries have liberalised their ICT markets, there are only few countries in the continent that have attained perfect competition. Many have one, two or three dominant players and these are the ones through which governments affect shutdowns. The proposal would therefore have to be reworked so that its negative effects on the public would be minimal.
Remedies and penalties aside, local experts continue to debate the question of whether shutdowns are a matter of poor policies or a sign of weak rule of law. Some of the listers take the view that the decision to shut down the Internet in any African country comes down to one person – the person in power. Each of the network disruptions experienced last year can be pointed to a particular ruler. For instance, Uganda’s social media blackout can be credited to President Museveni and Zimbabwe’s to President Mugabe. There is a school of thought that shutdowns in Africa will end when principles such as plurality and equitable development are respected.
The AFRINIC proposal is novel — it pushes the boundaries of the role of the organisation and it encapsulates the frustration that many face when they find themselves without the Internet and when the decision to shut down the Internet is taken arbitrarily and without warning. Whether the proposal is carried forward or not, it has ignited an important conversation that will likely be taken to the Africa Internet Summit in Nairobi later in the year. Because at the end of the day, Africans must craft a solution to the dangerous trend of shutting down the Internet during political moments.

author: Guest Contributor


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Indians Are Speaking Up About Depression to Do Away With the Social Stigma Surrounding It · Global Voices
Devika Sakhadeo

Image from Flickr by Mary Lock. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The World Health Organisation's recent report on depression mentions that almost 7.5% of Indians suffer from major or minor mental disorders that require expert intervention. However, in India depression remains in many ways taboo, a topic of gossip or a target of ridicule.
In response, some on social media have been trying for the last several years to encourage more open discussion of depression.
IT employee Kalyan Biswas Rath is one of them. He shared this story on his Facebook page how was able to fight depression with the help of his family and friends:
I was a horrible graphic designer, a horrible web designer, a horrible coder, a horrible writer and a bad comedian for quite some time. I have embarrassed myself enough and been bad at multiple fields. But with support from close friends, I kept working at it.
Suddenly one day, things changed for the better and people who I assumed thought of me as a failure started messaging me saying they were proud of me. People started appreciating my work.
Today, I don't feel like a failure despite whoever feels whichever way and I am happy with my life. And that's a big deal.
[…] Don't be ashamed of asking for help. There is nothing wrong with depression. It is a very natural outcome of the kind of society we live in.
Kalyan now is a stand-up comic and a successful YouTuber.
Bollywood celebrity Shaheen Bhatt is another example:
I've lived with depression on and off since I was about 13 years old.
This is not a revelation or a confession.
Those who know me know this about me.
It's not something I take any pains to hide, I'm not ashamed of it or particularly troubled by it. It's just a part of who I am.
I have days where I feel good and then I have days where I don't.
One minute everything's fine and the next it's like someone turned the light off inside my head.
I go quiet and it's difficult to get out of bed.
Like it always does the world around me loses focus and I struggle to make sense of it.
Sometimes these bouts last an hour – sometimes they last days.
Today, I'm on day 4.
I say I live with depression rather than I struggle with it because for me (and I speak only for myself here) I don't see why it has to be a struggle.
Depression is a mental disorder that is characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life. People suffering from depression can seek help of psychologists or psychiatrists to receive appropriate treatment.
The first steps of recognizing depression and reaching out for help are crucial, but the social stigma surrounding the disorder can make it difficult. Anshika Kumar at Indian Youth explained that in India people tend to think a lot about the judgements of other people:
We Indians are too concerned about what others think. This needs to stop. We must respect each other’s opinions and issues. Many of us cannot understand or recognize symptoms of mental illnesses; even if we do, we do not know what to do or how to go about it. Unhealthy relationships with parents means youngsters end up hiding their mental condition from them, for fear of judgement and mockery. Outsiders are unable to understand and accept, and patients are scared and confused to speak out- It becomes a vicious circle.
The recent World Health Day (WHO) that was celebrated on the 7 April 2017 by the WHO had the theme as “Depression, Let’s Talk” exactly for this reason. The movement to treat the topic of depression with compassion and transparency, however, has been gaining steam in India for several years now.
A freelance journalist has written in an article about her interviewee's struggle with depression. In 2015, the interviewee explained that she credits her recovery to the help of the close family she received. She also mentioned:
Why did I choose to share my story today, after so many years of being silent? In my heart, I believe that the time is now right for the world to deal with depression a kinder way. I hope that people will be more tolerant of those suffering from mental illness than they were a decade ago.
That same year, Indian Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone went on national news channel NDTV to talk about depression and how she went through it. She later started her own foundation that supports and helps people seek help.
There are numerous platforms such as AASRA and YourDost that use different means of communication including social media to get people to talk about it.
Another contributor to this change is the Indian government, as it has introduced a renewed Mental Health Bill that decriminalizes suicide and protects and restores the property rights of mentally ill persons. Before this bill was passed, attempting suicide was considered a crime in India which could lead to one year imprisonment, according to the Article 309 of the Indian Penal Code.
Highlights of the new Mental health bill passed in Parliament today #India #MentalHealthcareBill #Mentalhealth pic.twitter.com/TLgwX889lr
— monika (@monikamanchanda) March 27, 2017

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Devika Sakhadeo


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Protests Still Spreading in Venezuela, Despite Political Repression · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

Illustration by Leonardo González. Used with permission.
Protests are spreading across Venezuela, and the number of deaths is only rising, as the crisis between the government and the opposition boils over.
Both the Bolivarian National Guard and government-sponsored armed forces have been accused of attempted assassinations. Social media users and non-governmental organizations have also recorded a slew of human rights violations. According to Amnesty International's report on Venezuela, the police are taking protesters to military courts, where they can be arrested without evidence:
Las autoridades venezolanas están utilizando el sistema de justicia de manera ilegal para incrementar la persecución y los castigos contra quienes piensan diferente [Acciones ilegales con el fin de reprimir] incluyen las detenciones sin órdenes judiciales por parte del Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional (SEBIN), el procesamiento de activistas pacíficos por delitos “contra la patria” y la imposición de medidas de prisión preventiva sin justificación y campañas difamatorias en medios de comunicación contra miembros de la oposición, entre otras medidas.
The Venezuelan authorities are illegally using the justice system to augment the persecution and incarceration of those who think differently, including the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN), arresting without warrants, prosecuting peaceful activists for crimes “against the nation,” and implementing unjustified preventative detention methods and slanderous campaigns across media platforms against opposition members, among other such methods.
As unrest has spread, Internet users have circulated some of the most vivid imagery from protests. For example, a woman dubbed “María José” to protect her anonymity, recently channeled the famous scene from Tiananmen Square, stopping a Bolivarian National Guard armored car by standing in its path.
Hans Wuerich proved his fearlessness in another way, showing up to protests naked from the socks up, carrying nothing but a Bible. Police later sprayed his body with rubber bullets.
The hashtag “That Could Have Been Me,” (#PudeHaberSidoYo) was also widely spread on social media and used as a slogan by a group of artists protesting in front of the Ombudsman Office. The phrase comes from Yibram Saab Fornino, the son of Venezuelan Ombudsman Tarek William Saab, who made a public video asking his father to end the police crackdown on demonstrators, and mentioned the case of Juan Pernalete, who died after being hit in the chest by a tear gas bomb launched by a police officer at point-blank range:
Condeno la brutal represión por parte de los cuerpos de seguridad de la nación de la cual fui víctima el día de hoy, como [también lo fue] el joven Juan Pablo Pernalete, de 20 años de edad, estudiante universitario a quien le quitaron la vida debido al terrible e inhumano uso los gases lacrimógenos, luego de que sufriera un impacto en el pecho. Ese pude haber sido yo.
I condemn the brutal repression of the nation by security bodies, whose victim I became today, [much like] Juan Pablo Pernalete — a young, 20-year-old university student whose life was taken from him due to the terrible and inhumane use of tear gas, after he was hit in the chest. That could have been me.
Netizens also circulated images of people inside the protests, including a popular video of a man playing the cuatro (a traditional musical instrument) and started an online campaign called #AdoptaUnCivil (“Adopt a civilian”), in which they would share the name and work of civilians, trying to highlight their participation in Venezuelan political and community life. Their goal was to contrast narratives that depict the national political history as driven by military men:
Verga me gusta mucho esta idea #adoptauncivil https://t.co/1IaEwjbPig
— Carlojandre Sperez (@sejelpeo) April 28, 2017
Damn, I really like this idea #adoptauncivil https://t.co/1IaEwjbPig
#AdoptaUnCivil José Ignacio Cabrujas. De su fina pluma salió una de las descripciones más acertadas de la venezolanidad.
— Marga (@Marga2160) April 28, 2017
#AdoptaUnCivil José Ignacio Cabrujas. From his fine pen came one of the most accurate descriptions of what it means to be a Venezuelan.
Protesters hoping for help from outside the country got some bad news last month, however, when the Venezuelan government said it plans to leave the Organization of American States.
Follow our coverage of Venezuela with more articles about the latest events on our special page.

author: Laura Vidal


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The World’s Largest Biometric Database is Leaking Indian Citizens’ Data — But Keeps On Growing · Global Voices
Rohith Jyothish

Collecting image of iris for Aadhaar, Photo via Wikimedia Commons, by Kannanshanmugam. CC BY 3.0
Over the last few months, the Indian twittersphere has been awash with citizens concerned about government websites leaking millions of individual digital ID numbers.
On May 1, the Centre for Internet and Society, a multi-disciplinary think tank in Bangalore, released a report indicating that faulty information security practices have exposed as many as 135 million ID numbers, leaked from four government databases. The data leaks originated in the process of implementing online dashboards that were likely meant for general transparency and easy administration by the government agencies.
Developed by the Union government of India in 2009, the plan called for the creation a Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that would issue Unique Identity numbers (UIDs) to all residents of India. Under this scheme, now known as Aadhaar, the UID number ties together several pieces of a person's demographic and biometric information, including their photograph, ten fingerprints and an image of their iris. This information is all stored in a centralized database.
The scheme has so far enrolled 1.13 billion Indians and residents of India, making it the largest biometric database in the world.
This has become a point of pride for government agencies involved in the program. Information Technology Minister Ravishankar Prasad (@rsprasad) tweeted:
113 crore people in India have #Aadhaar . India has the world's largest digital identity system. #DigitalIndia pic.twitter.com/5pwI5yuBMx
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) April 24, 2017
Aadhaar was built to be used as an identity authentication mechanism that could have multiple services being built on top of it. The scheme was run under an executive order from its inception in 2009 until the Aadhaar Act was passed in 2016. The strategies employed by its supporters generated substantial controversy, and it since has been challenged in the Supreme Court on budgetary grounds. But thus far, it remains in place.
The UIDAI has maintained that the scheme is voluntary. Yet the central government has pushed state governments to include UID for a wide range of essential government services meant to be available to the public.
Independent news portal Scroll regularly covers issues related to UID’s linkages with various welfare programs through its Identity Project. In recent years, Scroll has identified multiple examples of public services being denied to individuals who did not have a UID.
In Delhi in 2015, food rations were denied to those without UID numbers. In April 2016 in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan, UID-enabled food subsidies repeatedly recorded authentication failures.
Six months after Aadhaar was introduced in Rajasthan, state officials report that 10-15% of beneficiaries who normally received food grains from the government (under the National Food Security Act) have been denied some or all of their rations because the system could not authenticate their UIDs. A local farm laborer told Scroll that his rations had been drastically reduced since the arrival of Aadhaar. “In some cases, when we put our fingers, the machine reads out 5 kg, 10 kg, or 15 kg as our entitlement. But we are entitled to 35 kg as per the government norms.”
Advocates are quick to note that there is no adequate avenue to remedy in these situations, leaving citizens with little recourse or ability to seek that these errors be corrected.
In spite of multiple court orders making UID voluntary and limited to selected schemes, the government continues to expand its scope.
According to economist Jean Drèze, the new authentication system requires a lot of fragile technologies to work at the same time, such as a point of sale machine, internet connectivity, biometrics, remote servers and mobile networks. He also maintains that the primary cause of corruption in disbursement of food subsidies is related to the quantity of rations distributed or quantity fraud, which UID doesn't address.
Another economist who has worked extensively on these issues, Reetika Khera points out that the exclusion of large number of people from welfare schemes has not been because of lack of an identity, but rather due to “measly budgets and exclusion errors.“
The Supreme Court issued two orders in September 2013 and March 2014 which stated that “no person shall be deprived of any service for want of Aadhaar number in case he/she is otherwise eligible/entitled.” On August 11, 2015, the court issued yet another order which limited the use of UID to food, kerosene and cooking gas subsidies. On October 15, it further expanded it to four more schemes: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (a scheme for financial inclusion), and policies related to pension and provident funds, after the government argued that it would be difficult to roll back UID now that it is the most used national identity system and is linked to service delivery in several major welfare schemes.
Following the repeated arguments by the state that UID makes it possible to weed out ‘ghost beneficiaries’ and ‘de-duplicate’ multiple IDs, revelations of fake ‘UID cards’ began to circulate. These UID cards were reportedly issued under the names of pets, historical figures, one alleged spy and even gods.
@Memeghnad Also, it's as if there are no fake Aadhaar numbers. They bloody gave an Aadhaar to a cat, dog and Jhansi Ki Raani!! https://t.co/9vWXXBtLSX pic.twitter.com/dkaZDxDdeN
— Mayank Jain (@Mayank1029) April 21, 2017
More recently, the Indian twittersphere has been vocal in pointing to government websites leaking sensitive information from the UID database. In February, security researcher Srinivas Kodali exposed a parallel database containing UID numbers and other details of 5-600,000 children.
Yesterday I was informed about a website which was publishing #Aadhaar numbers of minors. We informed the authorities and brought it down. pic.twitter.com/9k2TK39x7n
— Srinivas Kodali (@iotakodali) February 17, 2017
In another case, UID numbers of scholarship-holders sat on a state government website for over a year.
Kerala e-grantz scholarships website was leaking aadhaar & a/c data like this for more than one year. https://t.co/DdpYI72NMC pic.twitter.com/tObbE1p4uE
— Anivar Aravind (@anivar) April 20, 2017
On March 22, 2017, tech worker @St_Hill exposed the severity of the problem by showing spreadsheets of personal data that appear with just a single Google search.
So I wrote a few words about Aadhaar. Will be happy to be proven wrong if you find something incorrect https://t.co/CHKBAR0gP7
— St_Hill (@St_Hill) March 22, 2017
This was immediately taken down. But new ones continue to appear with other simple Google searches.
Under the hashtag #AadhaarLeaks, Twitter users have reported numerous such cases on various government websites. The leaks gained popular attention on social media when former Indian men’s cricket team captain MS Dhoni’s UID appeared in a tweet sent by a UID enrollment operator.
The UIDAI responded to the uproar with a campaign entitled #AadhaarStars, in which parents of young children were encouraged to post 30-second videos of what UID meant to them.
A chance to make your kids #AadhaarStars. Visit https://t.co/ePIEHGHovs for more information. pic.twitter.com/vxEvE9nXtA
— Aadhaar (@UIDAI) April 10, 2017
This was rejected by angry twitterati through the hashtag #AadhaarFail which now offers a compendium of tweets about UID-based authentication failures.
In the last couple of months, after the privacy and security-related concerns became louder, the UIDAI has shut down enrollment operators, websites and payment applications for misuse of biometrics data. The central government has even warned state departments against leaking UID data on their portals.
As the uncertainty looms, privacy researcher Amber Sinha and aforementioned security researcher Srinivas Kodali estimated the size of #AadhaarLeaks.
Our report on the scale of #aadhaarleaks 130 million #Aadhaar data was public. 100 million were linked to bank A/Chttps://t.co/dT7L7OyBeG
— Srinivas Kodali (@iotakodali) May 1, 2017
@Memeghnad @iotakodali Important to understand these are not so much as leaks as proactive publication of #Aadhaar Numbers & other data. #leakagebydesign pic.twitter.com/amNfqJAuxL
— Amber Sinha (@ambersinha07) May 1, 2017
It remains to be seen how the government will react to this.

author: Rohith Jyothish


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‘We Told You So’: Australian Federal Police Accessed Journalist’s Phone Records Illegally · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Image courtesy of Electronic Frontiers Australia (CC BY 4.0)
The Australian Federal Police revealed on April 28 that one of their officers broke the law by accessing a journalist's phone records without a warrant.
The Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin explained that it involved an investigation of “the unauthorised release of sensitive police information to a journalist.” He blamed human error and denied any malice. The journalist affected has not been informed of the release.
Internet service providers and telcos are required to keep customers’ metadata — information about who they've contacted, and when — relating to both phone and Internet, for two years’ time. Currently, law enforcement must obtain a warrant from a judge if they wish to access journalists’ communications metadata. This safeguard only applies to journalists — other customers do not have this protection.
Australia's data retention policy, as described on the Attorney General's website, defines said data as “information about a communication rather than the content or substance of a communication.” For calls, this include “phone numbers of the people talking to each other and how long they talked for—not what they said.” For emails, “data is information such as the relevant email addresses and when it was sent—not the subject line of the email or its content.”
International tech news website CNetT joined a chorus of online voices pointing out that the public had been warned:
Chalk this one up for the security record books under the chapter titled, “We told you so.”
[…] The spectre of a major data breach has been looming since the laws were first mooted, with critics warning that creating a trove of metadata on every single Australian with a phone or an internet connection was a recipe for a major data breach, or a major hack.
Today's confirmed breach comes just two weeks after the laws officially came into effect. Originally introduced to parliament under the banner of national security concerns and curbing paedophilia and drug crime, critics of the policy were quick to frame the debate around questions of mass surveillance, access to the stored data and its use in civil cases, such as the prosecution of piracy.
Australia's technology news iTWire called for action:
…there should now be a fresh inquiry into the entire data retention scheme in the wake of the actions by the [Australian Federal Police]
Paul Murphy, the CEO of the MEAA union, which protects journalists and other media workers in Australia, was appalled by the revelation:
The use of journalist’s metadata to identify confidential sources is an attempt to go after whistleblowers and others who reveal government stuff ups. This latest example shows that an over-zealous and cavalier approach to individual’s metadata is undermining the right to privacy and the right of journalists to work with their confidential sources.
There was also a strong negative reaction on social media, especially from critics of the data retention system. There were concerns that the police, often referred to as the AFP (not to be confused with the French news wire) are above the law as the officer concerned is not facing any action. William Tinkle tweeted:
when anyone not a member of the AFP illegally obtains something its called theft and they're prosecuted #metadata
— william p tinkle (@willytinkle) April 28, 2017
Others shared their concerns that the original justification for retaining and accessing data, namely national security and drug law enforcement, was being used to control media freedom:
Everyone promised the metadata laws were about national security. Today we learn AFP are using them to find out who leaks to journos #auspol
— Dylan Whitelaw (@WhitelawDylan) April 28, 2017
Imagine if the [police] were this diligent about catching pedophiles/human traffickers/drug dealers using #Metadata #auspol https://t.co/vyLG54itgy
— What the… (@Poddumpuddytat) April 28, 2017
One tweep spoke up for the Federal Police, reflecting the low esteem that the media has in many quarters:
Frankly I trust the [Federal Police] more than I trust Journalists!
Let that sink in!#auspol #metadata Australian Federal Police The AFP pic.twitter.com/GljY4ulXO1
— JMV (@j1m1v) April 28, 2017
There was cynicism on all sides:
Signaling: anyone who leaks info will be tracked down using metadata. The point of yesterday’s [Federal Police] theatre.
— Mark Pesce (@mpesce) April 29, 2017
Meanwhile Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) have launched a petition calling for ‘a universal warrant requirement for all access to retained telecommunications data':
Last week’s revelation … demonstrates the complete lack of effective protection provided by the current legislation.
There is some good news on the metadata front with the Federal government ruling out expanding access to metadata to civil cases. EFA welcomed the decision:
This is an important victory.
Had the government allowed even a limited expansion of access, it would almost certainly have been just the first of a number of such expansions.
The police have admitted that the data revealed by the breach cannot be “unseen”. Whether evidence arising from the illegality will be admissible in a court case remains unclear.
Update 4 May 2017
From Jon Lawrence, executive officer of Electronic Frontiers Australia:
There's one inaccuracy in your story, namely this: ‘Today's confirmed breach comes just two weeks after the laws officially came into effect.’
The journalist warrant requirement actually came into effect on 13th October 2015. Two weeks ago was just the deadline for technical implementation of the full scheme. This incident was about phone call records, which have been retained for many years already, so there was nothing new to implement.
It's a small but I think important point, ie that the AFP actually had 18 whole months (not just two weeks) to train themselves to remember the two words ‘journalist’ and ‘warrant’.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Wikimujeres Wants More Women Editors to Fix Wikipedia’s Gender Imbalance · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

A parody of the famous “We Can Do It!” poster. A derivative work by Tom Morris via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
The Wikipedia article on “Gender bias on Wikipedia” states matter-of-factly that numerous studies and surveys have found that “a dominant majority of Wikipedia editors are male,” citing the figures of anywhere between 85-91.5%. It’s a cause for concern for both the community at-large and the Wikimedia Foundation, the entity that manages the world’s largest free online encyclopedia, because this demographic disparity may contribute to a systematic bias found in its content.
The Wikimujeres (Wikiwomen) project has been working in Spanish and Catalan-speaking countries to help change those demographics. According to their website:
Somos un grupo de usuarias de Wikipedia preocupadas por la diversidad y la neutralidad de la Wikipedia y dispuestas a trabajar para disminuir (y en un futuro eliminar) la brecha de género y culturas que existe en la enciclopedia más consultada en internet.
We are group of Wikipedia users concerned about the diversity and neutrality of Wikipedia and we are willing to work to reduce (and in the future eliminate) the gender and culture gap that exists on the most widely consulted encyclopedia on the internet.
Their goal is to involve more women as active editors who can also contribute more content related to women, such as biographies, as well as content created by women editors in the developing world. Holding weekly meetings in two locations in Madrid and Barcelona, outreach plays an important role in the form of trainings and “edit-a-thons,” which are organized, often in-person events designed to work collaboratively on creating new or improving Wikipedia articles.
Photo by Montserrat Boix via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Recent edit-a-thons focused on adding new articles about women photographers and women scientists were co-organized by Wikimujeres and were held at the Medialab-Prado in Madrid.

author: Eduardo Avila


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A Very Central Asian Football Match in Tweets · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Of the countries signed up to the little-known Central Asian Football Association, only Iran has participated in a World Cup. Wikipedia image.
Have you ever wondered what football in Central Asia looks like? Thanks to journalist Peter Leonard, you don't have to travel to the region to find out. Leonard's Wednesday afternoon tweet storm involved two teams slugging it out in Asia's secondary club football tournament, the Asian Football Confederation Cup. The game took place in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, where the Kyrgyz champions Alai took on Istiklol, a club chaired by the son of neighbouring Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon.
In for some quality football today as Kyrgyzstan league leaders FC Alai face Tajik champs Istiqlol in AFC Cup match pic.twitter.com/uhAdfAlKfB
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Players shake hands pic.twitter.com/1xrgctk0lp
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Off we go pic.twitter.com/pvh1DL2HQa
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Quite hard to find seats not covered in bird poop or broken. pic.twitter.com/6tEPgoOeVS
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
A pretty sedate crowd. No particular cheering or singing anticipated pic.twitter.com/OMM5Zoh9CH
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
pic.twitter.com/XfvTLPAzlP
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Five minutes in and Alai have just had their first chance on goal.
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Another couple of decent chances for Alai pic.twitter.com/3cDykFyAcB
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Alai's star player is Guinean Alia Sylla, who has scored five goals out four games in this Kyrgyz league season pic.twitter.com/nvAkjuqF2l
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Favored crowd swear is “ёб твоё бляааа”, a kind of salty Russian gibberish.
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
A bit of ёб твою бля in action pic.twitter.com/0emZmt7lVx
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
And Dzhalilov finally puts one in the back of the net to deafening silence pic.twitter.com/gOjL7LGhzZ
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Istiqlol 1 – Alai 0
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Ouch, Istiqlol running the show here as Dzhalilov makes it 2-0 in '38.
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Maksadbek Alimov misses clear chance to pull one back for Alai at '43. Man behind me calls him a долбоёб.
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
And in dying moments of first half, Alai's best chance so far pic.twitter.com/E2l8D9EfYU
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
First half verdict: Istiqlol vastly more organized, Alai more into thumping ball up field. Dzhalilov a standout
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
This is basically your ultras stand here pic.twitter.com/V2yltcdOQG
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
A couple of seed-chomping cops here, keeping things nice and calm pic.twitter.com/teVNWvoiCN
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
And we're off again pic.twitter.com/HSRgrViTCK
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Not much going on in the second half. Alai sitting back and punting ball up to African lads
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Alai with a good chance at '61 but shot taken much too squarely pic.twitter.com/k70AWN8m0v
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Dzhalilov got subbed a few minutes back. Istiqlol coasting home at this point.
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Popcorn, popcorn, popcorn, cooooome get your popcorn pic.twitter.com/4ufxPLeJdZ
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Istiqlol makes it 3-0 from the penalty spot. Scorer is Dilshod Vasiyev pic.twitter.com/rnZivSdyvU
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Here was the foul pic.twitter.com/b9Cpr4sJpg
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
And it's 4-0!! pic.twitter.com/Mnbl89OEgn
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Alai salvages some pride as Odilzhon Abdurakhmanov scores to make it 4-1. Crowd erupts. Chants of Alai, Alai, Alai.
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Aaaand, that's it. 4-1 to a vastly superior Istiqlol. Thank you for joining me today pic.twitter.com/gZ1w2zlVBG
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
As usual for football in this part of the world, cop to fan ratio was about 1:2 pic.twitter.com/MycdrefQgh
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Cops get post-match pep talk: “Good job lads, you done good. It was a game of two halves etc.” pic.twitter.com/GaMqCDLovJ
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
And some post-match detritus. Discarded seed shells pic.twitter.com/EJBJOZtuyG
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


text:
Brazilian Activist in Induced Coma After Police Beating at Nationwide Protests · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Left: the assault against Mateus Ferreira da Silva as captured by Luiz da Luz, published with permission. Right: Mateus Ferreira da Silva in a widely circulated photo.
A 33-year-old Brazilian student is hospitalized in intensive care this week, after a police officer hit him in the head with a baton during a demonstration in the city of Goiânia last Friday, when millions of people joined a nationwide strike against austerity reforms.
Mateus Ferreira da Silva, who studies social sciences at the Federal University of Goiás, sustained a traumatic brain injury and multiple fractures. Doctors operated on him this Saturday, and he's now in an induced coma. His condition is considered critical. [Update May 3: Mateus’ condition has improved and isn't life-threatening anymore].
Local photojournalist Luiz da Luz captured the assault on film, and his footage has spread rapidly throughout Brazil over the past few days. The images also reveal the face of the officer wielding the club: a man who has since been identified as Captain Augusto Sampaio.
Following the incident, military police in the Brazilian state of Goiás announced that Sampaio has been suspended from active duty, pending the results of an investigation.
Sequência mostra que PM quebrou o cassetete no rosto do estudante Mateus Ferreira em Goiânia https://t.co/tT1sjF1La8 (fotos: Luiz da Luz) pic.twitter.com/Wctg2HQblg
— Niara de Oliveira (@NiDeOliveira71) April 29, 2017
The sequence of photos shows that the military police officer broke his baton on the face of student Matheus Ferreira in Goiânia (photos: Luiz da Luz).
se um policial estivesse na UTI depois de paulada de manifestante, o rosto dele estaria na TV por 6 meses e toda repressão seria justificada pic.twitter.com/dxEZ8nNHlr
— coalacroata (@coalacroata) April 29, 2017
If a police were in intensive care after being beaten by a protester, his face would be on TV for six months and all repression would be justified.
The Facebook page “Desneuralizador”, an outlet of media activists from Goiânia, shared the video recorded by Luiz da Luz, showing the moments after Mateus was clubbed in the head, as paramedics tended to him.
Another video showing the same moment from another angle have also appeared on social media. In the clip below, the beating occurs at 00:50.
Internet users have already crowdfunded 10,000 Brazilian reais ($3,150) for Mateus’ family, who lives in another state, to cover some of his medical expenses and to house his relatives in Goiânia, while he's hospitalized.
“Be Strong Mateus. Against Police Violence”. Drawing widely shared on social media. Author: Heitor Vilela, published with permission
Writing on Facebook, Professor Pablo Ortellado remembered other episodes of violence against activists in Goiás:
Goiás vive um surto de violência política: foi lá que o ativista Guilherme Irish foi assassinado pelo pai por apoiar a ocupação de escolas, foi lá que a PM integrava grupo de whatsapp para criminalizar professores, foi lá que uma escola ocupada foi sabotada com um cano de gás cortado para explodir — e agora, tivemos lá também o tristíssimo caso do Mateus Ferreira da Silva, internado em situação grave depois que foi agredido na cabeça com um cacetete por um policial militar.
Goiás is experiencing a surge of political violence: It was there that the activist Guilherme Irish was murdered by his father to support the Occupy Movement in secondary schools; it was there that the military police joined a WhatsApp group meant to criminalize teachers; it was there that an occupied school was sabotaged with a gas leak; and now we have the very sad case of Mateus Ferreira da Silva, in intensive care after being assaulted in the head with a baton by a police officer.
Goiás was not the only state in Brazil where police cracked down brutally on demonstrators last Friday.
In Rio de Janeiro, riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protests in the city's center, where demonstrators had erected a stage for speakers. Speaking through a loudspeaker, state deputy Flavio Serafini, from Brazil's Socialist and Freedom Party (PSOL), pleaded with police to refrain from violence against the protesters. As Serafini spoke, police launched a tear gas canister at the stage, hitting the person who filmed the video blow:
PM-Rj joga bomba contra palco onde discursava dep. est. Flávio Serafini (PSOL), nos protestos contra reformas trabalhista e previdenciária pic.twitter.com/I30Tx8onm4
— Ponte Jornalismo (@pontejornalismo) April 30, 2017
This 25-minute video by an unknown author captured different moments of the crackdown in Rio and demonstrators’ failed attempts to regroup in a growing cloud of tear gas.
Police also dispersed a protest in São Paulo, as people marched towards President Michel Temer's residence, located in the upscale neighborhood of Alto de Pinheiros (and heavily guarded by police since he took power in May last year).
Police also detained activists from Brazil's Homeless Workers’ Movement and later charged them attempting to start fires and trigger explosions. According to the movement's Facebook page, the activists are still in jail.
Activists also criticized Brazil's oligarch-owned media outlets’ coverage of the protests, including a report by Folha de S. Paulo, one of the country's oldest newspapers.
Police officers in front of a barricade in Rio de Janeiro. Photo by Erick Dau/The Intercept, used with permission
According to story about Mateus Ferreira published in Folha de S. Paulo on Sunday, the attacker was allegedly a man “dressed as a military police officer.” This language was later redacted.
Professor Idelber Avelar wrote on Facebook about the mainstream media's typical emphasis on protests: traffic disruptions and broken windows, rather than police repression or the demonstrators’ demands:
Mais uma vez, a imprensa brasileira escolheu cobrir protestos de rua dando destaque a esse insólito protagonista, a vidraça. Folha de São Paulo e Estado de São Paulo escolheram a imagem de uma vidraça sendo quebrada para ilustrar suas primeiras páginas. Já O Globo preferiu a imagem de um ônibus incendiado.
Não há razão jornalisticamente plausível para que uma vidraça quebrada receba mais destaque que a reunião de milhares de pessoas em uma praça para defender uma pauta. Você pode continuar sendo radicalmente contra qualquer arranhão em qualquer patrimônio material e, mesmo assim, reconhecer esse fato. De novo, o termo “vandalismo” recebe um destaque absurdamente desproporcional e os já tradicionais atos de violência da Polícia Militar são noticiados como “manifestantes entram em confronto com PM”.
Once again, the Brazilian press chose to cover street protests by focusing on this incredible protagonist: the glass pane. Folha de S. Paulo and Estado de S. Paulo chose a photo of a glass window being broken to illustrate their front pages. O Globo on the other hand favored a photo of a bus set on fire.
There isn't a journalistically plausible reason to justify a broken glass window receiving more coverage than the gathering of thousands of people on a square to defend a cause. You could keep being radically against any scratch on any material property and, still, acknowledge this fact. Again, the term “vandalism” receives an absurdly disproportional emphasis and the typical acts of violence by the military police are covered as “demonstrators enter confrontation against the PM.”

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


text:
‘Crusading’ Philippine Environment Minister Shares Her Visits to Open Pit Mines on Facebook · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Tailings pond of Dizon mine in Zambales. Source: Facebook page of DENR Secretary Gina Lopez
Philippine Environment Secretary Gina Lopez has been actively inspecting the state of open pit mines across the country to emphasize the need to impose stricter rules on large-scale mining. Her visits confirmed the destructive impact of mining in remote communities, and she was able to quickly share her observations through her Facebook page.
Lopez was a prominent environmentalist before she was appointed as secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in 2016. She made mining audits a top priority for the DENR, but was criticized by mining firms and even some members of the cabinet for doing so. The country’s finance secretary warned her against being a “crusader” instead of balancing the needs of various stakeholders in the country.
But Lopez stood her ground and announced the suspension of more than a dozen mining operations across the country. She won the endorsement of the country’s president, various green groups, and grassroots organizations.
In recent months, Lopez made frequent trips across the country to update the public about the massive pollution caused by mining. While news about mining waste has been reported in the past, this is the first time that a cabinet member has denounced the lack of accountability in the mining sector.
Here are some of her reports posted on Facebook:
Lopez visited an open pit mine in Sipalay, located in the central part of the Philippines, and accused the mining company of neglecting to rehabilitate the forests it destroyed:
One of the biggest open pit mines in the country – a nightmare. Sipalay [near] Dumaguete. Four mine spills. Amidst verdant forests, decimating the economic potential of the place. And the mining company has paid very very little to address the damage caused. It's wrong. And this is the same mining company that is responsible for the nightmare in Marinduque. – the worst mining disaster in the planet! – what kind of record is that…..
An open pit mine in Sipalay. Source: Facebook page of DENR Secretary Gina Lopez
Lopez was referring to the 1996 Marcopper mining disaster in Marinduque, but she was wrong to describe it as the worst mining-related tragedy in the world.
Perhaps she was disturbed with what she saw in Marinduque when she visited the abandoned mining area this year:
I knew about it and had seen the pictures but nothing was to prepare me for the EXPERIENCE of flying over a magnificent pristine forest and the sight of what seemed to me a very long river – TOTALLY DRY and with mine silt. I clearly saw that the mine tailings had killed the economy of the entire area. What “hurt” even more was the sight of how gorgeously beautiful Marinduque is! Blue sea, beautiful mountains, and beautiful people. I blame government for allowing this to happen. It's been 21 years and the tragedy goes on.
She added that in March, a DENR team found high concentrations of Lead, Cadmium, and Copper in the rivers near the mining site.
A river in Marinduque polluted by mining waste. Source: Facebook page of DENR Secretary Gina Lopez
Tailings pond of Marcopper. Source: Facebook page of DENR Secretary Gina Lopez
Lopez also conducted an aerial tour of Dizon Mines in Zambales, located north of the country’s capital Manila. She reported that the open pit site lacks proper maintenance:
This is the open pit with acidity level at 2. The water in this pit can melt a boat's propel! My gosh right?!? It lacks the proper care and maintenance! I will make sure that this doesn't harm any of the communities in the area.
Open pit mine operated by Dizon company in Zambales. Source: Facebook page of DENR Secretary Gina Lopez
Not all mining sites failed the DENR’s audit process. The country’s biggest open pit mine in Toledo, located in Cebu province, got the approval of the DENR and Lopez herself.
We just visited Atlas Mining located in Toledo. Atlas is the biggest open pit mine in the country! There are 3 massive open pits and it has actually sprung up an entire city – and that is Toledo City. I was welcomed very warmly, it's one of the mines that passed the audit and I want to work with them.
I also asked them to give a rehabilitation plan so that when their mine life is over, the open pit does not become a liability to the government nor does it put the people's lives at risk. When there is a will, there is a way.
Atlas Mining in Toledo. Source: Facebook page of DENR Secretary Gina Lopez
Aside from the owners of the mining companies, workers displaced by the DENR suspension order accused Lopez of failing to observe due process in regulating the mining industry. Lopez responded by assuring the workers that the government will provide alternative livelihoods for them.
Mine workers,students, IPs of different mining communities gather in front of the Senate 2hrs before Gina Lopez's confirmation hearing. pic.twitter.com/K59zAJ7ZuG
— Shyla Francisco (@ShylaFrancisco) March 8, 2017
Some groups also reminded Lopez about the big contribution of mining to the country’s revenues:
I feel for the local government units and communities that lost benefits of tax payments of mining firms. :(#MinaHindiGina pic.twitter.com/URQJO38SR6
— Roldan Aquilino (@AquilinoRoldan) February 25, 2017
“Responsableng pagmimina, hindi si Gina” means “Responsible mining, not Gina”

author: Mong Palatino


text:
For Opponents, WHO Director General Nominee Tedros Adhanom Represents Ethiopia’s Repressive Government · Global Voices
Endalkachew Chala

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Minister of Health, Ethiopia, speaking at the London Summit on Family Planning in 2012. Photo by Flickr user UK DFID. CC BY-SA 2.0
Some Ethiopians are fiercely campaigning against Tedros Adhanom, Ethiopia’s candidate to replace Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, as director general of World Health Organization, just a few weeks before member states are set to vote on the final three candidates.
Tedros, a former Ethiopian foreign and health minister, along with Pakistan’s Sania Nishtar and the UK’s David Nabarro are the three director-general nominees who made the cut from a larger pool of candidates in January.
Tedros, who is running a well-funded campaign, is considered as a prime contender in the race. His candidacy was endorsed by the African Union, and just last week he picked up an endorsement of Andrew Mitchell, the UK’s former international development secretary.
However, he is facing unrelenting opposition from his own citizens.
Ethiopians who feel marginalized by their country's government are campaigning hard against him online, arguing he should not be elected because he represents the interests of Ethiopia’s autocratic ruling elites and not the people.
The irony is beyond tragic. The person who is responsible for the crimes against humanity in #Ethiopia is running for #WHODG! #NoTedros4WHO
— Kirubel ተሾመ (@kiruskyy) April 28, 2017
They have set up online petition pages against Tedros and produced a documentary film detailing what they consider to be his failures and his alleged mismanagement of funds while he was Ethiopia’s health minister.
Tedros Adhanom presided and participated in the biggest financial corruption scandal of misusing Global fund in Ethiopia. #NoTedros4WHO
— Amsalu (@AmsaluKassaw) April 28, 2017
They have organized Twitter campaigns under a hashtag #NoTedros4WHO to organize conversations surrounding the topic. To make his Ethiopian government profile at the top of the public’s consciousness, his opponents have share detailed research that accuses Tedros of inefficiencies, misreporting, and exaggerations of his achievements when he used to serve in Ethiopia.
One of the images that have circulated against Tedros, showing his face with an X over it next to the two other candidates. Shared by Twitter user @DahlaKib
However, amid fears that the campaign might diminish his chances, government groups are also running a parallel campaign supporting his candidacy. They have downplayed the opposition as unpatriotic, mean-spirited and trivial jealousy.
Since April 2014, a popular protest movement in Ethiopia has challenged the government, which has responded brutally. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 800 people have died, and thousands of political opponents and hundreds of dissidents have been imprisoned and tortured. Since October 2016, authorities have imposed some of the world’s toughest censorship laws after it declared a state of emergency.
Some of Tedros’ detractors say they oppose his candidacy because of his alleged incompetence. But a big part of what drives the fierce opposition to Tedros is the logic of ethnic politics.
Tedros holds a Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham in community health. He studied biology at Asmera University before he completed a master’s degree in immunology of infectious diseases in London.
When people hear his name, as qualified as he may be, his opponents associate him with a repressive Ethiopian government that has killed people, jailed thousands of political opponents, and imprisoned and tortured dissidents.
His meteoric rise to power started soon after he finished his Ph.D. in 1999 when he was tasked to lead the Tigray region’s health department. After two short years in Tigray, he was promoted to Ethiopia’s minister for health by the late prime minister Meles Zenawi, a Tigrayan himself. In 2012 when Meles Zenawi died, Tedros became Ethiopia’s foreign minister.
Tigray is one of the nine regional states that are federated based on ethnolinguistic compositions.
Over the past 26 years, the Tigrayan elites have taken center stage in Ethiopia’s political affairs, largely due to their control of the military, security and the economy of Ethiopia. Though accounting for only 6% of Ethiopia’s population, all senior positions of country’s military and security and the most meaningful positions in state institutions are packed by Tigrayan elites. This has always been a sore point with the elites of the Oromo and Amhara ethnicities, who together comprise 65% of Ethiopia’s population.
Ethiopia's government has used authoritarian tactics against its people and the country's politic space is a closed one; however, it enjoys the support of powerful countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
The vigorous opposition to the Tedros candidacy suggests that Ethiopians political struggle has spilled over into the international arena. In some sense, it also suggests that these global platforms have become a substitute for a repressed domestic political space.
Since Ethiopia’s local political institutions and communications infrastructure are controlled by the government, diaspora groups, however sporadic and uncoordinated their efforts may be, have used the opportunity to shed light on the human rights violations using Twitter campaigns.
A twitter campaign on today April 28th Europe Time 18:00 And 12:00 PM Washington DC USA Time 17:00 Uk time Key tags #NoTedros4WHO & #WHODG pic.twitter.com/YIXHJjErwB
— Natnael Mekonnen (@NatnaelMekonne7) April 28, 2017

author: Endalkachew Chala


text:
Salt Water Challenge, Skipping Meals and #DignityStrike: Palestinians Show Solidarity With Prisoners’ Hunger Strike · Global Voices
منار يونس

Source: Solidarity with Prisoners campaign page, Facebook.
Every year on April 17, Palestinians, inside Palestine and in the diaspora, commemorate Palestinian Prisoners Day to draw attention to incarcerated Palestinians’ suffering and the abusive practices used against them inside Israeli prisons.
This year, concurrently with the occasion, 1,500 out of 6,500 Palestinian prisoners went on a collective hunger strike, representing different Palestinian factions from Hadarim prison. That number would later rise to 1,580.
Prisoners are demanding an end to solitary confinement, arrest and detention without trial known as administrative arrest, and medical negligence, as well as the improvement of conditions within the prison.
Solidarity with the prisoners amongst Palestinian citizens has been taking various forms. From sit-in tents at centers of cities and villages throughout all Palestinian governorates, to launching campaigns on social media platforms and providing information and reports on prisoners, as well as public and official community marches and events.
#DignityStrike has trended on all social media platforms, alongside invitations and posts calling for solidarity with the prisoners in various ways. One of these is the Salt Water Challenge, which is what the striking prisoners drink to stabilize their health, especially as the food strike progresses. Other ways include sharing support videos and posts and designing sketches and graphs reflecting the strike and its objectives, among others.
In an attempt to simulate the prisoners ‘experience in the strike, a group of young Palestinian activists launched the Solidarity with Prisoners movement in which followers skip one meal or more every day, and then challenge another person to do the same and so on. It was launched on April 27, with a videotaped announcement from Mohammed Alyan, the father of Bahaa Alyan, the 23-year-old Palestinian community organizer, graphic designer, scout leader and political activist who was extrajudicially killed by Israeli police, saying he would go on a hunger strike for one day.
Many Palestinian and Arab figures have also expressed their solidarity with the prisoners, including popular Lebanese singers Omaima al khalil and Ahmed Qa'bour (featured below), Karim Yunis, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in Israeli custody, and Lebanese poet and journalist Zahi Wahbi.
Below are the demands that the striking prisoners want met:
1- End solitary confinement
2- End administrative arrest
3- Improve the livelihood of prisoners by adding:
– A public phone in every prison and stations so that prisoners can communicate with their families.
– At least 18 satellite channels that meet prisoners’ needs.
– Ventilation, cooling and heating systems.
– Kitchens and bakeries to be restored in all prisons and put under the supervision of security prisoners, and prisoners to be allowed to buy groceries.
4- Visiting policy:
– Restoring the two visits allowance. Currently the second visit has been stopped.
– Regular visits every two weeks to be allowed and facilitated by all bodies, especially for Gaza prisoners.
– First and second degree relatives to never be prevented from visiting the prisoner.
– Visit time to be extended from 45 minutes to 90 minuets.
– Allowing prisoners to take photos with their families every three months.
– Providing facilities in front of prisons’ gates for visiting relatives to use and making sure they feel comfortable during the visit time.
– Allowing children and grandchildren under 16 to visit.
– Allowing visitors to bring books, newspapers, clothes, food and personal belongings to prisoners during visits.
5- Medical Policy:
– Ending medical negligence.
– Closure of the Ramle Prison Hospital for failing to provide prisoners with the required treatment.
– Periodic medical examinations for prisoners.
– Quick response to critical cases and timely surgeries performance.
– Allowing specialized doctors from abroad.
– Releasing prisoners with disabilities and chronic diseases.
– Saving prisoners the cost of treatment.
6- Transportation:
– Treating prisoners in a decent humane way during their transportation by buses.
– Returning prisoners back to prisons from clinics and courts and not to keep them at the check points.
– Arranging check points to be more humane and serving meals.
– Responding to the needs and demands of Palestinian female prisoners in private transportation and direct contact with visitors during visiting hours, among others.
7- Education:
– Continuing education at the Open Hebrew University to be allowed.
– Allowing prisoners to sit middle school exams in an official and pre-arranged manner with the government.
This post was edited and updated on May 4, 2017.

author: منار يونس


text:
Russian Psychological Center Insults and Then Outs Gay Man Who Called Its Support Line · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Alexander Bronshtein, director of the “FROG” psychological help center. Photo: Vkontakte
Be careful when calling the hotline at “FROG,” a psychological help center in St. Petersburg; you might need more support after the call than you did before you picked up the phone.
That’s what one young man learned last week, when he called the center’s hotline for counseling. A gay man, he was told by FROG’s phone operator, “This line isn’t for faggots,” and then the operator promptly hung up.
On social media, the caller later tracked down Alexander Bronshtein, FROG’s director, and informed him about his employee’s unprofessional behavior. After hearing the complaint, Bronshtein answered, “You were told that [we] don’t work with faggotry [sic] and then you were wished all the best. What was rude about this?”
At this point, it became clear to the young man that Bronshtein condoned his staff’s mistreatment of gay callers to the FROG counseling hotline. Bronshtein even argued that “faggotry” (pedorastiya) is an acceptable psychological term, explaining in a chat on Vkontakte that “disseminating this phenomenon” is illegal in Russia.
The young man then brought his story to Lena Klimova, a Russian youth LGBT rights activist famous for founding the “Children 404” support group, where young LGBT Russians counsel each other.
In a Facebook post, Klimova pointed out that FROG says in its “statement of trust” that the service is open to everyone. In fact, the center’s website literally states, “If you’re sad, lonely, and in pain, call us! We will help everyone!”
Warning LGBT Russians to avoid FROG’s hotline, Klimova also shared screenshots of the young man’s conversation with Bronshtein, blurring the young man’s name, but leaving Bronshtein’s name visible.
Bronshtein responded by posting an angry diatribe on Vkontakte, where he cited Soviet-era psychological research arguing that homosexuality is a disease that requires treatment. These “findings” were from 1988, when the USSR still criminalized sodomy, throwing men in prison for as many as eight years, if convicted.
Bronshtein also shared a link to the young man’s Vkontakte account, effectively outing him as gay. “We really don’t treat people for faggotry and this caller was informed of that, and wished all the best. Except you [Lena Klimova] erased his information for some reason, and left mine. If you’re taking screenshots, then do a full screenshot. You don’t need to hide your friend’s name,” Bronshtein explained.
This Vkontakte post soon disappeared, but not before users were able to archive it and spread new screenshots.
One Vkontakte user was able to correspond with Bronshtein directly, messaging him to say that perhaps he’s not cut out for counseling, if he uses slurs when speaking to gay men who ask for help. Before disabling his messaging, Bronshtein took this as an opportunity to argue again that homosexuality is a “deviation” that needs to be treated by “behavioral therapists and psychiatrists,” not psychologists, he said, adding questionably that “psychologists only work with the norm.”
On social media, Russians aware of this story have debated whether FROG has the legal right to deny service to gay people. Those who disagree say Bronshtein may have committed a hate crime by revealing the young caller’s identity against his wishes.
The counseling center, at any rate, hasn’t wavered on its refusal to help gays. Hours after Lena Klimova revealed how FROG treated the young gay man who called its hotline, the center’s Vkontakte page uploaded a video (see above) showing Vladimir Putin in 2013 defending Russia’s ban on so-called “gay propaganda,” where the president insisted that the law is meant to protect children from such information, not penalize gay people.

author: Kevin Rothrock


text:
Tanzania’s President Fires 10,000 Civil Servants Over Forged Qualifications · Global Voices
Mwegelo Kapinga

Tanzania's President John Magufuli addressing a crowd during the 2017 May celebrations. Press photo from State House.
On the eve of May Day, a day where the world pauses to honour its workers, the government of Tanzania shamed thousands of civil servants in the country.
On April 28, President John Magufuli ordered the immediate firing of almost 10,000 civil servants after an investigation found that some government workers had been occupying their positions with forged qualifications.
“They are thieves like any other thieves,” Magufuli was quoted as saying. “They could be jailed for seven years as the law says.”
#Today‘s editoon #TheCitizenToday pic.twitter.com/W3Jak3P1sg
— The Citizen Tanzania (@TheCitizenTZ) 1 de mayo de 2017
This purge comes a year after the government found that it was losing billions of shillings annually to tens of thousands of “ghost workers.”
The report, which looked at verifying the authenticity of 450,000 government employees’ qualifications, found that district municipalities led in the number of civil servants with forged certificates at 8,716. They were followed by other government-run institutions like the Sokoine University of Agriculture which had 33 people with fake qualifications and the Tanzania Railway Cooperation with 24.
It didn't take long for the internet to share its two shillings on the news.
Some people expressed some sympathy for the sacked civil servants, asking God to give those with fake certificates strength.
Nyie ineni tu hayo majina yanayopita huko Whatsapp but hii ishu inaumiza sana kimaisha na kisaikolojia#Mungu awatie nguvu wenye#VyetiFeki
— Dr MASABURI-Njaa Boy (@emgeni) 29 de abril de 2017
Just take note of the names circulating on WhatsApp but something like this is heart-breaking and can affect someone psychologically. May God give strength to those with fake certificates.
Others were cracking jokes about the whole thing.
Kuanzia Jumanne ijayo, ukiona mtumishi wa umma haendi kazini, anacheza cheza na watoto hapo nyumbani, usiulize maswali mengi!???#VyetiFeki
— Charles Mtekateka (@mtekatekajr) April 29, 2017
Starting next Tuesday, if you see a public official not going to work, playing with the kids at home, don't ask too many questions!
Generally, the news received a lot of “poa sana” (very cool) “safi sana” (very nice) as people are pleased that some action is being taken over the issue. Even former President Benjamin Mkapa came out publicly supporting Magufuli's move, saying the decision was “overdue.”
Of course, there were people who took the matter less lightly.
Hery Ayubu went on Twitter arguing for an independent commission to adjudicate the matter.
Kuwepo na Tume Huru itakayopokea malalamiko ya wafanyakazi #vyetifeki . Serikali can not judge its own case. @MariaSTsehai @humanrightstz
— Heri Ayubu (@hyphym) May 1, 2017
There should be an independent commission that will listen to the complaints of workers with fake certificates. The government cannot judge its own case.
Meanwhile, one opposition party, Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT), tweeted that although they supported the government's drive against fake certificates in the civil service, they questioned whether the exercise went far enough.
Jambo la Pili lisilokuwa sawa, madai ya Waziri @AngellahKairuki kuwa mchakato wa uhakiki wa vyeti haujawagusa wanasiasa na wateule wa Rais
— Taifa Kwanza ✋ (@ACTwazalendo) April 30, 2017
The second issue that's not right are the statements by Minister Angellah Kairuki that the process of verifying certificates does not implicate politicians and government appointees.
The party went on to suggest that the decision amounted to the government protecting some of its appointees.
Kutowagusa viongozi wa kisiasa katika zoezi la uhakiki wa vyeti ni ushahi wazi jinsi serikali inavyohaha kuwalinda baadhi ya wateule wa Rais pic.twitter.com/JBEnVyDJin
— Taifa Kwanza ✋ (@ACTwazalendo) April 30, 2017
Not implicating political figures in the verification exercise is evidence of how the government is struggling to shield some of the president's appointees.
Felix Milinga agreed with the report that districts municipalities were the worst offenders, arguing that nepotism defines the way folks get civil service jobs.
@millardayo Huko Halmashauri ndio haswa kunaongoza vyeti feki maana wanapeana sana kazi kindugu & kujuana kuliko kuangalia taaluma ya mhusika #VyetiFeki
— Felix Milinga (@FMilinga) May 1, 2017
At the district level is where they lead in fake certificates as they love to give jobs to their family members and those they know instead of looking at the expertise of candidates involved
Perhaps the most popular comment on the matter came from prominent law professor Issa Shivji who inquired about what action the government is taking against those with legitimate certificates but fake education.
KtkKijiweni: Wenye vyetifeki wamefukuzwa/shtakiwa. Wenye vyeti halali lakini elimufeki, je?Mfumo unaotoa elimu chini ya viwango utashtakiwa?
— Issa Shivji (@IssaShivji) April 30, 2017
From the street corner: Those with fake certificates have been fired/charged. How about those with valid certificates but a fake education? Will the education system that provides low quality also be charged?
Dr Hellen Kijo-Bisimba, the executive director of the Legal and Human Rights Centre, suggested that in the future the government should ensure that folks with fake certificates don’t get hired at all.
“The war on fake certificates should be forward looking. A system should be put in place to ensure no one would be employed if they use forged certificates,” Kijo-Bisimba told The Citizen, a local English daily.
Internationally, some people praised Magufuli's action and compared the problem of fake certificates to other countries. Some commenters posting on BBC Africa's Facebook page applauded the Tanzanian president's move. “The president has done a very recommendable job,” Chimwemwe Tembo, whose profile says they are from Malawi, wrote:
Its indeed bad development. I head that even some degrees are fake. The president has done a very recommendable job. Let those who fought for papers secure jobs. In Malawi if that happens, then its on rare cases but many of us, we use genuine papers
Gezahegn Arebo, from Ethiopia, was also effusive in their praise:
Well done, Mr. President! This is mostly an African problem,but the leaders arent willing to solve it; they are fake themselves!
The quantity of alleged forged certificates and reaction from the public deem this a prevalent issue in Tanzania. It seems as though faulty education and recruitment systems combined with overlooked nepotism have kept this issue in the closet for many years.

author: Mwegelo Kapinga


text:
‘We Are Not Slaves, We Want Our Rights’: Lebanon’s Migrant Domestic Workers March on Labour Day · Global Voices
Hassan Chamoun

Workers Day March in Beirut. April 30, 2017. Photo taken by Ezgi Durmaz. Source: Facebook.
For the eighth year in a row, migrant domestic workers (MDWs) from many nations marched to demand their labor rights in Beirut, Lebanon on Sunday April 30, 2017.
The march commemorated May Day or Labour Day, which fell on Monday, but as Sunday is the only day off for most migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, April 30 was the only option.
Migrant domestic workers in the country are often mistreated. One worker from Madagascar, Julia, who was at the march, explained:
We face a lot of problems. We don't have adequate rooms. We don't have holidays. We face violence, abuse. We are here for that and everything.
The march was organized by The Alliance of Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon, which “aims to empower women who are MDWs in Lebanon in the quest for labor rights, and fight against discrimination.”
Several Lebanese groups also helped organize the march. They include: The Anti-Racism Movement, the Migrant Community Center, the International Domestic Workers Federation, the Lebanese Center for Human Rights, AMEL Association International, ALEF – Act for Human Rights, KAFA (enough) Violence & Exploitation, Sawt al Niswa, the Intersectional Feminist Club of the Lebanese American University, the Secular Club at the American University of Beirut, the Socialist Forum (political organization), DAMMEH Feminist Cooperative and Insan Association.
Global Voices contributor Hassan Chamoun was at the march. Participants walked and shouted slogans such as: “We are also humans” and “down with the Kafala system”, referring to the country's sponsorship system governing migrant domestic work. They also chanted: “All we are saying is, give us our rights”, a riff on John Lennon's song “Give Peace a Chance”.
Another chant was “Ratify, implement convention 189!” referring to the convention written by the International Labor Organization. If implemented in Lebanon, this would mean that the government is legally bound to abide by labour laws and migrant domestic workers believe that this would at least alleviate the terrible working conditions in the country.
Throughout the march, several migrant domestic workers watched from balconies, unable to join the march themselves. Some were waving at the protesters while others just looked on.
Two photos taken by Pat Sy showing the contrast between reactions from migrant domestic workers. Source: Facebook.
Speaking to Global Voices, many migrant domestic workers expressed their desire for Lebanon to recognize their rights.
Miriam, a worker from the Philippines, said:
Every year we ask about this so it's time to abolish [the kafala system].”
This refers to the notorious sponsorship system, or “Kafala” in Arabic, which governs migrant domestic work in Lebanon. The Kafala system essentially binds a migrant domestic worker's legal status to his or her employee.
As the advocacy organization Migrant-Rights.org explains, the set-up makes these workers vulnerable to abuse:
Kafala is a system of control. In the migration context, it is a way for governments to delegate oversight and responsibility for migrants to private citizens or companies. The system gives sponsors a set of legal abilities to control workers: without the employer’s permission, workers cannot change jobs, quit jobs, or leave the country. If a worker leaves a job without permission, the employer has the power to cancel his or her residence visa, automatically turning the worker into an illegal resident in the country. Workers whose employers cancel their residency visas often have to leave the country through deportation proceedings, and many have to spend time behind bars.
The march was also a celebration of the culture and heritage of MDWs in Lebanon. Flags of Ethiopia could be seen flown alongside flags representing the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Nepal and others. Workers Day March in Beirut. April 30, 2017. Photo taken by Pat Sy. Source: Facebook.
Abdallah, a worker from Sudan, also declared “it is time to change the Kafala system”. A worker from the Ivory Coast said “we are maltreated here and we want a better life.” Another worker, from Sri Lanka, said that “we are not slaves, we want our rights”. And finally a worker from Bangladesh said, “We need freedom in Lebanon” while holding a sign on which was written: “Kafala System = 2017 Slavery”.
As their arrived at their final meeting point, Beirut's Raouche neighborhood, protesters held three minutes of silence for those who lost their lives in Lebanon. It is estimated that migrant domestic workers in Lebanon take their own lives at least once a month due to the brutal working conditions.
In fact, one could see a sign which read “stop labeling every murder as a suicide”, referring to the widespread belief that often those who are described as having killed themselves were in fact murdered by their employers.
Promotional campaign for the march. Source: Facebook.
Protesters also remembered those who were recently deported, most notably prominent unionists Sujana Rana and Roja “Rosie” Maya Limbu, both from Nepal, in December of 2016.
As was reported on Global Voices at the time, Lebanese officials refused to provide formal grounds for their arrest and deportation, leading many human rights groups and labour unions to suspect that it was their work in the high-profile role in the Domestic Workers’ Union, which Rana helped found, which got them deported.
Protester at the march waving the Sri Lankan flag. Taken by Pat Sy. Source: Facebook.
The protesters then read a speech in Arabic, English and French, and made nine demands to the Lebanese government. They are:
1. Abolish the sponsorship system (Kafala) and replace it with a just immigration and residency system that guarantees human rights, fair and ethical recruitment, labor mobility, and the possibility of MDWs to live outside the employer’s house and change employers.
2. Ratify and implement the ILO Domestic Workers Convention of 2011 (C189).
3. Expand the Lebanese labor law to cover all categories of laborers including domestic workers.
4. Reform the standard unified contract to guarantee basic rights including the rights to get the Lebanese minimum wage, terminate the employment contract, have a maximum hours of work and be paid for overtime, the rights to privacy and decent working and living conditions, the right to have a weekly day off outside the house and unaccompanied by employers, and the right to have proper health insurance.
5. Hold abusive employers accountable and establish an inspection mechanism coupled with accessible and affordable complaint mechanisms, fair and speedy trials and legal redress.
6. Hold to account and close down all abusive and unethical recruitment agencies and establish a black-list system for these.
7. Guarantee the right of domestic workers to organize and unionize.
8. Investigate properly the deaths of MDWs, and in case of unnatural deaths, bring to justice those who caused these deaths.
9. Stop state violence against MDWs including detaining MDWs who leave their employers’ houses, exercising violence in detention centers and police stations, and depriving MDWs’ children of legal residency.
Hassan Chamoun works with the Anti-Racism Movement and Joey Ayoub was a volunteer with the Migrant Community Center between 2013 and 2014.

author: Hassan Chamoun


text:
Where Are All the Ordinary People in China’s Hit Anti-Corruption Show ‘In the Name of the People’? · Global Voices
Jack Hu

Screenshot from “In the Name of the People”
Popular political drama “In the Name of the People”, dubbed China’s “House of Cards”, has hit 8 percent TV audience share, the highest in the mainland in a decade, and its 55 episodes have received a staggering overall 22 billion views online since its first episode was aired on 28 March 2017.
The series has broken China’s decade-long ban on anti-corruption-themed dramas being aired in prime time and is the first television drama to paint a deputy of a national leader as a villain.
What seems to have hooked viewers is the show's portrayal of the internal power plays among senior Communist Party officials and their secretive lifestyles. A State Council civil servant stuffs his apartment with walls of banknotes. A provincial police chief tries to kill his political rival by manipulating a hit-and-run. The son of a deputy state-level leader makes a fortune with the support of old subordinates of his father. A judge is caught in bed with a blonde prostitute. And a provincial security chief is secretly married to his young mistress but he and his original wife still pretend to be a couple.
These storylines are reminiscent of real-life corruption cases in China. In particular, the series’ portrayal of political factions inside the Chinese Communist Party, such as the “secretary gang” and the “political legal gang”, echo real ones that were led by former President Hu Jintao’s assistant Ling Jihua and former security tsar Zhou Yongkang.
Many cultural critics have attempted to explain the popularity of the show. In a seminar, Chinese writer Mei Guoyun presented a drawing that kicked off the discussion.
Image from Mei Guoyun's blog post.
The drawing shows the characters for “people” or renmin (人民) trapped in the character for “mouth” (口). Mei posted the following question in the seminar:
张口闭口都是“人民”，到底谁可以“以人民的名义”？
The word “people” is always mentioned by [corrupt and anti-corruption officials]. Who can actually act “in the name of people”?
Wang Meiyun, a researcher at Fudan University, offered her view in the seminar and noted that “people” are actually missing in the series:
自从2004年反腐剧退出黄金档开始，各个电视台的黄金档几乎是清宫剧独占鳌头。作家及导演们表达的对现实的批判和对官场的讽刺，都只能浓缩在历史剧的叙事中，隐晦而模糊，普通老百姓无法直截了当地领会剧本对于当下现状的影射，不免有隔靴搔痒之嫌。而《人民的名义》适时地出现，几乎是给了对现状或失望或愤怒的受众一个发泄的渠道，人民对于反腐题材的期待显得如此迫不及待，而这一主题也恰恰符合了本届政府的导向，所以《人民的名义》及时地推出，必然成为人人称赞的好剧。电视剧主题的契合性已经掩盖掉本剧在情结上拖沓，台词上幼稚的毛病。
本剧有一个明显的特点是，《人民的名义》里，并没有太多的人民。剧本里出现的都是官场和商界的精英，无论正面人物还是负面人物，都没有真正意义上的普通老百姓。[…]人民的缺席与无力感，是不是也是周梅森在文本当中别有用心的一种讽刺呢？
Since 2004, anti-corruption dramas have disappeared from prime time TV, which was then occupied by Qing dynasty dramas; writers and directors could only express their views on reality through historical narratives. The messages are usually hidden and blurred and it is very difficult for ordinary people to see the hidden allegories. “In the Name of the People” has become a channel for people to release their disappointment and anger towards reality. They are so eager to watch anti-corruption dramas. At the same time, the theme is in alignment with the [current] government's political focus, so it was destined to be popular. Though the show's script is too simple, its theme has covered up its flaws.
One obvious element of the series is that we don't see many ordinary people in it. All characters, negative or positive, are elites in the government or in the business sector while ordinary people are missing. […] Is the absence of people a hidden irony in the script?
Outside China, drama critics have further dug into the characters of the corrupt and anti-corruption officials depicted in the series. In an anonymous commentary published by Letscorp, a blog that bridges contents between mainland and overseas Chinese regions:
剧中的几个出身朴素的反派：赵德汉、祁同伟、高小琴，都是一些无权无势又追求升官、发财，想要“胜天半子”逆流而上的人。平心而论，他们的动机，恰好是大多数人民群众自己的动机。而反贪的动机，从实际层面讲是要避免“亡党亡国”，从理论高度说是要“从人民中来，到人民中去”，这些都离人民自己的想法相去甚远。党国亡了，受害最大的会是反腐者所处的特权阶层，而不是人民自己。
腐败者来自于人民，而反腐者凌驾于人民。这就是《人民的名义》的现实之处，也是现实的荒诞之处。
The villains in the drama, Zhao Dehan, Qi Tongwei, and Gao Xiaoqin, all of them were originally the powerless and fought their way to become the rich and powerful. Their motive of taking control of their own fates are shared by ordinary people. On the other hand, the motive of anti-graft characters is to prevent the party and the country's downfall under the theory that it's “from the people, to the people”. Such a motivation is far from people's experience. Only the elite class would suffer from the end of the party regime, not the people.
The corrupt officials are coming from the people, while anti-graft characters are above the people. This is a reality that is captured by “In the Name of the People” and this makes the drama a satire.
The children of government and party officials have an easier time getting a good education, finding good jobs and getting promoted in China, while young people from humble families have to struggle to gain a foothold in large cities with expensive homes. Some viewers have been frustrated to see that in show, those challenging these inequities of privilege are depicted as the corrupt.
Below are some critical comments circulated on Chinese social media platforms:
一个农村出来的寒门学子，被一群官二代红二代联合绞杀了。
A graduate from a rural, humble family [one of the corrupt officials in the show] was killed by second generations of government officials and revolution leaders [anti-graft leaders].
人民的名义该改名叫封建的世袭了，农民的孩子多是贪官坏蛋，官员的孩子多是好官好人
“In the Name of the People” should have been called “Feudal Hereditary System”, as the drama suggests peasants’ children are likely to be corrupt officials and villains while officials’ children are mostly upright officials and good people.
很多网友从人物关系指出《人民的名义》电视剧的硬伤，官员之间都是亲属血缘关系，简直就是世袭罔替的活教材。这就是九品中正制啊！还有从剧名到电视剧的主题思想，排斥群众，都是青天大老爷为民作主，而不是人民群众自己当家做主！
Many netizens point out a significant fault of the series is that all officials have family or personal relationships, which is almost a textbook example of a hereditary system. Despite the title, the drama excludes the public and has high-ranking officials make decisions for the people, instead of it being up to the people themselves!

author: Jack Hu


text:
Don’t Be Alarmed: This ‘Red Button’ Is Meant to Help Russians · Global Voices
Charlotte Bull

“Red Button.” Screenshot from app's official website.
A new mobile app for protesters in Russia called “Red Button” went live for the first time in late April. The app became available just in time for anti-Putin demonstrations on April 29, organized by the “Open Russia” movement, whose sister organizations in Britain were recently outlawed by the Russian Justice Ministry.
By connecting detainees with friends, family, and human rights organizations more quickly than ever, Red Button hopes to provide protesters with greater protection from illegal arrests and penalties.
Created by developer Alexander Litreev, the software allows users to report the time and place of their arrest, and it then automatically identifies the police station where that person is formally booked. Users can pre-select friends and family, who are instantly notified of the incident and the location of the police station, and the app also reports the arrest to human rights organizations, such as app partner OVD Info, which can provide individuals with legal assistance.
On Twitter, Red Button also broadcasts the locations of mass arrests during major demonstrations, allowing other protesters to avoid potential “hotspots.”
Россия, Санкт-Петербург, Кронверкский проспект — массовые задержания. pic.twitter.com/UlAMbifBhf
— Красная Кнопка (@redbtninfo) April 29, 2017
Russia, St. Petersburg, Kronversky prospekt — mass detentions.
In a blog post on Telegram, Litreev said he wants Red Button to become an “all-Russian system for monitoring illegal arrests” and a service to make sure protesters are not “left one-on-one with the arbitrariness and lawlessness of law enforcement agencies.”
As political protests seem to be returning to public life in Russia, the app’s timing is excellent, and it acquired more than 4,000 users on iOS and Android in just the first few days after it launched.
During anti-Putin protests on April 29, Red Button announced the first arrests at a demonstration in Kemerovo, where at least 13 people were detained. The rallies were not as large or widespread as a nationwide protest campaign organized by Alexei Navalny in March, but the day’s rallies did prove to be a good staging grounds for Red Button.
According to the website Meduza, several protests across the country were peaceful and without incident, for example in Novosibirsk and Ufa, but police in St. Petersburg detained upwards of 50 people.
On April 29, Red Button also had a chance to test out its security measures, and Litreev reported that the app’s algorithm rejected more than 270 false alarms.
Litreev says a better refined version of the app is coming, ahead of mass rallies in June planned by Alexei Navalny, who hopes to repeat his success from March with nationwide demonstrations on Russia Day.
This Wednesday, May 3, a Russian appellate court rejected Navalny’s challenge to a felony conviction in an embezzlement case, effectively barring him from running for elected office. Navalny says he is pressing on with his presidential campaign, however, arguing that federal laws prohibiting his candidacy are unconstitutional.
It’s a good bet that he’ll plan more mass demonstrations after June, and time will tell just how many of his supporters will need to push the red button.

author: Charlotte Bull