Dreampepper - #iranelection
Other places I live: flickr :::::: facebook :::::: twitter :::::: jesus monkey pants in space :::::: sinister bedfellows: an anthology November 2009
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Tue, Jun. 16th, 2009 12:05 pm
#iranelection

I tie our hair together in looping knots, gold twined with red and purple, my hair wrapped in his like set gemstones. We match our garnet earrings, I think, we match and are beautiful, here in this place, this tent of our tangled hair, in this moment where we've erased the entire world but ourselves.

I think of the violence in Iran, the students shot for protesting, the plain clothes agitators hired by the police state to enact violence in the name of the wronged, and I am especially glad for this small green hill, our hair braided together, our eyes shining together like light. Such perspective is deeply important to me. There are no fires here, no government shootings, no rigged elections for despots. We are not threatened here in Canada, the country we've made of a million languages, stronger together, we are safe here, and no matter how complex or stressful our lives might be, we will not die from politics. We are not persecuted and can help those that are.

How to fight from afar: seemingly levelheaded advice on aiding the protests online #iranelection via Eliza
#iranelection cyberwar guide for beginners

The purpose of this guide is to help you participate constructively in the Iranian election protests through twitter.

1. Do NOT publicise proxy IP’s over twitter, and especially not using the #iranelection hashtag. Security forces are monitoring this hashtag, and the moment they identify a proxy IP they will block it in Iran. If you are creating new proxies for the Iranian bloggers, DM them to @stopAhmadi or @iran09 and they will distributed them discretely to bloggers in Iran.

2. Hashtags, the only two legitimate hashtags being used by bloggers in Iran are #iranelection and #gr88, other hashtag ideas run the risk of diluting the conversation.

3. Keep you bull$hit filter up! Security forces are now setting up twitter accounts to spread disinformation by posing as Iranian protesters. Please don’t retweet impetuosly, try to confirm information with reliable sources before retweeting. The legitimate sources are not hard to find and follow.

4. Help cover the bloggers: change your twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN and your time zone is GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location and timezone searches. If we all become ‘Iranians’ it becomes much harder to find them.

5. Don’t blow their cover! If you discover a genuine source, please don’t publicise their name or location on a website. These bloggers are in REAL danger. Spread the word discretely through your own networks but don’t signpost them to the security forces. People are dying there, for real, please keep that in mind.

6. Denial of Service attacks. If you don’t know what you are doing, stay out of this game. Only target those sites the legitimate Iranian bloggers are designating. Be aware that these attacks can have detrimental effects to the network the protesters are relying on. Keep monitoring their traffic to note when you should turn the taps on or off.

7. Do spread the (legitimate) word, it works! When the bloggers asked for twitter maintenance to be postponed using the #nomaintenance tag, it had the desired effect. As long as we spread good information, provide moral support to the protesters, and take our lead from the legitimate bloggers, we can make a constructive contribution.

Please remember that this is about the future of the Iranian people, while it might be exciting to get caught up in the flow of participating in a new meme, do not lose sight of what this is really about.


  • Images from Iran, unfiltered, unedited - this is reality.
  • The BBC has turned green in support of the Tehran protesters.
  • Sullivan running "a constantly updated feed of the best tweets [from] the resistance, real time."
  • Reuters: The US State Dept is asking Twitter to delay their maintenance plans.

  • Tags: , , ,

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    andrian6
    andrian6
    Andrian
    Tue, Jun. 16th, 2009 08:04 pm (UTC)

    #iranelection cyberwar guide for beginners

    I can see Bruce Sterling lifting his eyebrows right now. Hopefully he'll be reposting this soon.

    Right now, non conventional media are the only ways information on the status of the protesters seems to be getting out of Iran. Even larger scale media are relying on dispatches. Here's hoping the signal isn't closed out.


    ReplyThread
    porphyre
    porphyre
    Bloody Foxtongue
    Tue, Jun. 16th, 2009 08:53 pm (UTC)

    David and I are really quite concerned for a friend of ours who contacted him today. Politicaly active blogger. High military family connections. He lives here, but his vague message was very much an 'if you don't hear from me again...' Something is about to happen. I've been following the live tweets closely since this began. As David said, "I have a feeling I know why his family is meeting."


    ReplyThread Parent
    andrian6
    andrian6
    Andrian
    Tue, Jun. 16th, 2009 09:08 pm (UTC)

    Gods. I hope for the best, then, and for the safety of all concerned. If the word keep circulating, the lines will stay clear...


    ReplyThread Parent
    a_dream_tiger
    a_dream_tiger
    a_dream_tiger
    Tue, Jun. 16th, 2009 08:29 pm (UTC)
    Also thankful for his safety and freedom, even a hundred miles south of Canada... and love

    I am educating myself now using some of these links to start from.


    ReplyThread
    porphyre
    porphyre
    Bloody Foxtongue
    Tue, Jun. 16th, 2009 08:55 pm (UTC)

    Remember, too, to pass it on. You might be able to help directly, but you might know someone who knows someone.


    ReplyThread Parent

    (Anonymous)
    Tue, Jun. 16th, 2009 09:08 pm (UTC)

    Was already DOS on 4 sites I tracked last night. Anyone getting involved in that *definitely needs to double check their sources*. This cannot be emphasized enough.

    ~Christopher.


    ReplyThread Parent
    kencf0618
    kencf0618
    kencf0618
    Tue, Jun. 16th, 2009 09:20 pm (UTC)

    Good citations for Wikipedia's Hacktivism article. Thanks!


    ReplyThread
    fluffymcdeath
    fluffymcdeath
    fluffymcdeath
    Wed, Jun. 17th, 2009 05:13 pm (UTC)

    Also, lets not forget, that US and British intelligence are all over this too. They engineered the coup against Mossadeq in 1953 and were pretty choked when the Mullahs kicked out the puppet Shah.

    While the neo-con/Likud wet dream of direct bombing seems to be off the table for now remember that the US has been at war with Iran for several years already funding terrorist cells and political opponents.

    If the US can split the Mullahs and increase the power of the Revolutionary Guard by creating unrest (not that the Revolutionary Guard isn't capable of this itself) then the US gets a better "negotiating partner" as far as the oil is concerned. Washington and London have always prefered military ruler to theocratic rule because the military are so much more pragmatic (read "corruptible").

    On the other hand, it may be a prelude to something more along the lines of Kosovo where civil unrest was merely a prelude to NATO bombing to "help" the people.

    In all likelihood Ahmedinejhad really did win. That was the expectation anyway (up until the western press arrived and Mousavi apparently surged). Don't be so gullible as to trust your TV or the loudest voices. This situation is probably the result of foriegn interference and can quite easily get out of hand (as intended), thus undoing a lot of hard and serious work done by moderates to open up Iranian society.


    ReplyThread
    amberspiderlily
    amberspiderlily
    amberspiderlily
    Wed, Jun. 17th, 2009 11:55 pm (UTC)

    Thanks.


    ReplyThread