Battle for a Free Cyber Pakistan
27th June 2008
Blogspot BanYoutube FiascoMartial Law
One specific website
DrawMuhammadWeek.blogspot.com DrawMuhammadWeek.blogspot.com
PKBlogs.com
• Mostly used by – China– Iran– India– Pakistan
• Problems of affecting Search Engine ranking
Bloggers.pk
Aggregator grew from a need
Credit – Yasir and Naveed Memon
Youtube Blocked
“for containing blasphemous web content/movies”
Election Rigging Video
• Reason to suspect that it might have been due to rigging videos in the elections – which were hosted on youtube
Youtube Fiasco
Vid.pk
Local Youtube alternative
November 3rd 2007
When Musharraf Attacked
• Judicial System – overthrowing 60 judges
• Blocked all TV channels• Pressured and arrested Print
Journalists• Online arena untouched ?
What was the problem
• Electronic Media Censored• Online Media unharmed• No credible Judiciary to appeal to• Constitution extensively amended• Cyber Crime Ordinance
promulgated
Online Activism against Martial Law
Blogs • emergencyinpakistan.blogspot.com• teeth.com.pk/blog• pkpolitics.com
Electronic Media Mobilization (local & International)
Grass root ‘People Mobilization’• Word of mouth• Overcoming the Digital Divide
SMS Activism
• Initially personal SMS networks• SMS Blog via FrontLine SMS
– Unable to kick off SMS SMS – Needs regular upkeep
• Absence !!!!!– 27th Dec Post Benazir Bhutto
Assassination riots– 18th Feb elections– 9th April court burnings
pkLongMarch.blogspot.com
Event based live SMS / Email bogging site
SMS Activism
• BLAAGGING Effect• 76.6 millions mobile users• Live Reporting from the ground• 160 characters ease of concept
Twitter Defect
• Pakistan mobile users NOT getting twitter updates
• Twitter Numbers known• Twitter downtime !!!• Need for an country specific
independent network for– SMS Web/Blog– Web/Blog SMS– SMS SMS
• Requires the setup of Hubs• Complex & Elaborate Setup• Local and International numbers• Reduce cost of SMS• Need for Redundancy• Risks
– Potential to being blocked by govt– Monitoring
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