My UK/US publisher, Verso, has published an extract of my book, The Palestine Laboratory, on how Israel uses social media to maximise war as spectacle. Here’s an extract: The November 2012 Israeli bombardment of Gaza, called Operation Pillar of Defense, was a seven-day war that killed 174 Palestinians and 6 Israelis and injured thousands more.…
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Silicon Valley and US intelligence doing more than heavy petting
Following the recent revelations about global surveillance and Prism by leaker Edward Snowden, the mainstream media is finally seriously investigating the intimate and unhealthy links between tech firms and the US government. This New York Times story… reveals some of those connections and why none of us should trust the privacy pledges given by Facebook, Google…
ABC Radio’s The World Today on Edward Snowden and Prism
I was interviewed today for ABC Radio’s The World Today program: ELEANOR HALL: In the Federal Parliament today, The Greens will attempt to get an explanation from the Government about Australia’s involvement in the US PRISM surveillance system. America’s National Security Agency confirmed last week that it is running a clandestine internet surveillance program which…
My 2012 PEN Free Voices lecture on free speech and why it matters
The following is published today as the lead piece by ABC’s The Drum: The two-hour drive from Islamabad to Peshawar is along a surprisingly smooth road. Mud-brick homes sit amongst lush, green fields. Police checkpoints are set up routinely to stop unwanted visitors. I am asked why I want to see the troubled Pakistani town…
Syria may be convulsing but foreign intervention must be avoided
The situation in Syria continues to descend into a civil war-like situation, according to people on the ground. This interesting report, by BBC journalist Paul Wood, offers a disturbing insight into the Assad regime’s desperation and confusion since the beginning of the revolution: Qutaiba, a 22-year-old engineering student, had never been arrested before Syrian security…
When the state wants to read my tweets if I slam official view
Of course, such plans are framed as a simple desire to be able to respond to questions or problems. And that may be sometimes true. But we should always be skeptical of major bodies looking to expand an ability to spy on average citizens: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) has invited companies…
Anyone can make a revolution (or can they?)
The upcoming Festival of Dangerous Ideas is taking place at the Sydney Opera House in October. Feel threatened. I’m involved in the following event on 2 October at 6pm: In Egypt and Tunisia we have seen ordinary people come together to claim democracy and human rights in the face of oppressive regimes, with Twitter and…
Arab revolutions ain’t all about Wikileaks or censorship but damn fine bravery
Despite what Wikileaks may claim – the release of US embassy cables undeniably revealed the depravity of the relationship between Washington and various dictators but they hardly sparked the Arab Spring – social media played a part in the uprisings and subsequent changes. As I argue in the recently released and updated edition of my…
Lesson from London riots; don’t trust governments to react rationally online
Evidence for the prosecution: Analysis of more than 2.5m Twitter messages relating to the riots in England has cast doubt on the rationale behind government proposals to ban people from social networks or shut down their websites in times of civil unrest. A preliminary study of a database of riot-related tweets, compiled by the Guardian,…