Control, Halt, Delete: Gulf States -Crack Down on Online Critics-PRISM surveillance program

Control, Halt, Delete: Gulf States Crack Down on Online Critics The Facebook logo is seen in front of an escalator at the venue of a news conference announcing the opening of Facebook offices in Dubai, May 30, 2012. (photo by REUTERS/Jumana El Heloueh) By: Nicholas McGeehan for Al-Monitor Posted on August 8. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus warned of the dangers of casually bad-mouthing the ruler in ancient Rome: “A soldier, dressed like a civilian, sits down by your side, and begins to speak ill of Caesar, and then you too, just as though you had received from him some guarantee of good faith in the fact he began the abuse, tell likewise everything you think, and the next thing is you are led off to prison in chains.” About This Article Summary : The Gulf states’ heavy-handed response to online criticism was entirely predictable and shows no signs of abating. Author: Nicholas McGeehan Posted on: August 8 2013 Categories : Originals Security History has a knack of repeating itself. The Internet and the social media it spawned initially offered safe spaces for citizens in closed societies to express their views. Yet authoritarian rulers unaccustomed to criticism were quick to monitor and infiltrate those virtual spaces and whisk critics and malcontents off to the physical confines of a jail cell. Nowhere is this more evident than in the hereditary monarchies of the six Gulf states, where rulers are struggling to come to terms with the concurrent rise of social media and increasing desire of emboldened citizens to speak their minds. A recent spate of convictions for bloggers, tweeters and Facebook users across the region is part of an emerging trend that reflects the Gulf rulers’ fear of free speech and open debate. On July 24, the government-linked Emirati television channel 24.ae aired a piece analyzing in detail the Twitter account of Khalifa Rabia, whom authorities had arrested the day before. The segment accused Rabia of “affiliation with secret cells” — a reference to his support for members of a peaceful Islamist group convicted on July 2 of plotting to overthrow the government after a manifestly unfair trial. The segment repeatedly referred to Rabia’s use of hashtags, such as #UAE_freemen, as evidence of his sedition. Authorities have yet to charge Rabia, and his whereabouts in detention, unlike the contents of his Twitter feed, are unknown. On July 17, the Kuwaiti court of appeals confirmed a 20-month sentence for a teacher, Sara al-Drees, on charges of offending Kuwait’s emir via tweets sent from her mobile phone. In one of her tweets, al-Drees called the emir “a great placid actor before the cameras, and tyrant behind the scenes.” On June 24, Saudi Arabia sentenced seven government critics to prison, convicting them of joining Facebook pages to “incite protests, illegal gathering, and breaking allegiance with the King.” In April, Bahrain amended its penal code to provide for harsher sentences for insulting the king, and officials have taken steps to unmask anonymous [Internet] users. On Jan. 25, Lt. Faisal Al Sumaim of the Interior Ministry’s Cyber Crime Unit said on state television, "People think that they are unreachable using anonymous accounts, ... but it has never been easier finding them." An investigation by the rights group Bahrainwatch concluded that the Bahraini government had been targeting anonymous social media accounts using IP spy links, a technique that Bahrainwatch analysts describe as “unreliable.” On Feb. 9, nine Omani activists began a hunger strike to protest sentences handed down in 2012 on charges including “defaming the sultan” and violating Oman’s cybercrimes law through their Facebook posts and Twitter accounts. Qatar, unlike the other Gulf states, has not had domestic unrest, but it has taken pre-emptive measures to dissuade its citizens from following the example of their neighbors. On May 30, the Committee to Protect Journalists wrote to the emir to express concerns over a new cybercrime bill that “would restrict online expression on news websites and social media.” The Qatari authorities have not released the content of the draft law, but a glance at the restrictive way Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have interpreted “cybercrime” causes concern. Human Rights Watch described the UAE’s cybercrime decree as the act of a government that was “out of step and out of touch” with international norms on free speech. Since international law unequivocally requires political figures to tolerate a greater degree of criticism than ordinary citizens, this assessment can be applied to all six of the Gulf monarchies, each of which criminalizes criticism of its respective rulers. The political scientist Marc Lynch has described the heavy-handed response of the Gulf states to this marked increase in online criticism as “a desperate rearguard action with zero chance of actually purging the new public sphere of dissent.” The Gulf rulers will continue to dig in their heels and aggressively declare that they are acting in defense of national security or religious propriety. Their allies in London, Washington, and Brussels will continue to bite their tongues in public and restrict human rights issues to private diplomacy. Yet the greatest threat to the monarchs of the Gulf is their own failure to adapt to evolving technology and changing demographics in a digitized, globalized age. Nicholas McGeehan is a Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch. On Twitter: @Ncgeehan Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/08/gulf-states-online-critics-crackdown-cybercrime-social-media.html#ixzz2bX7B3fix ================ Will it work? German email companies adopt new encryption to foil NSA Published time: August 09, 2013 22:21 Get short URL A general view of the large former monitoring base of the U.S. intelligence organization National Security Agency (NSA) during break of dawn in Bad Aibling south of Munich (Reuters / Michael Dalder) Germany, Intelligence, Internet, Security, USA Communications sent between Germany’s two leading email providers will now be encrypted to provide better security against potential NSA surveillance. Experts say the move will do little to thwart well-equipped snoopers. The "E-mail made in Germany" project has been set up in the wake of US surveillance revelations made by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. National Security Agency documents show that the agency intercepts 500 million phone calls, texts, and emails in Germany each month. "Germans are deeply unsettled by the latest reports on the potential interception of communication data," said Rene Obermann, head of Deutsche Telekom, the country’s largest email provider. “Now, they can bank on the fact that their personal data online is as secure as it possibly can be.” Deutsche Telekom and United Internet, which operate about two-thirds of Germany’s primary email accounts, said that from now on they will use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) – a modern, industry-standard form of encryption that scrambles signals as they are sent through cables, which is the point at which the NSA often intercepts communication. The companies will also employ exclusively German servers and internal cables when sending messages between each other. AFP Photo / John Macdougall Obermann told the media that no access to users’ email will now be possible without a warrant. However, experts claim the impact of the measure is likely to be mostly psychological and symbolic. "This initiative helps to tackle the-day-to-day sniffing around on the communication lines but it still doesn't prevent governments from getting information," Stefan Frei, a research director at information security company NSS Labs, told Reuters. As Snowden’s files revealed, the NSA specifically focuses on foreign servers - often with backing from the country that hosts them - when intercepting communication. The agency is also able to crack the SSL code, with and without help from the email operator. However, it is much harder to do so without an operator-issued “key." It is notable that Google and other leading companies implicated as willing participants in the PRISM surveillance program also offer SSL encoding with their email service. "Of course the NSA could still break in if they wanted to, but the mass encryption of emails would make it harder and more expensive for them to do so," said Sandro Gaycken, a professor of cyber security at Berlin's Free University. ====================== Bahrain says deports U.S. teacher for writing articles on radical websites Sun, Aug 11 02:59 AM EDT ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Bahrain has deported a U.S. nursery school teacher it says wrote articles on social media sites linked to radical groups and for violating the terms of her work permit as the kingdom intensifies its crackdown on dissent. The Ministry of State for Communications did not identify the woman but said she wrote under a pen name and had broken the law by working as an unaccredited journalist. The teacher wrote articles for online publications including As-Safir newspaper, which is linked to Lebanon's Iran-backed Shi'ite group Hezbollah, and the outlawed Bahrain Center for Human Rights newsletter, the state news agency said on Saturday. No one at the Bahrain Center for Human Rights was available for comment. The ministry had received a complaint about the woman who used Twitter and other social media to write articles "deemed to incite hatred against the government and members of the Royal family, as well as spreading misinformation and encouraging divisions in Bahraini society based on religious sect", it said. Bahrain, a majority Shi'ite country ruled by the Sunni al Khalifa family, has been buffeted by unrest since the start of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, with mostly Shi'ite Bahrainis agitating for democratic reforms and more say in government. The island, which is home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet and sits between top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and Iran, has expelled several foreigners for involvement in documenting unrest. In February 2012, two American rights activists were deported for trying to report on events marking the first anniversary of demonstrations for democratic reforms. (Reporting by Maha El Dahan; Editing by Louise Ireland) ==================