Monday, September 19, 2011

The Assads versus YouTube



The Assad regime is using YouTube to track protestors, but going through large amounts of data is proving difficult.

Leila Nachawati
(Leila Nachawati is a Spanish-Syrian activist and social media manager who writes on human rights and new forms of communication. She is a board member of AERCO (Spanish Association for Social Media Managers) and a contributor for projects including Global Voices Online and Periodismo Humano.)

Al-Jazeera

"The brutality with which the Syrian regime has been repressing demonstrations in the country since March has made other dictatorships in the region seem pale by comparison. Brutality has not managed, however, to win the battle of communications, and the government's frustration with the way its violence is being exposed and shared worldwide has made officials heighten their campaign against social media as a whole, and against video content and platforms in particular. Within this trend criminalising the medium, YouTube has become the Assads' main enemy and number one target.

Silencing the voices

Almost three decades ago, the town of Hama suffered a historic massacre that ended with the deaths of 20.000 people in only a few weeks. There are virtually no records, no pictures, no video footage of the tragic events of February 1982. No international journalists were allowed in the country back then. No journalists are allowed in the country now either, in 2011, but - thanks to the work of Syrian citizens - information flows from within the country and enables worldwide coverage, drawing international attention to human rights abuses. This contrast between the lack of footage only 30 years ago and the unstoppable deluge of footage we are receiving during this "Year of the Revolutions" gives a hint of the impact of the internet and citizens' empowerment through technology within repressive contexts.

Media silence over Syria has historically been the Assads' most important ally, in order to project an image of legitimacy, but that silence is simply not possible any more. The Syrian regime, just like the rest of the governments of the region, is trapped in its own official narrative through its old traditional channels, regardless of the questioning entailed by citizen voices through new media tools.

It was through YouTube that what has now become the anthem of the Syrian revolution was heard worldwide: "Irhal ya Bashar" ["Bashar, get out"]. The song, popularised by the voice of Ibrahim Kashoush, encouraged the Syrian president to leave with ironic lyrics and a catchy dabke beat. The government first tried to stop it by silencing the singer. In a symbolic and macabre response to Kashoush's chanting, the singer appeared dead on July 5, his throat cut and his vocal cords ripped out - a message to anyone willing to speak up. Kashoush was killed but his voice was not silenced. The song became even more popular, with demonstrators singing it, not only in Syria but abroad. It ignited reaction to repression and it drew even more international media attention to repression in the country....

While solidarity with the Syrian people increases, the Assads seem to have lost the legitimacy that silence had provided them with for decades. By attempting to silence peaceful protesters through the use of force and through blaming technology, they have shown their true colours to those who were not familiar with their practices - or who had, until now, chosen to turn a blind eye."

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