You can say what we want you to say

February 11, 2009 3:27 AM

The kidnapping of Philip Rizk;later they tried to get his father as well. Philip has now been freed.
The detention of protesters highlights Middle East governments' ambivalent attitudes towards support for the Palestinians.
Here it is worth noting of course that Philip is not alone in his arrest. Another blogger Diaa Eddin Gad has also been arrested as have several people attending a Muslim Brotherhood demonstration. A strong, collective message was sent last February when Egypt and Saudi Arabia introduced a pan-Arab regulatory framework for satellite television stations. The document, titled "Principles for Organizing Satellite Radio and TV Broadcasting in the Arab Region," clearly targets independent and privately owned stations that have been airing criticism of Arab governments.
This has helped trigger a Revolution, Facebook-Style.

"In most countries in the Arab world Facebook is now one of the 10 most-visited Web sites, and in Egypt it ranks third, after Google and Yahoo. About one in nine Egyptians has Internet access, and around 9 percent of that group are on Facebook — a total of almost 800,000 members. An estimated 18,000 Egyptians are imprisoned under the law, which allows the police to arrest people without charges, allows the government to ban political organizations and makes it illegal for more than five people to gather without a license from the government".

posted by adamvasco (5 comments total)

Well, I have 19 friends none of which are Egyptians, so that's cool, I think. This blogpost has a disappointing one-sided story but there are many of them. With regard to politics, anything is possible.
posted by tellurian at 5:22 AM on February 11

I apparently went to undergrad with him— a good number of my friends are close to him, although I'd never heard his name until this happened. I'm very glad to hear that he's been freed.
posted by shakespeherian at 5:26 AM on February 11

I will look at the links in a minute but had to say there is no revolution that has been triggered facebook style. /snark
posted by IvoShandor at 5:36 AM on February 11 [1 favorite has favorites]

I expect Facebook makes the counter-revolution easier than the revolution, because now all the police have to do is beat one password out of a dissident (as the post above says they did) and they get all their collaborators' names, plans, and interconnections. so maybe it's best to keep the secret revolutionary cell off Facebook.
posted by WPW at 6:59 AM on February 11

You know, there is only reason the Israeli-Palestinian conflict receives so very much more attention than other situations around the world, including ones that are both worse disasters and easier to solve, namely that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict plays into the political hands of Muslim leaders. Arab protestors will see this attention evaporate if they stray too far from their leader's wishes.
posted by jeffburdges at 8:28 AM on February 11