The usefulness of social media as an organizational tool has been recognized by both dissidents and tyrants. Social media sites like twitter played a starring role in the recent uprisings in the Arab world and the riots in Britain. As a consequence many governments are learning how to deal more appropriately with the threat they believe social media poses.
Iran had to learn the hard way after protests to the results of their 2009 election. Following the disputed election, many opposition supporters took to the streets using twitter and Facebook to organize protests. Egypt experienced similar problems this year, but found that after shutting down access to twitter and Facebook more people took to the streets because that was the only way they could find out what was happening and continue to organize.
However, it appears that Iran has learned its lesson and is helping Syria to silence dissent as a consequence. U.S. spy agencies claim to have intercepted communications between Iran and Syria showing that Iran is secretly helping to put down pro-democracy demonstrations by blocking and monitoring use of the Internet. Although protests are still ongoing in Syria they appear to be weaker now than they were.
In addition to learning from Iran, Syria has been unfortunately brilliant in the strategy they have pursued. Syria followed a strategy in which they blocked access to social media until they had enough computer experts to effectively search the social media websites. At that point they lifted the Internet restrictions so that the computer experts and the mukhabarat, the Syrian intelligence service, could use the social media sites to track down the dissidents and arrest them.
Now Syria has taken its war against political opponents a step further, using diplomats across the world to track and intimidate expatriates who speak out against the regime. According to U.S. officials, Syrian embassy staff are tracking anti-regime protesters and sending reports back home. Syrian diplomats have gone out to Arab communities to warn them against “conspiring with Zionists” and to call dissidents traitors. A number of Americans interviewed by The Wall Street Journal have said that as a result of their activities, family members back in Syria have been interrogated, threatened, or arrested.
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