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Citizens Defy Myanmar Blackout, Internet Cut Off
The WSJ article, by Geoffrey A. Fowler, says, “In the age of YouTube, cellphone cameras and text messaging, technology is playing a critical role in helping news organizations and international groups follow Myanmar’s biggest protests in nearly two decades. Citizen witnesses are using cellphones and the Internet to beam out images of bloodied monks and street fires, subverting the Myanmar government’s effort to control media coverage and present a sanitized version of the uprising.“ But now there are reports that the military junta in Myanmar has cut off Internet access in the country, blocking the bloggers and others sending images and text over the Internet. Ko Hitke, a blogger who has been featuring reports and images from Myanmar, writes today that “I sadly announce that the Burmese military junta has cut off the internet connection throughout the country. I therefore would not be able to feed in pictures of the brutality by the brutal Burmese military junta.“ One of the images that made it out of Myanmar was of 50 year-old Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai, who worked for Agence France-Press (AFP), and who was killed in the violence.
DHS Collecting, Storing Detailed Info on Travelers According to The Washington Post, the Department of Homeland Security is capturing and storing detailed information on travelers, including what personal items travelers carry and even what books they have to read. The details of the Automated Targeting System, as it is called, were revealed by long-time civil liberties activist John Gilmore, one of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Gilmore acquired a copy of his file, which included a note from a Borders and Customs official that Gilmore was carrying a copy of a book titled Drugs and Your Rights. Gilmore said, “My first reaction was I kind of expected it. My second reaction was, that’s illegal.“ Gilmore argues that the program violates the federal Privacy Act, which bars the government from collecting information about Americans exercising their First Amendment rights. The Department of Homeland Security denied that they are “interested” in the reading habits of Americans. “We are completely uninterested in the latest Tom Clancy novel that the traveler may be reading,“ said a DHS spokesperson quoted in the article. But the spokesperson did say that federal officials are expected to document information of interest to national security. The article mentions that this story was first reported in Wired News.
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