Secretive 'hero' blogger rips into Kremlin, one click at a time

Yahoo – AFP, Anna SMOLCHENKO, May 4, 2019

Alexander Gorbunov, the man behind the StalinGulag blog, has emerged as one
 of President Vladimir Putin's sharpest critics (AFP Photo/Alexander NEMENOV)

Moscow (AFP) - He is wheelchair-bound and has limited use of his hands but Alexander Gorbunov, the author of hugely popular social media accounts in Russia, has emerged as one of President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critics.

Diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy and using his right index finger to type, the 27-year-old author of StalinGulag skewers the "hypocrisy" of Putin's system and the everyday injustices ordinary Russians face.

Known for his dry wit and generous use of profanities, StalinGulag has built a near 1.5 million strong army of followers on Twitter and Telegram, with a total media outreach believed to include several million more.

For years the StalinGulag author's identity remained one of Russia's best-kept secrets but Gorbunov blew his cover after authorities began harrassing his 65-year-old mother and 80-year-old father last week.

Gorbunov, an intelligent, soft-spoken man with a goatee, said he and his wife have been on tenterhooks.

"They can easily arrest and put in prison anyone," Gorbunov told AFP in an interview, saying that even a short stint in jail could kill him.

"They don't care."

In an increasing crackdown on dissent, Putin in March signed laws that allow courts to fine and briefly jail people for showing disrespect towards the authorities and to block media for publishing "fake news".

Alexander Gorbunov, now known as a top Russian opposition blogger StalinGulag, 

has a sharp wit and no illusions about his illness and his own future (AFP Photo/

Alexander NEMENOV)

'Damn hero'

Gorbunov, who is a successful self-taught financial trader by day, dreads publicity but this week revealed his identity to BBC and later spoke to AFP after gun-toting police inspected his parents' home in the North Caucasus city of Makhachkala.

His relatives in Moscow have also been intimidated, he says.

"If the authorities are afraid of what I write they are worthless," he said.

Gorbunov's story has stunned Russia.

"This person is a damn hero," said screenwriter Andrew Ryvkin, while author Denis Bilunov called Gorbunov "the person of the year."

In a show of solidarity, Pavel Durov, the self-exiled founder of the Telegram messenger app, verified the StalinGulag account and offered his author help in moving abroad.

Gorbunov said he was heartened by the outpouring of support from Russians who have flooded him with offers of help and money. He has chalked up some 40,000 new followers over the past week.

The blogger insisted he was neither a hero nor an opposition activist. He said he merely puts in writing his thoughts on everything from Russia's foreign policy blunders to the excessive lifestyle of Putin's inner circle.

"What's happening in the country is terrible," Gorbunov said. "Injstice is what angers me the most."

In a 2018 post, he issued a dark warning to his readers.

"Really scary times are coming," he said, urging Russians to look out for each other. "This is the reality and not everyone will get out alive."

Gorbunov lives with his partner of seven years in a comfortable Moscow apartment, employs two drivers and a live-in aide and enjoys an active social life.

He does not want to reveal his income but says he forks out around 400,000 rubles ($6,145) every month just to cover his rent and pay his helpers.

Alexander Gorbunov, the man behind the StalinGulag blog, does not believe he 

will see a change of leadership in his lifetime (AFP Photo/Alexey NIKOLSKY)

He refuses to take any medication, saying his condition is incurable and he had no illusions about his future.

"I don't want to turn my life into a silly battle," he said. "It's a battle I am going to lose."

'Not an optimist'

A lawyer by training, he works more than 10 hours a day, sometimes waking up at night if the market moves. He writes posts for his StalinGulag accounts when the mood strikes him and he needs a short break from work.

He appears to take some of his inspiration from his favourite book, "Journey to the End of the Night" by French novelist Louis-Ferdinand Celine.

The 1932 World War I classic filled with profanities expresses disgust with the hypocrisy of society and laments the misery of human existence.

Gorbunov is fiercely protective of his wife who sometimes holds his hand as he speaks to AFP and helps him drink from a cup. They met seven years ago but refuse to reveal details about their relationship.

His story has generated huge media interest in Russia but Gorbunov hopes the buzz will soon subside. He wants to get on with his life, watch the last season of Game of Thrones and keep trading and writing his blogs.

He travels sometimes but has never been to Europe.

Not that he plans to leave Russia, even though life for people with disabilies here is a relentless daily struggle, saying he wants to be together with his loved ones.

For all his dark humour and keen intelligence, Gorbunov refuses to make any predictions about the future of the country -- or his own.

He has a feeling however that he will not see a change of leadership in his lifetime.

"I am not an optimist in this sense."

Dutch YouTube vloggers have new advertising code

DutchNews, November 17, 2017

A group of Dutch YouTube vloggers will now report clearly when content is advertised, as part of a voluntary code they launched on Friday. 

De Social Code – developed ‘for and by YouTubers’ – has four simple guidelines on making it clear when videos are sponsored, involve product placement or free samples, or are entirely independent content.

Last year the Dutch Media Authority announced that it wanted to ban illicit advertising in vlogs, especially when aimed at children, reported RTL broadcaster at the time. 

Laws regulating online content in the same way as television and radio are being developed, according to the vloggers who developed the new code in coordination with the Dutch Media Authority. 

People who have signed up already include Teske de Schepper (Teske), Dylan Haegens, Djamila (Meisje Djamila), Rutger Vink (Furtjuh) and Christiaan Heinen (Prankster), according to ANP. 

‘These YouTubers are demonstrating through this form of self-regulation that they feel a sense of responsibility to their viewers’, Dutch Media Authority chairman Madeleine de Cock Buning told ANP. 

Taxman struggles to account for internet earnings

DutchNews, September 6, 2016

King’s Day in Amsterdam: before the
 internet, a rare tax-free moment. Photo:
DutchNews.nl 

The Dutch taxman is struggling to account for people’s earnings in the internet age, reports NOS. 

Traditionally, certain activities have been seen as hobbies and not subject to significant tax. But a freedom of information (WOB) request from NOS reveals that tax experts are looking at whether they are being tough enough about chasing down revenue from bloggers, vloggers and Airbnb renters, for instance. 

A memo from enforcement and intelligence body the EHI reportedly says: ‘At what level of income is an enthusiast who restores and sells bicycles through Martkplaats pursuing a hobby and at what figure is he an entrepreneur? Should the home cook who opens a pop-up restaurant at home four times a year be seen as a restauranteur? What if this isn’t four times but 24 times?’ 

There is a grey area, says NOS, where people making money on a small scale from Airbnb or renting a car via Snappcar can be seen as amateurs and pay little or no tax on this income – but if you are seen to be running a business, this ‘hobby’ notion disappears and you must pay income tax. 

But the increase in popularity of the sharing economy and online platforms like Airbnb mean the tax authorities do not know if people are declaring all of their business income, as they have an obligation to do. It is relatively costly to investigate as small-time business owners pay little tax anyway. 

The fact that transactions happen online mean the authorities have a better chance of monitoring them, says NOS. Amsterdam city council, for example, is already using digital techniques to ‘scrape’ information from Airbnb to check if people are sticking to renting rules of a maximum of four guests at a time and 60 days a year.

Saudi Arabia executes top Shiite cleric

Yahoo – AFP, January 2, 2016

Saudi Shiite women hold placards bearing portraits of prominent Shiite Muslim
 cleric Nimr al-Nimr during a protest in the eastern coastal city of Qatif against
his execution by Saudi authorities, on January 2, 2016 (AFP Photo)

Riyadh (AFP) - Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia executed Saturday a prominent Shiite cleric, who had been behind anti-government protests, drawing angry condemnation from Shiite-majority Iran and Iraq.

Nimr al-Nimr was executed along with 46 other men, including Shiite activists and Sunnis accused of involvement in Al-Qaeda killings, the interior ministry said.

Nimr al-Nimr was executed this morning

 along with 46 other people convicted by

Saudi Arabia of "terrorism" (AFP Photo)

It prompted calls for demonstrations, but the brother of the 56-year-old cleric called for calm in oil-rich Eastern Province where Shiites complain of marginalisation.

"This action will spark anger of (Shiite) youths" in Saudi Arabia, but "we reject violence and clashing with authorities", said Mohammed al-Nimr.

The interior ministry said the 47 men had been convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organisations" and implementing various "criminal plots".

A list published by the official SPA news agency included Sunnis convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed Saudis and foreigners in 2003 and 2004.

Some of them had been convicted of taking part in May 2003 attacks on expatriate compounds in Riyadh that killed 35 people, nine of them Americans, the ministry said.

Others were involved in attacks the following year on a housing complex in the eastern city of Khobar, in which 22 people were killed, most of them foreigners, and other assaults.

Among them was Fares al-Shuwail, described by Saudi media as Al-Qaeda's top religious leader in the kingdom.

Notably absent from the list, was Nimr's nephew, Ali. He was arrested at the age of 17 and allegedly tortured during detention before being sentenced to die, sparking fury from rights watchdogs and the United States.

All those executed were Saudis, except for an Egyptian and a Chadian.

Some were beheaded with a sword while others were shot by firing squad, said ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki.

Executions have soared in the country since King Salman ascended the throne last January, with 153 people put to death in 2015, nearly twice as many as in 2014.

'Oppression and execution'

Saturday's executions were condemned by Iran and Iraq as well as the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, and drew protest calls.

"The Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution," said Hossein Jaber Ansari, spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry.

It will "pay a high price for following these policies," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

Turki described Iran's reaction as "irresponsible".

"We are completely confident with what we're doing and we believe in it and do not care how others view our procedures, whether on justice or implementation of sentences," he said.

Tehran ally Hezbollah said Saudi Arabia's rulers are "global criminals" and denounced Nimr's execution as a "heinous crime".

Saudi justice ministry spokesman Mansur al-Qafari said "interference in the kingdom's judiciary is unacceptable".

Rights groups have repeatedly raised concern about the fairness of trials in Saudi Arabia, where murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.

Bahraini girls run for cover from tear gas in Jidhafs, west of Manama, on 

\January 2, 2015 following a protest against the execution of Nimr al-Nimr

by Saudi authorities (AFP Photo/Mohammed al-Shaikh)

Trial standards 'grossly flouted'

Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa director Philip Luther told AFP the kingdom was using "the guise of counter-terrorism" to clamp down on dissent.

The trials "were politicised on the one hand and grossly unfair, because the international standards for fair trial were grossly flouted."

Iran's Basij student militia, connected to the country's elite Revolutionary Guards, called for a demonstration Sunday outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

In Saudi ally Bahrain, police used tear gas to disperse dozens of youths from the majority Shiite population protesting the executions.

And prominent Iraqi Shiite lawmaker Khalaf Abdelsamad called for the closure of Riyadh's embassy and urged the government to expel its ambassador.

"The execution of Sheikh al-Nimr will have serious consequences and bring about the end of the Al-Saud (royal family's) rule," his office said.

In Yemen, where the kingdom is leading a coalition against Shiite rebels, the religious scholars association controlled by them condemned the execution.

Awakening is not suppressible. 16/5/2015 #SheikhNimr, #NimrAlNimr, #NimrMartyred pic.twitter.com/bVTz61FTDN

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 2, 2016

Related Articles:

Statement of the HR/VP Federica Mogherini on the executions in Saudi Arabia


"The Dysfunction of Darkness" - Nov 14, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Reference to Paris/ISIS/Dark-Old Energy/USA+Warning for Governments around the World !!!) - (Text version) New

“…  The Dark Menace is Here

I have been giving you messages of the recalibration of dark and light for years:

"Civilization itself is at stake within this movement, and you've passed the marker - an alignment that many said would never happen. This is the fifth time you've been through this opportunity and now, dear ones, you're headed for the potential of peace on Earth. Twenty-three years ago, we told you this could happen and that the potentials were strong for it. Now, all that is around you is struggling with it, for the shift is here. I'll say this over and over: The old energy of darkness dies hard, screaming and struggling to keep what it has had, and it struggles with its own demise. So that is the energy we speak of now, and the subject is the Human consciousness balance between dark and light."

Kryon, Feb 2012, San Antonio, TX (*)

Over a year ago, I also gave you predictions that the coming change will be different from anything you have ever expected. (**) There is darkness that has come together on this planet, and we told you it would increase. It is a response to the light that you have turned on. It is fighting for its own life within the old energy. A consciousness of darkness has always prevailed on the planet. Corruption and greed, and uncaring death, have always been the way of an older Human nature. Suddenly, in this precession of the equinoxes, the prophecies are starting to come true. The end of the indigenous calendars predicted it, and it's here.

The metaphor is clear. Light is starting to be turned on. That is a metaphor for increased awareness - of everything! We told you many years ago that, "When everyone can talk to everyone, there can be no secrets." This was given before the Internet, and now you know what we speak of. This technology is actually a tool for you to fight the darkness. I will show you in a moment. What I give you in this channel may seem impossible. Let me start at the beginning.  …”

"The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

“..  The Internet - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification

Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.

I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy. For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?... " 

Saudi blogger wins Sakharov rights prize, sparking pardon calls

Blogger Raif Badawi's long struggle for freedom of expression

An Amnesty International activist holds a picture of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi

during a protest against his flogging punishment on January 29, 2015 in front of

Saudi Arabia's embassy to Germany in Berlin. The 30-year-old Saudi has been

 sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam and is serving a 10-year jail term - a

case which has drawn widespread international criticism. (AFP Photo/Tobias Schwarz)

Blogger Raif Badawi's long struggle for freedom of expression

Saudi blogger and activist Raif Badawi started criticizing his country's regime more than six years ago. Since then, his family has been threatened and fled to Canada and his lawyer has been arrested.

Deutsche Welle, 30 Jan 2015

The flogging of Raif Badawi has been postponed for the third time. On Friday, the public learned that the blogger would not receive the next 50 lashes of his cruel 1,000-lash punishment. That doesn't change the fact that he is in bad physical shape. His wife, Ensaf Haidar, told journalists in Ottawa, Canada, that her husband suffered from hypertension and another round of beating could weaken him significantly. "I am very concerned about him," Haidar said.

The whole world has followed Badawi's case over the last few weeks. Public protest has picked up steam since he was first publicly flogged on January 9 in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, after being found guilty of insulting Islam and breaking Saudi technology laws with his website "Free Saudi Liberals." He was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, 10 years in prison and fined 1 million riyals ($266,000) in May 2014. But Badawi's struggle has been going on for much longer.

Daring online activism

Badawi was born in Al Khobar in eastern Saudi Arabia on January 13, 1984. He and his older sister, Samar, were educated to seventh-grade level. Activism in the face of the strict Islamic regime seems to run in the family: Samar has campaigned for women's suffrage and women's right to drive in Saudi Arabia. In 2012, she was awarded the US State Department's International Women of Courage Award.

Badawi's wife, Ensaf Haidar, is fighting
for her husband's release

With the "Free Saudi Liberals" website, Raif Badawi took his criticism of the regime online. He created the website in 2008 as a forum for liberals to discuss Saudi Arabia's strict Wahhabi leadership.

Ensaf Haidar, whom Badawi married in 2002, told Pen Canada, a group that promotes freedom of expression, that he believed in liberalism as an "intellectual project" that aspired to "represent Saudi liberals on the ground, and fight injustice wherever it exists."

Badawi didn't hold back his views about how unjust the system that ruled his country really was. In addition to writing about Valentine's Day, the celebration of which is prohibited in Saudi Arabia, he wrote and published sarcastic articles about the Commission on the Promotion of Virtue, criticized senior political figures and said that the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh had become "a den for terrorists."

Charged with abandoning Islam

It didn't take long for Saudi officials to intervene. In March 2008, authorities arrested Badawi and questioned him about his website. Two months later, in May, he was charged with "setting up an electronic site that insults Islam." According to Human Rights Watch, he then left the country. Later in 2008, prosecutors, however, dropped the charges against him and Badawi returned to Saudi Arabia.

He was banned from leaving the country in 2009 and had his bank accounts frozen by the government. He was then arrested June 17, 2012 and appeared before a court in December 2012 on charges of ridiculing Islamic religious figures on his website.

He was also referred to a higher court for the charge of apostasy, a crime punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. One "proof" for Badawi's apostasy seems to have been that he liked a Facebook page for Arabic Christians. According to Human Rights Watch, a Saudi cleric also accused him of saying "that Muslims, Jews, Christians, and atheists are all equal," which was also seen as a sign of apostasy.

International support

The apostasy charges were eventually dropped, but medical experts say the 1,000 lashes Badawi now has to endure are basically a death sentence dragged out over 20 weeks. The case has also affected Badawi's family. His wife fled Saudi Arabia in 2013 after receiving death threats. She said she feared for her safety and that of their children, Terad, Najwa and Miriam. They obtained political asylum in Quebec, Canada.

Protests in support of the blogger have
 taken place all over the world, including
this one in London

Badawi's lawyer was arrested after setting up a Saudi human rights organization. Charges against him included "breaking allegiance with the ruler" and in 2014 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and a subsequent 15-year-ban on traveling.

With Badawi's health deteriorating, protesters all over the world are demanding the blogger be released and exonerated. Campaigns on social media and petitions by organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters without Borders are helping him to keep up hope, his wife said.

But the final decision on his fate lies with the Saudi regime, whose flaws Raif Badawi never hesitated to point out.

Protesters call for the release of Raif Badawi outside the Saudi embassy

in The Hague, Netherlands. Photograph: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto/Rex

Related Articles:

Saudi Arabia postpones flogging of blogger Badawi for third week
Saudi blogger Raif Badawi’s case referred to supreme court, says his wife
Saudi postpones blogger lashing on medical grounds

Wife of Lashed Saudi Blogger Calls for His Release

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Jan 14, 2015

Ensaf Haidar, center, the wife of the Saudi Blogger Raef Badawi, holds a vigil in
 Montreal, Quebec on Jan. 13, 2015 urging Saudi Arabia to free her husband who
was flogged in public on Jan. 9, 2015 near a mosque in the Red Sea city of Jeddah,
receiving 50 lashes for ‘insulting Islam’. (AFP Photo/Clement Sabourin)

Montreal. The wife of a Saudi blogger who was publicly flogged for “insulting Islam” called for his release on Tuesday.

“My husband, Raef Badawi, is imprisoned for simply expressing liberal ideas,” Ensaf Haidar, who sought asylum in Canada with her three children after Badawi was arrested, told a news conference in Montreal.

In September, a Saudi court upheld a sentence of 10 years in prison as well as the 1,000 lashes for Badawi, who has been behind bars since June 2012.

The 31-year-old received the first installment of 50 lashes last Friday and is expected to have 20 weekly whipping sessions until his punishment is complete.

“We’re here so that he won’t have to endure another 50 lashes next Friday,” said Beatrice Vaugrante of Amnesty International.

“We talk a lot about freedom of speech nowadays: I am Charlie, I am Raef Badawi,” she said. “This concerns Canada, it concerns all Western nations that advocate freedom of expression.”

The Canadian government has called the public lashing “inhumane” but said it was limited in what it could do for Badawi beyond expressions of outrage as the blogger is not Canadian.

Agence France-Presse

Protesters demand the immediate release of Saudi blogger,

 Raif Badawi, in front of the Saudi Embassy in The Hague.

Photograph: Martijn Beekman/EPA

Related Articles:

Pressure grows on Saudi Arabia over blogger facing second flogging - New

Saudi blogger lashed in public for ‘insulting Islam’

Internet shaping China for the better: Xinhua

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-04-21

People log on to the internet with smartphones at a store in Taiyuan,
Shanxi province. (Photo/CNS)

Twenty years after the world's most populous country gained access to the internet, China has been fundamentally and irreversibly changed, but not in the way some observers in the West had expected.

Instead of bringing collapse, the internet in China is becoming more commercially robust and innovative despite the unique Chinese way of management.

As the internet reshapes China, the country is also changing the online landscape through its rising internet firms, brand-new products and the world's largest web population of 618 million.

CHINA REMOLDED

On April 20, 1994, a pilot network to serve education and scientific research was linked to the internet via a special line in Beijing's Zhongguancun, now China's technology hub, marking the country's first fully functional internet access.

At the time, the only way for most Chinese to learn of South Africa's newly elected black president and the construction of China's massive Three Gorges hydraulic project was by reading the next day's state-run newspaper.

Recalling his first days online, Liu Ren, a Beijing-based journalist, said few Chinese were in cyberspace in the late 1990s.

"I would be overjoyed to receive an email, even if it was a spam mail at that time," said the reporter renowned for his keen observation of China's IT industry. "But today, the internet has been changing everyone's lives, sometimes even against their will."

Meanwhile, cab drivers are now consulting their children to learn how to use taxi apps for additional tips from potential customers.

"Never did I think that one day my work would have anything to do with the internet," said Lao Liu, a 54-year-old taxi driver in central China's Wuhan city. "The apps bring me an additional income of 50 yuan (US$8) every day."

Mobile Internet is changing the entrenched habits of Chinese people like Lao Liu, including how they read, buy things, and manage money.

Yu'ebao, a popular online wealth management product, has raised around 500 billion yuan (US$80.2 billion) in less than a year, helping boost the funds available for China's real economy, instead of raising financing costs.

In March, Beijing vowed to promote the healthy development of the burgeoning internet finance, giving products like Yu'ebao promising prospects.

The growing population of internet users has also made online opinions too important to be ignored by officials.

The transformative power of the internet has challenged top-down communication patterns in China by supporting multi-level and multi-directional flows of communication, changing the country's political landscape.

Several Chinese officials have been probed after online whistleblowers accused them of corruption, the latest being Song Lin, chairman of state corporation China Resources (Holdings).

The country's internet has become an accessible yet decentralized platform for the public to discuss public affairs and breaking events, said Wang Sixin, professor of law with the Communication University of China in Beijing.

INNOVATION

The rising prominence of China is one of the most important developments shaping the internet.

Behind the internet boom is Beijing's unique way of management. China has long been dedicated to developing the internet, but it has also underscored the rule of law to ensure internet security, which President Xi Jinping said is a concern for the country's security and development.

Xi became head of China's central internet security and informatization leading group in February, revealing the country's resolve to build itself into a strong cyber power.

This way of internet management, itself a Chinese innovation, has not stifled the creativity of the internet as some had predicted. Innovative products and services are significantly changing the landscape of the internet.

At least six of the world's 10 largest social networks in 2013 were developed by Chinese internet firms, according to a report from US business and technology news website Business Insider. China-based social networking apps such as WeChat and Sina Weibo have also achieved significant scale.

Sina Weibo, China's answer to Twitter, debuted this month on the Nasdaq exchange with a 19.1% jump, bringing the company US$287 million.

The success of the microblogging service, which official figures say over 500 million are using, highlighted the innovation-driven development of China's internet companies.

Sina Weibo may have imitated Twitter at first, but it adapted and improved by constantly introducing new functions to maintain a high number of active users.

"More Chinese internet companies will be going abroad like Sina Weibo did," said Fang Xingdong, founder of Blogchina.com and an IT columnist. "The year of 2014 will mark the beginning of the global strategy of China's internet."

Last year, China's online retail market expanded to over 1.8 trillion yuan (US$288.8 billion), almost the size of Malaysia's GDP that year.

"We have built up the Chinese people's trust in online transactions," said Jack Ma, founder of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba.

China will become "more open, more transparent, more willing to share" in the next two decades because of the internet, he said.

Minister admits Iran cannot block Facebook forever

Google – AFP, Mohammad Davari (AFP), 2 March 2014

A big logo created from pictures of Facebook users worldwide is pictured in the

 company's Data Center, its first outside the US on November 7, 2013 in Lulea,

in Swedish Lapland (AFP/File, Jonathan Nackstrand)

Tehran — Iran will not be able to keep up forever its ban on legal access to Internet hubs such as Facebook, which has four million Iranian users, Culture Minister Ali Janati said Sunday.

Such remarks by an Iranian official would have been unimaginable before President Hassan Rouhani, a reputed moderate, took office in August with a vow for more freedom.

"Four million Iranians are on Facebook, and we have restricted it," said Janati.

"We cannot restrict the advance of (such technology) under the pretext of protecting Islamic values," said the minister.

Access to the popular social networking site -- along with others which Iranian authorities regard as un-Islamic, immoral or undermining the Islamic establishment -- is obstructed by a massive filtering mechanism.

But tech-savvy Iranians have resorted to measures, known as anti-filters, to circumvent the restrictions.

Janati drew a parallel with a ban on fax machines and video tapes and players imposed the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"If we look back, we see many of the actions we took after the revolution were ridiculous."

Rouhani has adopted a policy that promises greater tolerance on social, cultural and media issues -- a vow that helped him beat his conservative opponents in the presidential election last year.

But the government has faced resistance from hardliners resisting a reversal in such policies.

A committee of 13 members determines what online content can be reached on Iran's Internet, which is notoriously slow.

Unapproved sites are put under the filtering system. The ban includes Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and numerous other sites, including blogs.

On Sunday, Janati suggested that the government was working to remove the online constraints.

"The six ministers who are members of the (filtering) committee have clearly stated that we cannot continue to isolate ourselves from the world," he said.

But, he added it would take time.

"However, (filtering) is one of those issues whose solution requires time. And it will be resolved in time," Janati said.

Despite the bans, several Iranian officials are active on social networking sites.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has attracted nearly 850,000 Facebook followers by posting regular updates in Persian, and he operates the only "verified" account of an Iranian official on Twitter.

He also has a YouTube channel.

Several pages are also apparently run by Iranian officials, including a popular Twitter account, @HassanRouhani, believed to belong to the president's office.

Iran's ultimate authority, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also has an online presence, with a Twitter account in Farsi and a Facebook page (facebook.com/www.Khamenei.ir) dedicated to him.

Kerry meets Chinese bloggers squeezed by Internet controls

Google – AFP, Jo Biddle (AFP), 15 February 2015

US Secretary of State John Kerry during a discussion with Chinese bloggers

in Beijing on February 15, 2014 (Pool/AFP, Evan Vucci)

Beijing — Chinese bloggers urged US Secretary of State John Kerry to push for greater freedom online in China during a rare meeting in Beijing Saturday, asking for help to "tear down the great Internet firewall".

The roundtable discussion, organised by the US Embassy, was a unique opportunity for the top diplomat to hear directly from China's bloggers amid reports that Beijing is stepping up its efforts to clamp down on political dissent.

The meeting came a day after Kerry held talks with senior Chinese leaders including President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, during which he called on Communist Party authorities to improve their human rights record.

Zhang Jialong, a reporter at Tencent Finance who was one of four bloggers taking part in the discussion, urged the United States to support "Chinese who aspire for freedom" and help "tear down the great Internet firewall".

US Secretary of State John Kerry meets with

 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Ministry

 of Foreign Affairs in Beijing on February 14, 2014

(Pool/AFP, Diego Azubel)

Zhang also accused US companies of helping China block access to social networking sites such as Twitter and the Internet in general.

Kerry said he had not heard of such moves, but promised he would check.

In the 40-minute meeting, Kerry also heard from Ma Xiaolin, a former journalist at Chinese state news agency Xinhua, who said that the Internet was his main form of communication.

He complained about the limits on Internet freedom in China, and urged Washington to use its sway to ease the squeeze.

Kerry told reporters Friday that in his discussions with the Chinese leadership he had a "frank discussion about some human rights challenges... and the free flow of information in a robust, civil society" which included some of "the challenges of the cyber world that we live in today".

"I emphasised that respect for human rights and for the exchange of information in a free manner contributes to the strength of a society in a country," he told reporters after his meetings in Beijing.

Chinese microblogs similar to Twitter have become key drivers of public opinion in recent years, with bloggers drawing attention to official corruption, pollution and other issues that challenge China's ruling Communist Party.

- Less freedom online? -

The rising influence of microblogs has been accompanied by the emergence of celebrity users with verified accounts, known as "Big Vs".

Wang Keqin, who was fired from his job at the Economic Observer last year after he reported on the cause of flash floods that hit Beijing in 2012, said at times he believed he had a price on his head for his work as an investigative reporter.

Internet freedom "was going backward, there is less of it", he told Kerry.

China's ruling party, which has provided more room for public debate in recent decades, has long been engaged in a "cat and mouse" game with Internet users, tightening restrictions in periodic crackdowns before new forums emerge to challenge such restraints.

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) meets with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang

 at the Zhongnanhai Leadership Compound in Beijing on February 14, 2014

(Pool/AFP, Evan Vucci)

And the rising popularity of microblogs such as Sina Weibo has triggered a government-backed campaign to assert greater control over social media.

Last year Chinese-American investor Charles Xue, who had more than 12 million followers on his microblog which was heavily critical of the government, was arrested on charges of soliciting prostitutes.

State media insisted at the time that his arrest had no connection with his online presence, but government-run broadcaster CCTV showed him in prison clothes while under detention, confessing that he had used microblogging to "gratify my vanity".

In August, Xi called on propaganda officials to "build a strong army... to seize the ground of new media", while China's press regulator has ordered journalists to undergo Marxist training classes, state media reported.

China's Supreme Court in September said Internet users could face three years in jail if "slanderous" information spread online was viewed more than 5,000 times or forwarded more than 500 times.

Kerry also visited a joint venture between Indiana-based Cummins and China's Foton company producing diesel engines which produce fewer emissions in Beijing, before then heading to Jakarta on the next leg of his Asia trip.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“…  Government

Let us speak of government. We're not speaking of your government, but of any government - the way it works, how it survives, how it has survived, the way it campaigns, and how it elects leaders. It's going to change.

Years ago, I told you, "When everybody can talk to everybody, there can be no secrets." Up to this point on this planet, government has counted on one thing - that the people can't easily talk to each other on a global scale. They have to get their information through government or official channels. Even mass media isn't always free enough, for it reports that which the government reports. Even a free society tends to bias itself according to the bias of the times. However, when you can have Human Beings talking to each other all at once, all over the planet without government control, it all changes, for there is open revelation of truth.. ”