<incom> Text wars or SMS for peace?

[Paul Currion]

While the story of Kenya is interesting, I'm not sure that I agree with 
the view that the author holds at the end - that certain uses of SMS can 
be either "empowering" or "repressive". The tool that enables us to 
co-ordinate mass violence is exactly the same one that enables us to 
co-ordinate social activism; applying "safeguards" against the first 
will simply have negative impacts on the second. Further thoughts at 
http://www.humanitarian.info/2008/04/24/make-text-not-war/.

cheers

Paul C


Geert Lovink wrote:
> http://community.eldis.org/.59b585c8
>
> T for Democracy
> Text wars or SMS for peace?
> April 17, 2008 7:25am | Categories: Mobile Phones, SMS
>
> In 1992 when telecommunication engineers sent the first SMS in the UK, 
> few
> would have predicted that less than twenty years later it would be used 
> as
> both a mobilising and demobilising tool in Kenya during one of the most
> violent elections the region has seen for a while. Alice Munuya, 
> KICTAnet
> , in her talk entitled ‘Civil Society Groups and National ICT Policies’
> gave a fascinating insight into the use of SMS technology during late
> 2007/ early 2008 and how it could be manipulated for both violent and
> peaceful action.
>
> But first it is important to provide a bit of context: Whilst only 1.7 
> out
> of the 38 million Kenyan residents access the internet, 11.5 million are
> mobile phone users. It is by far and away the most used of the new
> technologies and after the Convergence Bill could potentially be the 
> most
> meaningful.
>
> As tensions and violence began to spill into the streets in Kenya in 
> late
> 2007, the government decided to ban local live broadcast. Whilst this is
> obviously controversial, there were fears that radio, in particular, 
> could
> be used, as it had done in Rwanda, to incite violence. The ban of live
> reporting meant that SMS began to be utilised as an update method and 
> thus
> ‘mobile reporters’ were born.
>
> The Government realised that they couldn’t control the internet or the
> text messages which were being sent to incite hostility, so they 
> countered
> them with their own blanket text messages stating that the violence was
> illegal and that Kenyans should be concentrating on peace. This is a
> fascinating tactic which particularly struck home when Helena Bjuremalm,
> from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kenya, read out a couple of
> message she had received on her mobile phone.
>
> It did however get me thinking: To what extent did this blanket SMS
> approach actually stop people taking to the streets? Was it a dissuasive
> tactic because the violence was wrong or was it because of the sense 
> that
> big brother really was watching you? This throws up a whole host of 
> issues
> around data protection. The Kenyan government were acting benevolently 
> in
> attempting to curtail the bloodshed but others could use it for their 
> own
> means. Robert from the Swedish Helsinki Committee earlier spoke about 
> how
> the KGB (yes, they are still called that) in Belarus sent SMS’s out to
> dissuade potential dissidents from demonstrating by saying there was a
> bomb where they planned to meet. Whilst the KGB’s tactics didn’t 
> entirely
> succeed, it powerfully illustrates the issues around information and
> communication technology. It demonstrates how the same information can 
> be
> used for very different ends and poses questions about safeguards: can 
> and
> should they be put in place to ensure that ICT tools are used for
> empowering and not repressive purposes?
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>
>   

-- 
Paul Currion

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