Posts Tagged: facebook

by Marwa Fatafta

Almost a decade ago, the internet was celebrated as one of history’s greatest liberation tools. People have unparalleled access to information and a greater deal of freedom to express themselves without fear of censorship or reprisal. This enthusiasm was short-lived, however. Today’s internet is heaving with hate speech, censorship, fake news, misinformation, and all forms of extremism. Governments have tightened their grip on digital spaces, and tech companies have grown into nontransparent empires with immense influence on the world’s politics, economies, and societies. These changes have brought forward new terrains of conflict and have redefined the relationship between the citizen and the state.

by Hakim Khatib

A Jordanian writer, accused of sharing a cartoon considered offensive to Islam, killed two weeks after his release from prison on bail.

A perfect assassination starts with demonizing of a person and ends with a condemnation of the assassin.

On 25 September 2016, the prominent Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar, 56, was shot dead ahead of a trial before the courthouse in Jordan’s capital Amman. He was accused of sharing a caricature deemed offensive to Islam on his Facebook page. Hattar was an outspoken leftist, secular writer and a self-described Christian atheist, known for his controversial views on issues regarding refugees, his support of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and his hostility to movements of political Islam.

According to the Jordanian state news agency Petra, an armed man fired three shots at the writer at close range in front of the courthouse ahead of a hearing.

The long-bearded shooter, who was wearing a long grey robe characteristic of ultra-conservative Muslims, was identified as the 49-year-old Jordanian imam Riad Ismail Ahmed Abdullah, from one of Amman’s poor neighbourhoods – Hashmi. The perpetrator, Abdullah, was referred to the state security court on terrorism-related charges and might face the death penalty.

But why was Hattar arrested in the first place?

Icon Blogfokus Far Right

Dies ist der 25. Artikel in unserer Blogreihe Trouble on the­ Far-Right. Für mehr Informationen, bitte hier klicken.
Logo: Strike a Light by Rob Howard under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

von Kathalena Essers

Ein Mädchen auf einem Fahrrad. Weiße Bluse, schwarzer langer Rock, weiße Socken, schwarze Schuhe. Sie fährt durch eine idyllische, friedlich wirkende, sommerliche Landschaft. Unter dem Foto steht: „Revolt against the modern world – justnationalistgirls“.1

Eine Demonstration. Einzig bengalische Feuer erleuchten die Dunkelheit. Schemenhaft erkennt man eine Frau, die auf eine gefährlich anmutende Menge zugeht. Sie wirkt stark. Unter dem Foto steht: „The night’s still young – justnationalistgirls“.2

Dass rechte Bewegungen Facebook zur Mobilisierung nutzen, ist bekannt. Auch die extrem rechte Facebookseite justnationalistgirls, die knapp 9000 Nutzer*innen liken, transportiert extrem rechte Inhalte, jedoch ungleich subtiler verpackt, als es auf so manch dezidiert neonazistischer Facebookseite der Fall ist. Justnationalistgirls und ähnliche Seiten3 reproduzieren auf den ersten Blick, scheinbar harmlos, eine idealisierte Vorstellung von Mädchen und jungen Frauen, die ihr heimisches Idyll beschützen möchten. Die im April 2014 gegründete Seite hat sich vor allem in Frankreich, Deutschland, Österreich, Polen und den USA eine Anhänger*innenschaft erarbeitet. Die generelle Botschaft ist nicht offensichtlich erkennbar. Mit Sicherheit gesagt werden kann jedoch, dass justnationalistgirls mindestens zwei, scheinbar widersprüchliche Weiblichkeitsbilder verbreitet, welche in den meisten rechten Gruppen oder Bewegungen Anklang finden: Zum einen die traditionelle Rolle der Frau als Mutter der Nation, zum anderen die der Kämpferin neben dem Mann im „nationalen Befreiungskampf“.

Icon Blogfokus Far Right

This is the 15. article in our series Trouble on the­ Far-Right. For more information on the series, please click here.
Logo: Strike a Light by Rob Howard under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

by Oliver Saal

Germany’s political culture currently faces a shift to the right as anti-immigrant violence and attacks on refugee camps are on the brink of becoming a daily routine. The populist party Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany) did achieve successes in every recent federal state election. Through their success politics gained a new political quality. Anti-immigrant groups such as PEGIDA in Dresden regularly mobilize hundreds and sometimes thousands of people. The increased number of refugees that came to Germany in 2015 is instrumentalized to fuel racism and to spread nationalist sentiments.

Icon Blogfokus Far Right

This is the ninth article in our series Trouble on the­ Far-Right. For more information on the series, please click here.
Logo: Strike a Light by Rob Howard under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

by Bernhard Weidinger

Since around 1990, the state of the Austrian far right1 has been characterized by the strength of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ – Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, more precisely translated as Freedomite Party of Austria2) and the relative weakness of extra-parliamentarian far right activism. Far from a mere coincidence, these two features are to be understood as closely linked: the FPÖ’s electoral successes have brought far right causes and talking points unto the political center stage on a national level, given them ample media coverage and made street militancy increasingly pointless. Insofar, the Austrian far right spectrum could – at least until recently – be described as a photographic negative of the situation in Germany: successful party politics, weak bottom-up mobilizations and a comparatively low incidence of street violence. Currently, however, the long held hopes of German right-wingers for a party both in the mold, and strength, of the FPÖ are apparently being fulfilled by the emergence of the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Conversely, both legal and illegal street activism have been on the rise in Austria in recent years, particularly since the start of the asylum crisis in Europe. Numerous violent incidents were reported in 2015, including a minimum of 25 attacks on housing facilities for asylum seekers.

Icon Blogfokus Salafismus

Dies ist der 13. Artikel unseres Blogfokus “Salafismus in Deutschland”. Weitere Informationen gibt es hier.

von Nico Prucha

“Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.”
David Bowie

Der Dschihadismus im Internet ist ein Phänomen, das sich in den letzten fünfzehn Jahren massiv ausgebreitet hat. Vor allem seit den Terroranschlägen am 11. September 2001 hat sich der Dschihadismus online kontinuierlich und systematisch im Zeichen der verfügbaren technologischen Entwicklung entfaltet.  Die Ideologie, die al-Qaida (AQ) ins Leben rief und seit den 1980er Jahren etabliert, erreichte 2014 mit der AQ-Splittergruppe „Islamischer Staat“ (IS) einen vorläufigen Zenit. Insbesondere der selbsternannte „Islamische Staat“ (IS) nutzt gezielt Social Media Sites, wie allen voran Twitter und Telegram, während AQ zeitgleich massiv an Unterstützung eingebüßt hat.

by Martin Schmetz

Stumbling over a Wired article this morning, which claimed that privacy is, in fact, thriving online, I was ready to dismiss it as another April’s fools article. But it turned out that the article was posted a day earlier, and this, as well as its tone, suggest that the author, Nathan Jurgenson, was being serious. Needless to say, I disagree with his assessment – privacy was in danger on the Internet before, and it continues to be.

von Philipp Offermann

Die neuen sozialen Medien demokratisieren die Berichterstattung. Über Ereignisse wird häufig erst bei Twitter, Google+ und Facebook berichtet, bevor es offizielle Informationen von öffentlichen Stellen oder den konventionellen Medien gibt. Doch das heißt auch: Jeder kann Inhalte anders darstellen, verändern und zu eigenen Zwecken nutzen. Und mehr denn je sind wir darauf angewiesen, dass auch solche direkt kommunizierten Inhalte in den richtigen Zusammenhang gestellt werden. Dafür haben wir die ‘alten’, etablierten Medien mit ihren Redaktionen.

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