In the years since, he’s been under constant surveillance.Ī telecommunications engineer by training, Mansoor has been dubbed the “ Million Dollar Dissident” because of the great lengths to which authorities in the UAE have gone to monitor his electronic communications.Ī single piece of spyware sent to Mansoor, which he identified and then rerouted to researchers at the University of Toronto for analysis, was packed with features taking advantage of three previously undiscovered flaws in the security of Apple’s iPhone.
While he ultimately was pardoned after spending eight months in prison, Mansoor never stopped being the subject of government scrutiny. The petition attracted a massive level of attention and resulted in Mansoor’s arrest on the charge of insulting government officials. He helped circulate a petition calling for universal suffrage for UAE citizens. In response to the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East, the UAE enacted a spate of political reforms, which Mansoor said didn’t go nearly far enough. They were blocking users who talked about these red lines,” which ran the gamut from the political to the religious. “Nobody else was allowing that level of freedom of people to talk,” Mansoor boasted. He helped create a discussion board on which Emiratis could freely and anonymously discuss controversial opinions, a rarity in the conservative UAE. Mansoor has spent years protesting his government’s systematic silencing of journalists and pro-democracy activists. Credit: Courtesy of Ahmed Mansoor Credit: Courtesy Ahmed Mansoor “I started defending freedom of expression because I believe that basic right … (is what) all other rights are really built on,” he said in an interview over Skype. Mansoor has been a prominent figure fighting for human rights in the United Arab Emirates for over a decade, starting when an online discussion forum he frequented was shut down by government officials and its owner was arrested. People across the country, many of whom never had previously considered marching in a demonstration, let alone organizing one, have become activists.įor those just beginning their efforts to foment political change, Ahmed Mansoor has a crucial piece of advice: To be both safe and effective, thinking deeply about one’s own cybersecurity practices is essential. While Facebook RSVPs are about as loose as commitments can get in 2016, the event’s rapid spread is an indication of how Trump’s electoral victory has spurred a fresh wave of American activism.
Smaller regional chapters of the group had sprung up in all 50 states to help coordinate the action taking place in the nation’s capital and stage their own concurrent local marches. Within weeks, over 200,000 people had indicated they would be joining Shook in protesting the new administration. Merging with a handful of similar events, Shook’s planned demonstration, dubbed the Women’s March on Washington, became a focal point of the emerging post-election anti-Trump movement. She logged on to Facebook and invited 40 of her friends to join her in a protest in Washington, D.C., the day after Trump’s inauguration. Shook, a grandmother living in Hawaii, had opposed Trump throughout the campaign and felt an immediate need to make her voice heard on the national stage.
#AARON SANKIN DAILY DOT SEMAPHOR TV#
The previous night, Republican Donald Trump had staged the biggest political upset of the young century.ĭefying the collective wisdom of pollsters and pundits, the former reality TV star had defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to become the next president of the United States. Sign up for our newsletter to get our investigations and reporters’ insights delivered straight to your inbox.
0 kommentar(er)
