Still No Internet or SMS Allowed in China's Muslim Region

Nearly four months after deadly ethnic riots in China's Muslim region led authorities to shut off the Internet there, local residents are still barred from sending text messages and getting online, reports PC World.

The clampdown on telecommunication in China's western Xinjiang province, where rioting claimed nearly 200 lives in early July.

The rioting between Uighurs, a mostly Muslim minority group native to Xinjiang, and Chinese Han, the country's ethnic majority, also led China to block various social networking Web sites nationwide. Twitter, similar Chinese services and Facebook all remain inaccessible in the country.

California watchdogs consider regulating campaigns’ electronic messages

Between tweeting, YouTube videos and text messaging, the age of the Internet means political candidates now rely on more than snail mail to reach voters, and California's ethics watchdog agency is responding to the changing times. The LA Times Blog reports.

The state Fair Political Practices Commission announced today it is launching a review of the Political Reform Act, written in 1974, to determine whether there is a need for more regulation of electronic communications in political campaigns.

Arrested for using SMS to coordinate protesters at G20

A New York man who protested the G20 summit in Pittsburgh may be the first to be arrested for using text messaging to coordinate protesters, reports The Times Online.

A criminal complaint filed in Pittsburgh, the site of last month's Group of 20 meeting, accuses Elliot Madison, 41, a New York City social worker who has described himself as an anarchist, of using text messaging to "(direct) others, specifically protesters of the G20 summit. He is charged with "hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of instruments of crime".

The Pennsylvania State Police said he was found in a hotel room with computers and police scanners while using the social-networking site Twitter to spread information about police movements, The New York Times reported Monday.

... Madison, who was released on bail shortly after his arrest, may be among the first to face charges while sending electronic information to protesters about the police.

[via Times of the Internet. Image from CBCnews.ca]

Philippine Military sets up anti-terrorism text campaign

The Philippino military has launched yesterday an anti-terrorism hotline via text messaging, Major Gen. Benjamin D. Dolorfino, said, to empower the public in the campaign. Business Online reports.

The anti-terrorism hotline — 0928-994-4361 — is being manned round the clock by a military unit.

Mr. Dolorfino said the information will be treated with strictest of confidence. The campaign, called "I-text Mo Ang Terrorista Kay Sarge," was launched amid a series of activities in line with the city’s celebration of Fiesta Pilar this month.

SPECIAL REPORT: Efforts to pass a law taxing text messages in the Philippines are not new

Archie Orillosa, in a special for The Manila Times recaps how the Philippino government has tried to tax text messages since 2001.

Plans to impose taxes on SMS messages are not new. They were among the main reasons why TXTPower was formed in 2001. That year, due to the government’s ballooning deficit, the International Monetary Fund proposed new taxes on SMS. As the world’s texting capital and SMS being one of the most popular and accessible means of communications, the texting public was one of the targets of the government, which hopes to cash in on the texting craze. Each time, the public resisted the imposition of the tax.

Read full article.

Related:

-- Philippines. Scientist computes the real cost of a text message

-- Philippines. House retreats from text-tax bill

-- Philippines. SMS is tax goldmine

-- Philippines. "No to Text Tax!" campaign

-- Online campaign launched vs. text tax in the Philippines

-- Philippines. House body OKs tax on text messages

-- Related attempts to tax SMS around the world

Philippines. House retreats from text-tax bill

Just over a week after the Philippine politicians approved plans for a tax on text messages, the measure is to be subjected to an investigation following strong public opposition. The measure had been approved by the House of Representatives. [via Cellular News]

The law is seeking a tax of five centavos (US$0.001) on every text message sent by mobile phone. Its backers estimate that the tax would raise up to US$700 million in revenue for the government.

The committee agreed that more public hearings should be conducted on the controversial measure as some groups complained they were not heard at the earlier meetings.

... The Cellphone Owners and Users of the Philippines (COUP) has separately filed a lawsuit to put a halt on the legislation.

"The class suit is filed in order to prevent temporarily, and later on permanently, the illegal, prohibitive and unconstitutional imposition of an excise tax on SMS and overseas calls." the lawsuit claimed.

Related: - Philippines. SMS is tax goldmine

Philippines. SMS is tax goldmine

Filipinos send an estimated two billion text messages a day on their mobile phones, making the Philippines the texting capital of the world. Consumers are against the proposed five-centavo tax on every SMS sent. The Straits Times reports.

The Short Message Service (SMS) is seen as a potential goldmine for the cash-strapped government because of the vast number of text messages - estimated at two billion a day - sent by Filipinos.

Such heavy reliance on text messaging has generated huge revenues for telecommunications companies, which are protesting against the proposed tax.

A Bill in the House of Representatives is seeking a tax of five centavos (0.15 Singapore cents) on every text message sent by mobile phone. Its backers estimate that the tax would raise between $590 million and $1 billion in revenue for the government.

The measure was passed this month by a key congressional committee, putting it firmly in the legislative pipeline. In the Senate, some lawmakers have said they will not approve the special tax if it hits the pockets of the poor.

The administration of President Gloria Arroyo, which has majority support in the House, is backing the measure as long as consumers do not have to shoulder the tax. Its chances of being passed will improve if Congress can be convinced that will indeed be the case.

Not surprisingly, service providers are lobbying hard against the tax. They argue that consumers would be affected because cheap SMS promotions offering, for example, unlimited texting over a given period, will no longer be feasible.img alt="quotesmarksleft.jpg" src="http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/images/set3/quotesmarksleft.jpg" width="20" height="15" />

Related:

-- Philippines. "No to Text Tax!" campaign

-- Online campaign launched vs. text tax in the Philippines

-- Philippines. House body OKs tax on text messages

-- Related attempts to tax SMS around the world

Ghana to launch people's SMS to government

The Deputy Information Minister of Ghana will soon launch an SMS service to enable Ghanaians across the country to send text messages on concerns or information they want immediate action on to the government. GhanaDot News reports.

“We think that as the managers of government information, we should be able to interact with people on one-on-one basis so that we will be able to address their issues and take their concerns,” Mr Ablorkwa told the press in an interview.

Philippines. "No to Text Tax!" campaign

Overseas Filipino workers (OFW) have started an online protest against the plan to impose a 5-centavo tax on every text message, reports Philstar.

At the weekly Kapihan sa Manila Hotel forum, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile vowed yesterday to block the passage of the bill.

Susan Ople, president of the Ople Policy Center said the protesters must reach out to other sectors and use every medium available to build a strong coalition against the text tax to stop Congress from passing the bill.

“The No to Text Tax! online campaign has more than a thousand supporters since its creation three days ago,” she said.

Ople urged the public to join the protest and sign up and post their comment on the Facebook wall.

Related - Online campaign launched vs. text tax in the Philippines

Clickatell recepient of MOBI award

Last week, MOBI announced its top picks for its prestigious awards to honor those companies making history advancing mobile, marketing and advertising with innovative campaigns. Clickatell was nominated in the "Best Mobile Direct Response" category for its industry-first SMS campaign working with the US State Department, which sent 'live' text messages to global citizens during President Obama's Cairo and Ghana speeches this past summer.

Creating a "Mobile Town Hall Without Borders," this mobile text campaign reached the masses of people who might not traditionally have a 'voice' during these events. View a video of the white house administration talking about the success of the Ghana event,. Actual SMS responses from the speeches can still be viewed on America.gov.

[via Internet ITBusiness]

Previously:

-- More than 5000 Africans text message Obama

-- Obama’s speech from Cairo by SMS - how it happened

Philippines. House body OKs tax on text messages

The Inquirer reports that a committee of the House of Representatives approved Tuesday a bill seeking to impose a five-centavo excise tax on every text, picture, and video and audio clip sent through mobile phones.

The proposed tax is expected to generate between P20 billion and P36 billion (between $414million and $745million I think) a year for the government.

Nearly 70 million prepaid subscribers nationwide send on the average at least 10 text messages a day.

For years the issue of taxing SMS has been brought up by the Philippines and other countries:

-- Related attemps to tax SMS around the world

-- Sacramento voters to decide whether to tax text messages

Italian Ministry Offers Free SMS Information Service

In July, the the Italian Ministry of the Interior launched on its web portal a short messaging information service for citizens.

The users of the entirely free of charge service will regularly receive, on their mobile phone, text messages with the Ministry’s latest news as well as relevant notifications, reminders, invitations to events and much more.

[via The Gov Monitor]

Cellphones spread Kenyans' messages of hate

In the wake of Kenya's recent chaos, some observers warn the cellphone could play a larger role in future ethnic conflicts in Africa if its omnipresence and the vulnerability to abuse of SMS technology are not countered with better laws. The Globe and Mail reports.

No other continent struggles with ethnic conflict like Africa. With SMS the preferred method to communicate (they're cheaper than calls) and with cellphone-happy Kenya now picking up the pieces after ethnic war, the potential for SMS to incite hate is coming into focus.

The most infamous of the screeds stated, simply, "41 versus 1" — a nod to the 42 tribes of Kenya and the belief that one of them, the Kikuyu, of which President Mwai Kibaki is a member, has been hoarding the country's riches at the exclusion of others. The unwritten message: it's payback time.

... Caesar Handa, director of Strategic Research, a media monitoring firm in Nairobi that has kept its ears to the airwaves, agreed that a lack of laws and a litany of messages over SMS and radio airwaves are one of the reasons behind the Kenya's recent violence.

Read full article.

Image from flickr.

Cell phones flared riots in Kandhmal

Orissa’s senior government officiacs have said that mobile phones played a big role in flaring up communal riots in Orissa's Kandhamal district a year ago while religious conversion was one of the major reasons of disharmony among the people living peacefully for generations. [via MyNews.in]

"I will like to blame use of new technology like mobile phones for flaring up the riots in Kandhamal", Orissa's Director General of Police, Manmohan Praharaj, said while speaking at a national seminar on the "Role of Police in promotion of communal harmony and national integration" here yesterday.

The DGP said mischief mongers had easy access to mobile phones to engineer and organise riots across the communally sensitive district. "While controlling riots earlier was comparatively easy for police, it had become difficult now because of the advent of new technology".

Radio, cell phones to help US in Afghanistan?

The US has turned to radio stations and cell phones in its alleged fight against militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, after realizing that it is losing the war.PressTV reports.

The US State Department says it is establishing a new unit for what it calls countering militant propaganda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

The unit will be given up to $150 million a year to spend on local FM radio stations and on cell phone service to battle for the hearts and minds of the natives of the two Asian countries.

The move is aimed at denigrating militants and their messages by producing audio and video programming, as wells as pamphlets, posters and CDs.

Related:

-- Once media-shy Taliban go hi-tech in propaganda war

-- British Intelligence bomb Taliban with SMS in psychological warfare

-- SMS text messages urge rebels to surrender in exchange for a fair trial

-- Lebanon. Psychological warfare on phone

-- Israel steps up "psy-ops" in Lebanon

Iran: Regime uses SMS messages to threaten people

NCR-Iran reports that the clerical regime's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) sends threatening mobile phone text messages to Iranians, threatening them that they will be “summoned and interrogated” by suppressive organs “in the event of continuing illegal gatherings and activities.”

The text message, which has recently been sent to people, reads: “In the event of continuing illegal gatherings and activities, VAJA [Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence] will summon and interrogate you.”

14-year jail or deportation for SMS joke on Pakistani president

Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has been tasked to trace SMS and e-mails that "slander the political leadership of the country", under the vague Cyber Crimes Act. India's Economic Times reports.

In addition to facing up to 14 years in the jail, violators could have their property seized, Malik said, adding that the government would seek Interpol assistance in deporting foreign offenders.

More than 5000 Africans text message Obama

President Barack Obama asked interested citizens from around the world to send comments and questions about his trip to Africa. According to IC Publications, over 5,000 Africans sent text messages to US President Barack Obama ahead of his speech in Ghana Saturday during his first visit to the continent since taking office.

On America.gov you can read over 500 selected remarks and questions about the President's visit and speech.

Click here for a transcript of Obama's speech in Ghana

Like Obama's speech from the University of Cairo, the US Department of State worked with Clickatell, a global mobile messaging provider, to reach citizens around the world.

In addition to online enrollment, African citizens interested in receiving President Obama's Ghana speech highlights via SMS were able enroll directly through their mobile phone by entering a specified mobile service code number, depending on their African country of origin.

Related: Obama’s speech from Cairo by SMS - how it happened

Africa texts Obama before visit

US President Barack Obama has received thousands of text messages about Africa after he asked people to send questions before his trip to Ghana on Friday, reports the BBC.

Mr Obama will answer a number of texts - which will be selected by journalists from Senegal, Kenya and South Africa.

... The president's media adviser, Macon Phillips, told the BBC's Network Africa programme he wanted the messages to be part of a "continental conversation".

Mr Phillips said people could text whatever they wanted - questions, criticism or just general comment.

The White House has set up local SMS short codes for people to send their messages: Ghana - 1731 / Nigeria - 32969 / South Africa - 31958 / Kenya - 5683.

Elsewhere, the numbers are: 61418601934 and 45609910343.

It has also set up Twitter feeds and blogs on a special page, #obamaghana.

Previously

-- Feel free to text message Obama - US President Barack Obama has invited Kenyans to send comments and questions via short message service (SMS) ahead of his speech in Ghana on Saturday, reports Kenya's Daily Nation.

Feel free to text message Obama

US President Barack Obama has invited Kenyans to send comments and questions via short message service (SMS) ahead of his speech in Ghana on Saturday, reports Kenya's Daily Nation.

Ghanaians, Nigerians and South Africans have also been invited to air their opinions on a broad range of issues.

Mr Obama will directly answer selected SMS questions through local radio broadcasts in Africa. Those who respond early will also receive SMS highlights of his Accra speech.

The invitation comes less than a week after President Obama criticised Kenya’s leadership over the country’s political and economic direction.

According to the US embassy in Nairobi, to send a text message to President Obama from Kenya, one should text “English” or “French” to 5683. Users will receive confirmation of enrolment within 10 minutes, and costs for a normal local SMS will be charged.

Iran 'lifts block on SMS texting'

Reports from Iran say that SMS text messaging services have been unblocked for the first time since disputed presidential elections. The BBC reports.

Defeated opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi this week called on the government to end its interference in phone networks and the internet.

Correspondents say texting has been restricted since 11 June - the day before disputed elections which saw the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The lifting of the restrictions has been reported by a number of Iranian news agencies monitored by the BBC, including Tabnak.ir, a conservative website believed to be associated with former Islamic Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsen Rezai.

Tabnak said that SMS services, although restored, were still blighted by technical problems.Messages up to three weeks old were being sent out, and some users were receiving multiple repeated messages, it said.

Read full article.

SMS system down in Iran just hours before election

According to Ghalam News and multiple Twitterers in Tehran, the text messaging system in Iran has been taken down, just hours before polls open for Friday’s presidential election.Breaking Tweets reports.

The Ghalam News report, translated from Persian, says that the popular network “was cut off throughout the country.” The action occurred just before midnight local time, less than nine hours before the start of elections. “All walks of life from all over the country” are discovering that “messages on different cell phone networks will not send.”

The disruption in communication occurred after reformist candidates have been increasingly using Twitter and text messaging to rally support, per The Wall Street Journal. Approximatey 110 millions SMS messages have been sent per day leading up to the election, according to The Tehran Times.

One Twitter account recently reminded people not to wear reformist color green when it heads to the polls, as the government has threatened not to allow such people to vote. It asked to spread the word via SMS but at least for now that is not possible.

Obama’s speech from Cairo by SMS - how it happened

The US State Department’s initiative to connect people abroad during President Obama’s speech from Cairo was a huge success and they used Clickatell (this blog's favorite sponsor) to make it happen.

According to their press release:

With the help of Clickatell, the US Department of State built a website on www.america.go to register people wanting to receive SMS message highlights from President Obama’s speech from Cairo on June 4, 2009.

Thousands of people representing more than 150 countries opted-in to the first-of-its-kind SMS campaign, meeting the goals of the US State Department to create open, two-way mobile communications from global audiences – in essence, creating a “Mobile Town Hall Without Borders.”

Specifically for this event, Clickatell set up unique mobile routing and tapped into its own existing complex network infrastructure capable of reaching more than 775 mobile operators in over 220 countries around the world.

Clickatell worked closely with the US State Department to build the online website and registration process to offer opt-in services for global citizens wanting to participate during the live speech.

The service received registrations from thousands of people representing more than 150 countries in four languages, including English, Persian, Urdu, and Arabic. Comments directly from those having signed up to receive SMS speech highlights have been posted to the website at America.gov.

The success of the Obama Cairo Speech campaign was made instantly apparent during the successful ‘live’ speech excerpt delivery via SMS to enrolled participants.

In addition, participants from around the world replied back with their speech comments immediately. SMS-reply messages from enrolled participants with comments were received by Clickatell and immediately posted on the website of the US State Department.

Insight. The man behind Obama's Digital Campaign

Fascinating insight from Revolution Magazine on Scott Goodstein, the man widely recognised as President Barack Obama's digital guru, responsible for the biggest mobile and social media campaign in history.

My favorite part:

One of the highlights of the digital campaign behind Obama's election was the 3am text message sent to more than a million subscribers announcing Obama's running mate Joe Biden. It followed the famous TV ad run by an increasingly desperate Hilary Clinton, which went: 'It's 3am, and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone in the White House, and it's ringing - something's happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call.'

Goodstein and his web team were widely credited for coming up with a genius marketing ploy, with many claiming that this 3am text message signalled that Obama and Biden were the people to answer the ringing phone in the White House.

It has since emerged that this was not a deliberate ploy, and that the Biden text message was sent at 3am to prevent CNN breaking the news first. However, what the 3am text demonstrates is the incredible buzz the digital campaign created and the extent to which supporters and commentators were bursting to heap praise on what they saw as the most innovative Presidential campaign to date.

... For Goodstein, life has moved on too. He's not part of the administration and has instead set up a new venture: Revolution Messaging. It promises to provide (mainly non-profit) organisations with all the things he did for Obama. "A lot of non-profit organisations are scared to jump into social networks and user-generated content," he says.

Read full article.

SMS, internet campaigns prove controversial in Iran election

"If you plan not to vote, just think about June 13 when you hear Ahmadinejad has been re-elected."

Young, urban mobile phone users in Iran are being bombarded with this and similar text messages in run-up to the poll on June 12 when hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will seek a second term. Reuters reports.

Emails and blogs are also playing a big part for the first time in a country more used hearing political messages blared through loudspeakers on small trucks, seeing gaudy posters and being herded to campaign rallies.

The government, whose support base centers on the rural poor, is sending its own texts and emails lauding Ahmadinejad's achievements, but is also showing signs of concern.

Hardline backers of Ahmadinejad have complained about the sometimes rude jokes aimed at their leader via text messages and the official IRNA news agency said the Tehran prosecutor's office would crack down on messages offending candidates.

Read full article.

North Korea launches Internet mobile phone service

North Korea has begun a limited State Internet service for mobile phone users, a state website reported Friday, five months after the secretive communist state launched a third-generation network.

Information available is news from the official Korean Central News Agency and other content.

[via Yahoo Tech. Image from Radio Free Asia]

Tigers of Tamil Ealam send out SMS saying leader is not dead

According to Sify, sympathizers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) have launched an SMS campaign claiming that their chief, Vellupillai Prabhkaran, is alive and will continue to lead the movement for a Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka.

European branches of the LTTE have been flooding local mobile users with text messages that Prabhakaran is alive and that the Sri Lankan Government used a body double to try to prove to the world that the LTTE chief had been killed in a two-hour firefight with Sri Lankan Special Forces near a lagoon in the northern part of the island-nation.

The text messages have been emanating from Norway, Germany and the United Kingdom, and are basically designed to lift the morale of LTTE sympathizers and ensure that the funding process for the rebel outfit does not dry up.

Read full article.

"Vote for God, vote for BJP" SMS causes furore in Kanpur

No politician has used SMS in an election campaign quite this way. In India, an SMS with the text 'vote for BJP, vote for God' doing the rounds in the Lok Sabha constituency has caused a furor, with Congress threatening to complain to the Election Commision, reports the Business Standard.

Congress candidate and Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal alleged that it was a ploy by the BJP party to play the religious card in every election but the public could not be fooled by them.

BJP candidate Satish Mahan refuted the allegations saying no such SMS has been issued by the party or its workers.

Pro-democracy activists in Egypt call to strike by SMS

Police in Egypt have been deployed in large numbers to prevent a national strike by pro-democracy activists, reports the BBC.

Police had orders to arrest anyone taking part, and a number of activists have been held in recent days.

Protests appear to have been small, but about 100 MPs, out of 454, walked out of parliament as part of the protest.

The organisers of Monday's action had urged people to wear black and called for protests including sit-ins at places of work or study.

The call to protest was circulated through SMS messages and social networking sites.

Indonesia to broadcast general election information via SMS

Indonesia will broadcast the information of 2009 general election that scheduled on April 9 via SMS to around 155 million cell phone users nationwide. Xinhuanet reports.

According to the spokesman of Indonesian Communication and Information Ministry Gatot S. Dewabrata, a total 162 million phone numbers will receive election messages via SMS, consisting of 135 million cell phone numbers and 27 million wireless fixed phone numbers. The spokesman said that some SMS subscribers own more than one cell phone and wireless fixed phone number.

Indonesia's governments has used text messaging on a massive scale before, In 2005, Indonesia's health ministry launched a hotline to let the public report disease outbreaks and lodge complaints about health care using mobile phone text messages.