T U R K A I R O
Against censorship on 3arabawy - صَحـَـفي مِصـْـري's account
See an interesting thread on the idea of rules and self-censorship through means of ruling. Egyptian activist and blogger 3arabawy's account is threaten to be deleted. His account is the biggest and the only visual source of social contests in Egypt. More than 8000 pictures , masterpieces of social documentary, are going to vanish from Flickr if there is no collective support to his case.
According to Flickr's watchdogs/mediators 3arabawy disrespected the guideline of "Do upload content that you have created. Respect the copyright of others." 3arabawy diffuses pictures of other Egyptian photographers UNDER their AUTHORIZATION. Actually no photographer complained of 3arabawy's uploads as stealing copyrights. But mediators keep considering his account as "out of law" and proposing him to move to another website. Asking him to move to another website they will censor him (although undirectly) from Flickr. This is VEILED CENSORSHIP.
However there are some possible exits. The law and the copyright issue prove to be flexible: Barack Obama was authorized to upload other photographers pictures on "his" account. May Flickr be thanked for its contribution in the campaign for Change. More than the campaign issue iself, Flickr proved to be lucid and giving the concept of social network all its political and social dimension. Flickr is actually an important platform for giving visibility for all kind of pictures including social documentary. We might keep in mind the important role of social documentary in political struggles of the past decades.
Flickr must assume its role of social network and platform preventing 3arabawy's work. Failing to protect 3arabawy's archives, Flickr would make the game of censorship better than any state would expect it.
Please support 3arabawy's case by contributing to the ongoing discussion here:
www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/84895/
Let's keep 3arabawy's account like it is!
Against censorship on 3arabawy - صَحـَـفي مِصـْـري's account
See an interesting thread on the idea of rules and self-censorship through means of ruling. Egyptian activist and blogger 3arabawy's account is threaten to be deleted. His account is the biggest and the only visual source of social contests in Egypt. More than 8000 pictures , masterpieces of social documentary, are going to vanish from Flickr if there is no collective support to his case.
According to Flickr's watchdogs/mediators 3arabawy disrespected the guideline of "Do upload content that you have created. Respect the copyright of others." 3arabawy diffuses pictures of other Egyptian photographers UNDER their AUTHORIZATION. Actually no photographer complained of 3arabawy's uploads as stealing copyrights. But mediators keep considering his account as "out of law" and proposing him to move to another website. Asking him to move to another website they will censor him (although undirectly) from Flickr. This is VEILED CENSORSHIP.
However there are some possible exits. The law and the copyright issue prove to be flexible: Barack Obama was authorized to upload other photographers pictures on "his" account. May Flickr be thanked for its contribution in the campaign for Change. More than the campaign issue iself, Flickr proved to be lucid and giving the concept of social network all its political and social dimension. Flickr is actually an important platform for giving visibility for all kind of pictures including social documentary. We might keep in mind the important role of social documentary in political struggles of the past decades.
Flickr must assume its role of social network and platform preventing 3arabawy's work. Failing to protect 3arabawy's archives, Flickr would make the game of censorship better than any state would expect it.
Please support 3arabawy's case by contributing to the ongoing discussion here:
www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/84895/
Let's keep 3arabawy's account like it is!