Should human rights activists be on Facebook?

I am not on Facebook, period. I am sure a ton of people would say I am way behind the curve, not hip, or even old fashion. My main reason is security. Since China’s human rights is my main focus as a volunteer of AIUSA, I know far too well about the consequences of being an activist (or a dissident as the general Chinese community would call it). Dissidents in China are constantly harassed, detained, tortured and imprisoned everyday. Their friends and family members are harassed just the same. Take the case of Hu Jia and Chen Guangcheng. Zeng Jinyan (Hu’s wife) is under house arrest with their young daughter. When she leaves her apartment, the police follows her constantly. Yuan Weijing (Chen’s wife) is also under house arrest but she has police surrounding her home 24/7. She has been beaten several times for simply trying to leave her home for some errands, such as going to see a dentist. She has not been allowed to visit her husband in prison for a long time. Combined this type of harassment of family members with the technological advance in internet censorship in China, being on Facebook seems like a huge security risk to me.

My theory came true when Wired magazine published a story about a few Egyptian activists’ attempt to organize a protest backfired through Facebook. It became clear to me that my decision to stay away from the increasingly popular social network is the right decision. But I doubt myself from time to time. A lot of my family and friends are on Facebook. My friends have many times told me they haven’t heard from me for a long time while they chitchat on Facebook regularly. I feel really bad not being able to keep up with family and friends. Believe me, it is a very difficult choice. Recently, one of my uncles passed away. My mom who can barely send an email said my brother found out my uncle became ill through Facebooking with my cousins. Mom (who is not on Facebook) said if I wanted to be kept up to date, go to Facebook. In less than a month, my uncle passed away. I felt a bit guilty. Even my husband’s grandmother is on Facebook. She posts updates all the time.

The main issue of security for me is exposing my social graph that could land in the hands of any authorities. In the digital age, nothing is private. Earlier this week, NPR broadcast a series on online privacy. The Facebook episode highlighted the issue of third-party snooping in which even private Facebook accounts could be exposed. The concluding episode pointed out that if the content is on someone else server, users don’t have as much privacy protection as the physical documents sitting in our desk drawers under the Fourth Amendment. Email is just as vulnerable in this category because messages leave packets of information at every intersection they pass through. And in the case of Shi Tao, he landed a 10-year jail sentence due to an email he sent to a US-based website and Yahoo provided his user account information to the Chinese authorities that became one of the evidence in his conviction.

Putting the security issue aside, I’ve heard a lot of people speaking excitedly about organizing on Facebook. But most of them seem to come from folks who have not done their homework on Facebook activism. Recently, AIUSA held a meeting for a specific group of volunteers. Facebook was proposed as a way to recruit new people to our work on human rights. It is easy to set up a group or cause on Facebook and ask people to join. But after you get 1,000 or even a million clicks, then what? I am convinced on the attention-getting part of Facebook but in terms of turning the hyped attention into real activism (such as sending hard copy letters to foreign governments, calling our politicians about US domestic or foreign policies, etc), I doubt we will get real results. Washington Post calls this the “Click-through Activism”. There is also Ethan Zuckerman’s blog post on this topic reflecting on the short-lived Facebook movement that followed the “Saffron Revolution” in Burma in 2007. DigiActive published a handbook on Facebook activism last year which details what needs to be done after starting a Facebook group.

I had the fortune to attend a presentation by social media guru Beth Kanter a long time ago. She gave examples of nonprofits using social media but she warned that to be successful, an organization needs to assign a staff to spend 2-3 hours a day on this new medium. She quoted Micah Sifry of Personal Democracy Forum:

If you want your organization to become an online activism hub, it takes a deep level of engagement to build a successful socnet. Staff need to spend real-time cultivating people and need to be given real authority to speak on behalf of the organization.

This expert advice is contrary to the proposed strategy of using volunteers to recruit new members on Facebook for a cash-strapped membership organization. Volunteers are rarely given “real authority” to speak on behalf of an organization to begin with. Can we expect a volunteer to spend a minimum of 10 hours a week on Facebook solely for an organization? I am sure there are some die-hard Facebookers ready to do it but can they do it for a long time (a year or longer) without pay? Last year’s election was successful in this volunteer front but long-term membership engagement can’t be done by volunteers only, can it?

All these arguments might not be enough for me to resist Facebook. A recap of a recent event at UC Berkeley titled, “Social Networks Friend or Foe?” pointed out that social networking may one day become as essential as the telephone. New positive arguments for Facebook are showing up everyday. When a new urge or guilt comes to me, I will just remind myself about a TED video featuring writer Evgeny Morozov. In the video, Morozov explained how the internet helps the authoritarian regimes. Facebook might have been very useful for activists in the post-election protests in Iran but:

In the past it would take you weeks, if not months, to identify how Iranian activists connect to each other. Now you actually know how they connect to each other by looking at their Facebook page. I mean KGB, and not just KGB, used to torture in order to actually get this data. Now it’s all available online.

Dear Colleague letter circulating for Shi Tao

There has been talks around AIUSA about getting a Dear Colleague letter for Shi Tao to circulate in the House of Representatives for quite a while. I thought the idea was dead until I was told about its go-ahead about 3 weeks ago. It took another week to finally get the Dear Colleague and the letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice out to the House. By the time I had a moment to send emails to other activists, there was less than two weeks left to urge Representatives to sign the letter to Secretary Rice by the March 12th* deadline. The time frame is short but I am glad it is happening. (*Update: The deadline has been extended to March 26th.)

I’ve already heard from two AIUSA members about calling their Representatives. I didn’t have time to call my Representative during the day so I sent a fax from home in the evening. If you want to do the same, use this template to print a letter to your Representative.

In past years, Congressman Tom Lantos had often been the one releasing a Dear Colleague letter on China for AIUSA. Since his passing, I wonder who will pick up this work. Congressman Frank Wolf co-sponsored Resolutions and Dear Colleague with Lantos for years in criticizing China’s human rights records. However, the current letter was introduced by Dana Rohrabacher. He is another Republican getting involved in the issue of Internet censorship in China in addition to Chris Smith reintroducing the Global Online Freedom Act last year. Where are the Democrats? Is this a new trend?

Update: Secretary Rice visited Beijing on February 26th. The Dear Colleague letter is a little late. On the other hand, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang supposedly sent a letter to Secretary Rice before her trip that mentioned the cases of Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning but she has yet to see it. The credit should now go to the Secretary herself as she raised several cases including Shi Tao during private sessions with China’s Foreign Minister.

Related links:

• US Secretary of State: Joint Press Conference With Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (full transcript & excerpt video)
• Yodel Anecdotal (Yahoo company blog): Windows of opportunity

Losing a champion of human rights

I checked the headlines of the BBC News this morning as usual and was shocked to hear Congressman Tom Lantos has passed away. He was the greatest ally in Washington for human rights organizations. AIUSA worked with him on numerous occasions. Whenever I was asked to spread the word about a Dear Colleague letter being circulated in Congress written on behalf of a prisoner of conscience, Lantos was always one of the two representatives who initiated the letter.

Most recently, he scolded Yahoo executives over their negligence of handling the company’s involvement in the imprisonment of journalist Shi Tao in China during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing last November. A few days after the hearing, Yahoo settled a lawsuit with the family members of Shi Tao and imprisoned pro-democracy writer Wang Xiaoning. There is no doubt in my mind that the hearing played a major role in the outcome of the lawsuit.

Although I only learned about Rep. Lantos through the media or emails circulated from AIUSA, my impression of him is a person who gets it when it comes down to human rights. Most of his colleagues would put other priorities in front of human rights but not Lantos. Losing a go-to person like him feels like losing the greatest captain in the worst storm at sea.

Related news and links:

• AIUSA press release: Amnesty International USA Mourns Loss of Rep. Tom Lantos, Longtime Champion for Human Rights
• Associated Press: Rep. Tom Lantos Dead at 80
• NPR: In Lantos, Congress Loses a Touchstone
• Voice of America: US Congress Loses Key Human Rights, Foreign Policy Voice
• San Jose Mercury News: Editorial: A tireless champion of human rights
• CNET: Recalling Rep. Lantos, who assailed Yahoo over China policies

The fight for human rights is not a sexy business

I was on a conference call with a couple of people today about planning some work for the Olympics campaign in the next few months. Some questions that came up really bother me. It started from a comment that the AI campaign materials for the Beijing Olympics do not have much attraction for the media. I responded that some prisoners-focused materials will be released soon and they might help.

A question came up about whether families of prisoners would be available for media interview. For some countries, it might be possible. But in China, most family members stay away from any involvement with the prisoners because of the consequences that come along simply for being related to a political prisoner. Take the case of Shi Tao. Since he was jailed for sending an email to a US-based website about a government order, his wife was questioned by security officials daily. She was also pressured to divorce him and she eventually did although she had not done any outspoken advocating for him. Shi Tao’s brother and uncle were harassed by the authorities. The only person who dare to speak up is his mother, Gao Qinsheng but she also experienced monitoring and harassment until she turned her attention to Yahoo because they provided to the authorities Shi Tao’s email account holder information that became part of the evidence for his conviction.

In recent years, a few wives of prisoners are much more fearless than others. Yuan Weijing, the wife of blind activist Chen Guangcheng has been consistently prevented from traveling freely inside China including trips to visit her parents and to see a dentist. It did not prevent her from being mobile. Last August, she planned a visit to the Philippines to accept an award for Chen. She made it all the way from Shandong to Beijing but the authorities caught up with her at the airport.

Activist Hu Jia’s wife, Zeng Jinyan blogged about her experience when Hu was detained by the authorities and assisted him making videos of their daily lives when he was under house arrest for over 200 days in 2006. She herself is now under house arrest along with their two month old baby ever since Hu was taken away by police in late December. The officials sent the family a formal arrest notification today. AI extended last month’s Urgent Action for the couple.

When I found it hard for anyone to be ignorant about the danger of speaking up for prisoners in China, another strange question came up during the call. The question was whether any prisoners of conscience that AI is featuring in the Olympics campaign has athletic abilities. First of all, sports is a state-sponsored program in China. If you are a trouble-maker, you are out of the program. Secondly, recreational sports is not accessible to most people in China. Those who are lucky to attend a nice school might get a chance to take PE in school. Once the adult age is reached, people focus on making a living and simple survival for daily necessities. Finally, those who became political prisoners had to dedicate most of their free time to their cause.

Human rights is a hard sell to the media. For those of us who fight for the true heroes around the world, the work is not sexy. But I believe in simple story telling. When you can connect a human rights abuse to a real person, you can no longer deny the horrible things we do to each other.

New animation for Shi Tao

An artist donated his time creating an animation with a simple message.
The high resolution version is here (QuickTime required).

Yahoo lawsuit settled but prisoners remain in jail

The big news today is Yahoo settled the lawsuit filed by the World Organization for Human Rights USA (HRUSA) on behalf of imprisoned pro-democracy writer Wang Xiaoning, his wife Yu Ling, and imprisoned journalist Shi Tao. The settlement was discussed over the weekend as the lawsuit dismissal document was filed today but it was dated last Friday November 9, 2007.

While I was at an AIUSA conference this past weekend, I had a chance to talk to a staff member from HRUSA about the Congressional hearing where Yahoo was heavily criticized by almost everyone on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. I found out about the video of Jerry Yang talking to Harry Wu, Gao Qinsheng and Yu Ling before the hearing. You cannot hear what they talked about in the video and the four of them spoke in Mandarin. Gao Qinsheng told the HRUSA staff that Jerry Yang apologized and she felt it was sincere, especially because he is Chinese. Having Jerry Yang as the CEO might be the main drive for the settlement. Would a non-Chinese CEO settle the lawsuit? I doubt it.

Yahoo’s image has to have experienced some major damage this past week. Settling the lawsuit might be the best way to recover some grounds. Details of the settlement is still private at the moment but some media reports suggested Yahoo will create a fund to support political dissidents that are affected by Internet censorship. Regardless of the exact dollar amount agreed in the settlement, Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning remain in prison. The work is not done yet but a small victory is better than nothing at all.

Related news and links:

• World Organization for Human Rights USA: Yahoo Settles Case Amid Pressure from Congress and Mounting Legal Challenges
• Justia: Xiaoning et al v. Yahoo! Inc, et al (collection of court documents from the lawsuit)
• House Committee on Foreign Affairs: Lantos on Yahoo! Inc. Lawsuit Settlement: Long Overdue, and Not the End of the Issue
• Reuters: Yahoo settles case over Chinese dissident e-mails
• San Francisco Chronicle: Yahoo settles with jailed Chinese journalists

Yahoo, Congressional hearing and briefing recap

The House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing with Yahoo executives from last week had been widely reported in the media and digested through blogs and comments. Instead of adding my two cents to the clouds, I am listing here some relevant links:

• House Committee on Foreign Affairs:
  • Hearing Information
  • Opening Statement of Chairman Tom Lantos
  • Jerry Yang’s testimony
  • Michael Callahan’s testimony
  • Video of hearing (.SMI file)
• C-SPAN: video of hearing (RealPlayer required)
• AIUSA: Statement on Yahoo! Testimony Before Congressional Committee Regarding the Company’s Involvement in Case of Imprisoned Chinese Journalist
• Radio Free Asia – Cantonese service (Traditional Chinese): Jerry Yang apologizes to Shi Tao’s mother Gao Qinsheng
• RFA video recorded before the hearing showing Jerry Yang talking to Harry Wu, Gao Qinsheng and Yu Ling, the wife of imprisoned internet writer Wang Xiaoning

While the hearing was reported everywhere, there was almost zero reporting on the Congressional Human Rights Caucus briefing that happened the following day. Here’s the announcement of the briefing:

Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC) Briefing:
China and the Internet: A Virtual Road to Prison
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Room: TBA

Please join the Congressional Human Rights Caucus for a briefing on the subject of human rights and the Internet in China. The briefing is open to the public and media, and will be held on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007, at 10:30 a.m. in the US Congress (room t.b.a.).

China has long developed one of the most sophisticated content-filtering Internet regimes in the world. The Chinese government employs sophisticated methods to limit content online, including a combination of legal regulation,”voluntary codes of conduct,” internet surveillance, and criminal sentencing to brutally suppress the free flow of information and to promote self-censorship.

Informational websites, including that of the BBC, Radio Free Asia, Voice of America and the public encyclopedia, Wikipedia, have been partially or completely blocked in China. Particularly in light of the upcoming 2008 Olympics, the Chinese government has made it very clear that it intends to crack down on any information critical of the Chinese regime and its actions. For this purpose, President Hu Jintao announced earlier in April of this year a campaign to rid the country’s sprawling Internet of “unhealthy content” and to “purify” it.

For some time human rights organizations have raised their concerns about freedom of expression and Internet censorship in China. In 2004, Yahoo came under fire for giving the personal email address of a Chinese journalist, Shi Tao, to the PRC government, which resulted in his conviction and sentence to 10 years in prison. Other Internet companies have closed down journalists’ blogs under pressure from the Chinese authorities and have self-censored their search engines and blog tools.

To discuss these important issues, we welcome as expert witnesses:**

• Lucie Morillon, Reporters without Borders
• T. Kumar, Amnesty International
• Joshua Rosenzweig, The Dui Hua Foundation

**Witness list subject to change.

At the briefing, Gao Qinsheng and Yu Ling were part of the panel speakers as reported by RFA – Cantonese Service (RFA reporting in Traditional Chinese) and its accompanied video.

Update (11-13-2007): RFA – Mandarin Service posted online last week’s in-studio interview with Gao Qinsheng and Yu Ling (Mandarin interview and English translation).

Shi Tao’s birthday and police document exposed

Today is the birthday of Shi Tao. He turned 39 years old. Coincidentally, the Dui Hua Foundation released today the English translation of a police document that was first exposed on the US-based Chinese-language web site Boxun.com. The document shows that the Beijing State Security Bureau stated clearly the basis of their request to Yahoo! for information on Shi Tao’s email account. Yahoo’s claim of “we had no information about the nature of the investigation” no longer holds up.

This may hurt Yahoo’s chances in the lawsuit against the company filed by the World Organization for Human Rights USA on behalf of jailed Chinese dissident, Wang Xiaoning. Just over a month ago, Shi Tao was added to the lawsuit and his mother Gao Qinsheng visited the US around that time to campaign for Shi Tao’s release and also sign some paperwork for the lawsuit. She and Albert Ho, chairman of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party visited with US Congressman Chris Smith to discuss Smith’s work for the House Bill, “Global Online Freedom Act.” Gao also visited the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York and collected the CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award 2005 for her son.

Related news and links:

• Dui Hua Foundation: Police Document Sheds Additional Light on Shi Tao Case
• CPJ: Mother of jailed Chinese journalist calls for international protest
• RFA – Cantonese Service (Traditional Chinese): Gao Qinsheng continues her campaign for Shi Tao in New York
• RFA – Cantonese Service (Traditional Chinese): Shi Tao’s Mother Gao Qinsheng met with Congressman
• RFA – Cantonese Service (Traditional Chinese): Shi Tao’s Mother Gao Qinsheng hopes to speak at Yahoo’s shareholder meeting