Vine co-founder is leaving

Read the Full Story HERE The Verge

Read the Full Story HERE on re/code

Dom Hofmann, co-founder of the social video-sharing service Vine, has stepped down from his lead general manager role at the company, according to three sources close to the situation.

Hofmann, who has led the company since its inception in early 2012, will take a far smaller role in developing the product, and will no longer be working on Vine on a day-to-day basis, these sources said. Instead, Hofmann has been working on another yet-to-be-revealed startup, the details of which are unclear at this point.

Vine co-founder and former chief technical officer Colin Kroll will take over Hofmann’s daily duties leading the New York-based Vine’s staff of approximately 14 employees. Sources also said that Vine is close to hiring a Manhattan-based product leader to work on the team, though that role hasn’t been filled quite yet.

(Update 12:30 p.m. PT: And according to four sources, the role has indeed just recently been filled. Jason Toff, a product manager at YouTube, has accepted the new product manager position at Vine, though I’ve been told this shouldn’t be considered a replacement for Hofmann’s previous role. Both Toff and Twitter did not respond to requests for comment.)

Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner declined to comment on the matter.

Related articles

• Vine Co-Founder Dominic Hofmann on why six seconds was perfect
• Vine is the Twitter of YouTube
• Vine introduces web profiles with vanity URLs
• Vine finally lets you embed its bite-sized videos on the web

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Candy Crush App

By King.com Limited

Price - Free
Buy it on the App Store!

Category - Games

Greg's Review

I am hooked on this game. It is a great quick fix game you can play when you have a few minutes to kill. It also limits you to 5 lives at a time. This is extremely important because the game is highly addictive.

If you use Facebook you will be surprised at how many of your friends play the game. The app is integrated with Facebook letting you compete with your friends. This game is good for all ages.

From Developer

Switch and match your way through more than 300 levels in this delicious and addictive puzzle adventure. Ain't it the sweetest game ever?

Please note: Candy Crush Saga is completely free to play but some in-game items such as extra moves or lives will require payment. You can turn-off the payment feature by disabling in-app purchases in your device’s settings.

The super hit game Candy Crush Saga is now available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch! 

------------------------------- 
Join Tiffi and Mr. Toffee in their epic adventure through a world full of candy. 

Take on this deliciously sweet saga alone or play with friends to see who can get the highest score! 

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Candy Crush Saga features: 
● Tasty graphics that will leave you hungry for more 
● Easy and fun to play, but a challenge to fully master 
● Over 100 sweet levels 
● Leaderboards for you and your friends 
● Items to unlock by completing levels 
● Boosters and charms to help with those challenging levels 
● Seamless synchronization with the Facebook version
------------------------------- 

Last, but not least, a big THANK YOU goes out to everyone who has played Candy Crush Saga! 

Already a fan of Candy Crush Saga? Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest news: 

facebook.com/CandyCrushSaga 
twitter.com/CandyCrushSaga 


*Minimum iOS version recommended: 4.3.5*

Related articles

• In The Last Week I've Spent $127 Playing Candy Crush Saga
• Free to Play Candy Crush Saga Raking in $633,000 Daily From In App Purchases
• Candy Crush Saga: Why you play and why you pay
• This Is Why All Your Friends Are Currently Addicted To Candy Crush Saga
• Freemium App Candy Crush Saga Earns A Record-Breaking $633,000 Each Day

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Syrian Electronic Army: Background, Operations, Gov't Affiliations

The Syrian Electronic Army (originally called Syrian Electronic Soldiers) was created in May 2011 by the Syrian Computer Society who registered the domain Syria-es.com and .org with Network Solutions. 

The Syrian Computer Society was founded in 1989 by Bassel al-Assad, the son of then Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. Later, his brother Bashar took over the SCS presidency and Bashar later become the current President of Syria. The SCS is affiliated with the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Higher Education. Its original goal was to "introduce information technology to all the economic sectors in Syria".

The following domains are all associated with the Syrian Electronic Army and all point to IP address 213.178.227.152, which is hosted at the Syrian Computer Society's ISP (SCS-net) located in Damascus, Syria:

• mail.syrian-es.com
• mail.syrian-es.net
• mail.syrian-es.org
• syrian-es.com
• syrian-es.net
• syrian-es.org
• syrianelectronicarmy.com
• www.syrian-es.com
• www.syrian-es.org

The Syrian government also uses SCS-net hosting for its Ministry of Defense (mod.gov.sy) at IP address: 213.178.225.248. The website presently shows as under construction. This may be significant because there are at least nine ISPs operating in Syria which offer hosting options for the Syrian Electronic Army, yet they continue to use the same service which hosts the Ministry of Defense and other government websites.

The domain name syrianelectronicarmy.com was recently created (Feb 24, 2013) and remains active. They promote themselves via social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube:

• https://twitter.com/SEA_Official7
• https://www.facebook.com/SEA.205
• http://www.youtube.com/user/syrianes1

Other than being the registration agent for the domain name Syrian-es.com, as well as providing hosting services for SEA websites, neither the Syrian Computer Society nor anyone in the Syrian government has claimed an official capacity for the Syrian Electronic Army however President Assad referred to them in a speech on June 20, 2011 when he mentioned the "electronic army" while praising Syria's actual Army:

The army consists of the brothers of every Syrian citizen, and the army always stands for honour and dignity. Young people have an important role to play at this stage, because they have proven themselves to be an active power. There is the electronic army which has been a real army in virtual reality.

According to the SEA website, their objective is to fight Arab and Western media who are "fabricating the truth about what is happening in Syria". Their operations have included attacks against social media outlets for:

• Associated Press
• 60 Minutes
• 48 Hours
• CBS Denver
• ENERGY 103.7 San Diego
• NPR
• BBC
• Al Jazeera
• Agence France-Presse (AFP)
• Reuters
• Haaretz

They've also leaked documents from the following organizations:

• Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Qatar Armed Forces
• Qatar Amiri Diwan
• League of Arab States

Syria, like Iran, Israel, Estonia, China, Russia, and other countries, is leveraging the talent, patriotism, and enthusiasm of its Internet-savvy youth to act as a force multiplier in its military and geopolitical operations at almost zero cost and very little risk.

Related Sources:

"Pattern of Attacks of Syrian Electronic Army" - Live analysis by RecordedFuture
"The Emergence of Open and Organized Pro-Government Cyber Attacks in the Middle East: The Case of the Syrian Electronic Army"

"Syrian Electronic Army: Disruptive Attacks and Hyped Targets"

"The Media War in Syria"

"The Syrian Electronic Army are at cyber war with Anonymous"

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New Twitter App for Blackberry 10

After Gold SDK finally released on 2nd week of December, it seems there are some few changes on Blackberry 10 OS. It's not only the O.S is more liquid than before, but also some of native apps get re-intouch. And one of those is Twitter.

Not like previous version of Twitter on Blackberry 10 OS which still like browser based, the newest Twitter App already like what we can find in browser or file manager. Don't get the point of what I'm talking about?

Just find it below. Hope this can makes us more exciting about Blackberry 10

HONK!! IF YOU WANT BLACKBERRY 10

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The Cyber Warfare Component to Israel's Pillar of Cloud Op

Israeli Defense Forces have been engaged in missile attacks against Hamas targets in Gaza off and on for about a month, however it has escalated in the wake of the killing of Ahmed Jabari, Hamas’ military chief of staff on November 14, 2012. Hamas has announced at least 8 deaths since Israel launched Operation Pillar of Cloud (aka Pillar of Defense), which has primarily involved missile attacks from both sides and the campaign is intensifying.

Operation Pillar of Cloud is reminiscent of Operation Cast Lead which occurred during December '08 - January, '09, however Cast Lead had a widely publicized cyber component in which tens of thousands of attacks were launched by Israeli and Arab hackers against government websites and communications infrastructure on both sides. To date, no such action has been publicized short of an Information Operation being conducted on Twitter between the IDF and the al-Qassam Brigades.

However, back in October when the missile attacks first began, the IDF announced that it was stepping up its recruiting efforts for computer-savvy soldiers. This announcement came the day before the IDF was to hold an awards ceremony honoring 12 soldiers "engaged in the army's cyber-defense activities".  I checked on the likelihood that offensive cyber operations by the IDF would be included in Operation Pillar of Cloud with retired Mossad officer, Michael Ross, who told me that it's safe to say that "every IDF operation includes cyber network attacks of a greater or lesser scale."

Finally, there's this announcement which appeared today on Twitter:

While it's too early to know for sure the scale of cyber warfare running concurrently with this operation, one thing is certain. The Middle East is proving to be the best practical "lab" there is for studying what does and doesn't constitute acts of cyber warfare.

UPDATE 16NOV12 0424PST: Arab hacker group Oujda-Tech Group (formerly Mr. Ben Laden) defaced 40 Israeli websites (non-government) to protest Gaza missile strikes.

UPDATE 15NOV12 2000PST: Th3J35t3r takes down Hamas-friendly websites including ".qassam.ps"and "hamasinfo.net".

UPDATE 15NOV12 1728PST: Anonymous aligns itself with Gaza and against the IDF:

[W]hen the government of Israel publicly threatened to sever all Internet and other telecommunications into and out of Gaza they crossed a line in the sand. As the former dictator of Egypt Mubarack learned the hard way - we are ANONYMOUS and NO ONE shuts down the Internet on our watch. To the IDF and government of Israel we issue you this warning only once. Do NOT shut down the Internet into the "Occupied Territories", and cease and desist from your terror upon the innocent people of Palestine or you will know the full and unbridled wrath of Anonymous.

UPDATE 15NOV12 1110PST: Evan Kohlmann (@IntelTweet) posted via Twitter today: "Hackers in Gaza have leaked 35,000 credit card numbers of "Zionist civilians" as a "response from the lions to the aggression of the Jews."

Related

Early Warnings: Cyber and Kinetic Warfare in Gaza (RecordedFuture.com)
Anonymous Attacks Israeli Air Force Website and Other Targets

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Pinterest for Android

By Pinterest

Price - free on amazon.com for Android

Category - social media

Greg's Review

This review is simple. It works just like the web site. I can't tell the difference which is great because their web site is one of the best web apps around.

The pictures are great resolution and it loads new content very quickly. I haven't checked it over a 3G connection but that has got to slow it down to a crawl. I didn't even have to put in my user name and password. I was able to log in with my Facebook account.

If you like Pinterest you will like the app. Enjoy.

From Developer

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

Join millions of pinners who are using Pinterest to share and explore their interests:

• Find recipes that will surprise your friends
• Plan destinations for your next vacation
• Collect your favorite music videos
• Discover design ideas for your home

Product Features:

• Pin what you love from around the web
• Discover content by browsing interest categories
• Explore pins and boards curated by pinners you follow
• Repin, like and comment on your favorite pins
• Pin with your camera

Related articles

• Pinterest Top Ten Tips (a.k.a. Pinterest is more than just Home Decor and Party Ideas)
• Getting Visual with Pinterest Marketing Strategy: Part II
• Pinfluencer's Pinner360 Feature Shows The Most Important Metrics on Pinterest
• Pinterest Leads Social Networks for Shopping Engagement
• Pinterest Basics

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Hashtag This Week 4 BB10 #mybb10

Games keeps going. Hashtag minggu ini #mybb10. Silakan dimuat di setiap posting yang berhubungan dengan BB related. Sehingga gaung Blackberry 10 bisa terus berdengung dan menggema. Siapa tau Launching BB10 nya bisa jauh lebih dipercepat. Be Trend, Be Ten guys.

Last Hashtag: #isatbb4bb10
This Week; #mybb10.

Hashtags are still using: #bb10believe, #blackberry10

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Hashtag #BB10Believe dan #Isatbb4bb10

Seperti yang telah saya utarakan pada posting pertama saya di blog ini, saya ingin ikut meramaikan peluncuran Blackberry 10. Oleh karenanya, setiap Tweet saya, selalu saya cantumkan hashtag #BB10Believe (saya dapat dari Crackberry) dan #Isatbb4bb10 (saya dapat dari milis Isat BB). Ikut meramaikan, seperti nya pas bagi kegiatan saya di dalam mencantumkan kedua hashtag tersebut.

Jadi atau tidak jadinya RIM meluncurkan BB10, tidak mempengaruhi saya di dalam menggunakan Blackberry untuk menunjang kegiatan saya sehari-hari. Namun, sangat disayangkan kalo sampai tidak jadi luncurkan. Dan ternyata, sepertinya peluncuran BB10 akan lebih cepat dari yang pernah diumumkan sebelumnya (harapannya sih begitu).


Koq begitu banget ya kalo membicarakan soal Blackberry 10? apakah bedanya signifikan? Sejujurnya, Blackberry 10 memberikan pengalaman yang berbeda ketika menggunakannya. Bisa dikatakan, Blackberry 10 mengalami revolusi dari para pendahulunya. Nanti kita bicarakan panjang lebar mengenai Blackberry 10 ini beserta pendukung-pendukung nya yang lain.

Jika anda tertarik untuk mengikuti jejak saya, yaitu ikut meramaikan peluncuran Blackberry 10, silakan anda tambahkan hashtag #BB10Believe dan #Isatbb4bb10. Jika tertarik untuk subscribe di komunitas Indosat Blackberry, silakan kirim email kosong ke isat-bb-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Untuk yang tinggal di kota Palembang, Indosat Blackberry juga ada chapternya di sana. Silakan subscribe ke isat-bb-palembang@yahoogroups.com

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Questions about Yuri Milner, the KGB, and the Influence of Foreign Governments

Yuri Milner during a session of the Presidential commission
 on Modernisation of Russian Economy held in MISIS* 

As discussed at the recent Suits and Spooks conference, social networks are contributing to revolutionary changes taking place worldwide and as a result they've become an indispensable platform for offensive operations as well as intelligence collection. One of the world's most sophisticated investors in social meda is Yuri Milner. As co-founder and CEO of DST Global (formerly known as Digital Sky Technologies), he leads a multi-national social media investment powerhouse staffed by many ex-Goldman Sachs employees and fueled with investment by Tencent (China) and Naspers (South Africa). Combined, these three companies have significant ownership interest in some of the largest online properties in the world including Facebook, Twitter, GroupOn, Zynga, Riot Games, Astrum Online Entertainment, Mail.ru, QQ, ICQ, Ibibo, Alibaba, and many more.

From a national security perspective, this raises a number of red flags (no pun intended). One of the biggest is the question of what Yuri Milner's relationship was and is with the Russian government., This isn't a question born out of pure speculation. Yuri Milner spent the 2nd half of the 1990's in a senior position at Bank Menatep.  According to Congressional testimony, Bank Menatep started as a front for Russian money-laundering and was reportedly controlled by the KGB. This came out in testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Banking and Financial Services on September 21, 1999. A few select quotes follow:

YURI SHVETS (former KGB agent). Yes, Mr. Chairman, Menatep was one of the largest Russian banks, the most heavily penetrated by the KGB, starting with the former KGB Chairman, Ivanenko. There were different factions within the KGB before the collapse of the Soviet Union, after collapse of the Soviet Union. So Menatep apparently worked more closer with the faction of the KGB which supported Boris Yeltsin in his fight against so-called ''Gigashipa'' in August 1991, and it basically fits the pattern of the KGB-penetrated financial institution. 

Chairman LEACH. Do you have any comments on Menatep, Ms. Williamson?

 ANN WILLIAMSON (author of "Contagion: The Betrayal of Liberty; Russia and the United States in the 1990's"). Well, it was known as a gangster bank in Moscow. And one thing about the KGB involvement, though, is that the CPSU banked at the Vnesheconomobank, which in the trade is known as V-Bank; and account number one belonged to CPSU, and it was actually KGB that handled the money transfers and so forth for the Communist Party under the Soviet Union. So their moving into Menatep was also a certain capturing of professionalism.

But I do know that Income Bank employees used to complain vociferously, because they said there is no end to the money Menatep can get; they constantly were refilled, they told me. 

Chairman LEACH. Yes, I know.

Some of the most damning testimony about Menatep Bank from the 1999 Russian money-laundering hearings came from Ms. Karon von Gerhke-Thompson, VP at First Columbia Company, Inc.:

STATEMENT OF KARON von GERHKE-THOMPSON, VICE PRESIDENT, FIRST COLUMBIA COMPANY, INC.
In April of 1993, I volunteered my services as an unpaid intelligence asset to the CIA on a CIA operation to penetrate what the CIA, FBI and Department of Justice knew was a KGB money laundering operation that had tentacles that reached into the Kremlin to Boris Yeltsin. The target of the operation was Alexandre Konanykhine, the U.S. Vice President of Menatep Bank and President of Greatis USA, a public relations and advertising firm that he alleged represented Menatep Bank, the European Union Bank and Greatis Russia, among others.
Konanykhine was a known KGB asset running a KGB money laundering operation with stolen funds that were passed through Khodorkovsky of Menatep Bank as a KGB-controlled front firm. The money was being laundered through Menatep Bank that is also alleged to be KGB-owned and controlled, as is Menatep's wholly-owned subsidiary, Yukos Oil.
In April of 1994, I was advised by two CIA intelligence officers that the operation had been compromised by convicted spy Aldrich Ames.

While this particular CIA operation ended in 1994, Milner joined the bank in 1995. The KGB had become the FSB and Bank Menatep continued to function until it lost its license in 1999 after the bank failed during the August 1998 Russian financial crisis.  Bank Menatep was one of the Russian banks where the International Monetary Fund deposited the $4.8 billion loan to support the Russian government.  As Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz detailed in Globalization and Its Discontents, the IMF and World Bank watched as the funds moved to Cypriot and Swiss bank accounts within days of the loan’s deposit.  Bank Menatep was left with Russian government bonds that were worthless when the Russian government defaulted.  As the timeline below shows, Milner was a senior official at Bank Menatep during this period:

• 1990-1991: Student at Wharton School of Business
• 1992-1994: Staffer at the World Bank in Washington DC
• 1995-1996: General Director of Alliance Menatep
• 1997-1998: Deputy Chairman & Head of Investment Management at Menatep Bank
• 1998: Regained his earlier position as General Director, Alliance Menatep
• 1998: CEO, New Trinity Investments
• 1999: His tenure as Menatep Bank ended when the bank lost its license

Why Does This Matter?
The Russian government, like other totalitarian regimes in Asia, the Middle East and Northern Africa, is heavily invested in ways to control the Internet in general and online social networks in particular. They're all afraid of a repetition of the Arab Spring occurring within their own dissident populations. As Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre recently said "Social Media challenge regimes. People bring them down." One way that the Russian and Chinese governments can penetrate and gain influence in foreign-owned social networks is to encourage investment by their national champion firms like Tencent (China) and Milner's DST-Global (Russia). By investment, I mean significant ownership stakes worth hundreds of millions of dollars. With that kind of money comes influence, and influence opens the door to lots of insider privileges and favors.

Social Media Investments for DST, Tencent, Naspers

Social media is clearly a growth industry and should provide healthy returns on investment for all of the companies who play in that space. However that doesn't change the fact that for companies formed inside the borders of potential adversary states like Russia and China, government influence is an undeniable factor. Add to that the close relationships that Yuri Milner has had by virtue of working at a KGB-controlled bank in the 90's and his ongoing relationships with powerful government officials like Vladimir Surkov and oligarchs like Alisher Usmanov both past and present, not to mention his service on various government commissions, and you must conclude that there is the potential for significant conflicts of interest if, as the Russian government fears, Russians use social media to assert the same rights as Tunisians, Egyptians, and Libyans. The rapid embrace of Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, and even online gaming by over a billion people has made us all more vulnerable to attack and exploitation by bad actors - state-sponsored or not. What pressures foreign governments may exert upon their influential citizens and the companies they run is a national security question that must be discussed sooner or later.
----------------
* Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dyor/4893792942/in/photostream

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DST Global, Social Media, and Favors For The Kremlin

Dvorkovich & Milner*

My company has been advising government and corporate interests about Russian investment in social media in general and DST Global in particular since 2009. I've had the unique "privilege" of having an article about the CEO of DST Global pulled from Forbes.com with nothing more than a phone call from Mr. Milner to Forbes followed by a threatening letter from his attorney. Now I see that DST Global II has finally succeeded in convincing Twitter to take its money - $400 million for a 5% stake in the company.

Two Predictions
If Milner's pattern with past investments holds true, two things will happen in the months following this Twitter investment:

1. DST Global II will increase its holdings in Twitter one way or another. With Facebook it was through the purchase of employee shares. Time will tell how it happens with Twitter, but rest assured, it will happen.
2. Yuri Milner will perform some high profile service for the Russian government most likely having to do with the security of Runet (the Russian Internet).

These predictions are based upon the following historical record:

These tables were created for a paper that I wrote entitled "The Geopolitical Strategy Of Russian Investment In Facebook And Other Social Networks" for the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. The issue is entitled International Engagement On Cyber: Establishing International Norms & Improved Cyber Security, and will be available by August, 2011.

*The above photo was taken for Kommersant on 30.03.2011 in Russia, Chelyabinsk region, Magnitogorsk. Russian presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich (left) and CEO of the Digital Sky Technologies (DST) Yuri Milner (right) during a meeting of the Commission under the President of Russia on modernization and technological development of economy of Russia.

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In Syria, Being On Facebook Could Get You Killed

The cyber aspects of the ongoing Syrian revolution against President Bashar al-Asad took an ominous turn in the last week.  On May 9th, British paper The Telegraph reported that captured Syrian activists were tortured for their Facebook and Twitter user names and passwords.  The activist’s accounts were then exploited to identify supporters who were rounded up in the government crackdown.  As a result, activists reported that communications with several areas, including Baniyas and Homs, were almost cut off.  Syria’s ally Iran was also providing equipment to jam satellite phones denying activists another potential communications channel.

On May 10th, Syrian satellite TV carried a 15 minute show accusing Facebook of being a tool of the United States and Israel.  The show claimed that the US and Israel failed to destabilize Syria during the Bush administration using false charges that Syria assassinated Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri.  The same forces were turning to Facebook—owned by an "American Jew"—to implement their schemes such as starting fake web pages like Days of Syrian Anger and Syria Revolution.  Then, according to the program, conspirators use mass media to call attention to the pages which disseminate false news and videos claiming that the Syrian security forces are attacking demonstrators and that some were killed.  Thousands of fake links to the web pages create the false impression of widespread popular support.  The show implied that the Syrian Revolution 2011 creator Fida al-Sayyid was funded by the US government.

As proof, yet another government-sponsored television program played alleged Paltalk intercepts from al-Sayyid that described the situation as approaching creative chaos.  The show’s commentary then pointed out that the "creative chaos" doctrine originated with former US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice as justification for unleashing Middle Eastern wars.  The show concluded with a tape message from a Syrian living overseas stating he has documentary evidence that Israel's Mossad is behind the Facebook web pages.

The Syrian government propaganda against Facebook is not surprising given the role social media is playing in the so-called Arab Spring.  However, the pro-revolution Facebook group The Syrian Revolution Against Bashar al-Asad warned on May 6th that calls for demonstrations posted by the Aleppo Revolution Facebook page were being used to lure demonstrators into government ambushes.  On May 16th, The Telegraph published reports from National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria stating that they had found mass graves outside the Syrian town of Dera'a where protests began over two months ago.  The Telegraph included video captures from film posted on YouTube.  The route to a shallow grave outside Dera’a may have begun with a friend’s listing on Facebook.

- This is a guest post by one of Taia Global's analysts -

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Russia's Ongoing Effort To Avoid Revolution by Social Media

Russian President Medvedev is well aware of the influence that Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking websites have played in the revolutionary changes that have been taking place in the Middle East and the Maghreb. He said as much last week when he spoke at a meeting of Russia's Anti-Terrorism Council in Vladikavkaz according to a Feb 24th article in The Moscow Times "Kremlin Sees Peril In Arab Unrest".

Effective today, March 1, 2011, a new Russian law gives police the right to order executives of Internet companies to shut down services which pose a threat to the peace or place the security of the Russian Federation in peril. This follows earlier high profile government efforts to "clean up" the Russian Internet space (known as Runet):

• November, 2009: the Russian Ministry of Communications organizes an effort led by Yuri Milner, Chairman of DST-Global to look for illegal content online and report his findings to the Commission in mid-2010.
• Feb 8, 2011: The League of Internet Safety is launched with Mail.ru Group CEO Dmitry Grishen on its Board of Trustees. Mail.ru Group is a subsidiary of DST-Global.

These internal efforts are preceded by the Kremlin's recognition that the Russia-Georgia war (2008) signaled the beginning of the virtual reality of conflicts and "the need to wage war in the information field too" (Vladislav Surkov in a closed door address to Russian spin doctors as reported in "Information Warfare Chronicles" - Yevropa Press 2009).

Considering that DST-Global either owns or has significant investment in some of the world's largest Internet services companies (Facebook, Zynga, ICQ, Mail.ru, GroupOn, QQ, vKontatke, etc.), Medvedev's strategy may very well achieve its objective of maintaining order through the diversification of control via a citizen's "League", expanded police powers, and the support of corporate officers from billion dollar Russian companies like DST.

UPDATE: (01 Mar 2011 1025 Eastern) Moscow Prosecutor's office seeks to label Live Journal an extremist website. Below are scans of the document from the Live Journal blogger nb_licantrope:

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