GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: U.S. State Department starts Farsi Twitter feed

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: CNN

14February2011 12:32pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: The U.S. State Department launched a new Farsi-language Twitter feed Sunday in a bid to connect with internet users in Iran.

"US State Dept recognizes historic role of social media among Iranians. We want to join in your conversations," the department said in its first tweet.

The feed was launched just one day before opposition leaders and activists in Iran have called for a protest in support of the Egyptian revolution, according to Saham News. The rally is planned to coincide with the 25th day of Bahman, the 11th month of the Persian calendar.

Following the resignation Friday of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the head of Iran's National Security Council, among other Iranian authorities, lauded the leader's toppling, comparing "the Egyptian Revolution with the victory of Iran's Islamic Revolution," according to Iran's state-run media. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Calls for weekend protests in Syria

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: ALJAZEERA

03February2011 1:35pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Calls for protests in Syria are spreading on social media websites, following popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

Organisers say protests will be staged in front of the parliament in the capital, Damascus, on Friday and Saturday, and at Syrian embassies across the world.

Several pages have been set up on Facebook, with the most popular one, named "The Syrian Revolution", "liked" by about 13,000 people by Thursday.

However, many of those writing comments on Facebook appeared to be Syrians living abroad calling on their "brothers" at home to protest.

Sources in Syria told Al Jazeera they doubted that the calls for protests would really result in much action on the ground.

"I think the day of anger will turn out to be no more than a day of mild frustration," one journalist told Al Jazeera.

"There's no appetite for regime change in Syria as there has been in Egypt for a while. The president isn't hated as much as [Hosni] Mubarak, or seen as out of touch. Also, the local context is very different ... and the poverty rate is significantly lower in Egypt." (read full report)

 

 

 

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's advertisers or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Google Teams Up With Twitter And SayNow To Bring Tweeting-By-Phone To Egypt

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: TechCrunch

31January2011 6:43pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: It was only last week that Google acquired SayNow, a voice messaging startup, They’re already putting them to good use. I mean really good use.

As they’ve just announced on the Google Blog, the search giant has teamed up with the incoming SayNow team and Twitter to create a simple speak-to-tweet service for people currently engulfed in the turmoil in Egypt.

Says Google:

It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet.http://twitter.com/speak2tweet

We hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected at this very difficult time. Our thoughts are with everyone there.

Very, very cool. And important. Especially since reports have the last operating ISP in the country, Noor, being shut down as well.  (read full report)