User:Francg/expub/thesis/thesis-outline-draft-2-09.11.17

Thesis Outline

What?

We live in an era where information is quickly generated, changed, transformed, updated and shared all over the world almost instantaneously. Information technologies seem to have democratized the Internet, quickly worldwide-spreading facts, knowledge and individuals concerns. However, can we assume that media is a democratic and ethical tool of freedom of expression? Very importantly, this thesis will be contextualised surrounding the events occurred during October 1st in Catalonia, approaching the oppressive methods employed by the Spanish government to censor media before, during and after the referendum, as well as the tools and actions taken by media activists supporting the cause. Simultaneously, sociopolitical instability generates greater expansion and accumulation of data that is constantly exposed, modified and quickly updated by news websites. Although these changes might not be visible for the user, it is nevertheless one of the aspects that results into mass miscommunication and uncertainty. Another goal of this thesis will be to research methods and experiment with tools in order to make data transformation visible and accessible, providing documentation while manifesting this concern to the reader.

--- 100,000 active domain names to provide online space for Catalan language and culture were blocked without notification or court order. Moreover, on September 20, Spain’s Guardia Civil took down all .cat domains used for the referendum. Following a court ruling, Google blocked a Catalan government app that allowed users to check their polling stations. The following day police entered the headquarters of the Catalan government's Telecommunications and IT Center, known as CTTI. The official referendum website was just one of hundreds to be blocked: http://www.referendum.cat/

Peter Sunde on Twitter: "If you're running a Catalan site being shut down by Spanish authorities, contact me for anonymous hosting and domains. We've got you covered."

Furthermore, oppressive measures such as the raiding of printers and distributors in Barcelona, the confiscation of 1.3 million posters and leaflets, and the serving of an injunction against all pro-independence newspapers and web-based news offices to ban publication of any material related to the referendum. ---

Why?

In order to create more insight into the nature of online information, it is important to understand which methods and tools were employed both to censor and free media, which current examples of technology for centralization and control established into apparently democratic and ethical environments. Online journalism often use their website as text processors for writing their first drafts, which allows them to quickly publish a story in nearly real time. Thanks to RSS technology and programming tools, it is possible to bring evidence of the many versions of an article that we might have not read. It is also possible to cross news paywalls to access exclusive information, which can be useful to deepen into some key aspects of this issue, while ethically freeing knowledge.

Wikileaks creator Julian Assange says that "what is happening in Catalonia in the most significant Western conflict between people and state since the fall of the Berlin wall--but its methods are 2017, from VPNs, proxies, mirrors and encrypted chat to internet surveillance and censorship, bot propaganda and body armor." He also accuses Spain of conducting ‘world’s first internet war’ to shut down Catalan referendum: "The world's first internet war has begun, in Catalonia, as the people and government use it to organize an independence referendum on Sunday and Spanish intelligence attacks, freezing telecommunications links, occupying telecoms buildings, censors 100s of sites, protocols etc."

How?

RSS news feeds will be tracked in intervals of times by using diffengine, python and shell scripting programming tools. Article changes will be updated in form of html files, which will be strained through specific character searches, in order to ensure only topic-related articles. This will be set up on a free software Linux OS system, installed on a Raspberry Pi computer. An additional screen display, keyboard and external drive will be integrated into this news station.

Information changes will be streamed and automatically classified online, using data bases such as MondoDB. Additionally, allowing access to this data base trough onion browsers like Tor it would preserve user's anonymity and help address ethical concerns when documenting particular sources. This data base will function as a democratic tool in defense of freedom of information, allowing users to access raw materials/content and additional collaboration features from invited figures (articles, essays, comments, interviews, etc.), while becoming an eyewitness of the actual social political issue, drawing attention on how sometimes online media might look for quick information rather than verified one.

- - - Structure - - -

Pre-October 1st
- Media Censorship
- Google closes informative applications
- Amazon shuts down informative websites/domains.
- Twitter removes account
- Banned Informative Posters
- Printers are taken over
- Banned online advertisements

Internet activists and academics who rallied in the Catalan cause:
- Edward Snowden
- Noam Chomsky
- Julian Assange, Wikileaks creator
- Peter Sunde, Pirate Bay co-founder: helped citizens through twitter to use proxy connection, and avoid Internet providers that censored websites, such Telefonica or Vodafone

October 1st
- Network Censorship
- Online Surveillance
- Cyber-attacks, Frozen Protocols
- Police forces take away bullet boxes
- Anonymity from voters is compromised
- The hackers who made possible a universal electoral register for the Catalan referendum
- Tor, Signal, Linux, Bitcoin, Mobile Phones bought abroad, etc.
- Interviews/docs computer scientists, journals
- Julian Assange on Twitter:'The Internet war has begun'
- Edward Snowden, @Snowden: "One can be against Catalan independence and still in favor of human rights. But one cannot be in favor of Rajoy's crackdown and say the same"

Post-October 1st: Information junkies
- We live in a World of Big Data.
- Mobile/Backpack journalism
- Anybody can be a reporter, instantaneously distributing news on their online communities
- Mass misinformation, inaccurate and unverified content.
- Clickbait: Users are hooked by a continuous data input.
- Information is updated quickly, and many times.
- Information anxiety: How do big amounts of data affect users?
- How does this behavior pattern is reflected on the public opinion?
- Satiric news: they can be spread over the social medias, creating confusion and therefore misinforming.
- Satiric magazine "el Jueves" is taken to Justice, accused by Police authorities for a satiric new

Due to October 1st: Article 155
- Process for juridic normalization
- Media Institutions can be taken over by central government
- Aiming to make news media neutral?
- Control and Centralization

No ethical concerns on social medias:
- Users personal data is traded and sold by social medias.
- Docnow: Community developed around supporting the ethical collection, use, and preservation of social media content.
- Docnow developed advanced programming tools for social research, such as diffengine and twarc, amongst others.
- #ArxivemelMoment (l'Associació d'Arxivers-Gestors documentals de Catalunya) - collects real facts from the 1st of October.
- #NoTincPor: arxivar l’avui per superar el dol - Archiving for the terror attacks in Barcelona

From neutrality to control?:
- How is private data manipulated?
- Are there any concerns on privacy?
- From Twitter 1.0 to 2.0
- From RSS to API: from neutrality to control?
- API involves a signed agreement.
- Why websites don't seem to use RSS feeds anymore?
- What is the benefit of using APIs if news update can't be followed?
- Will RSS technology be back even stronger than before?
- What are proxis?
- Before, the Internet could link to things without permission.

What do I intend to do:

Use tools for decentralization
- Explain which tools I am experimenting with in my project and what can be achieved from it:
- Tools: RSS feed, diffengine, scrapy, beautifulsoup, ttrss, shell scripting, python, Linux OS, document classification systems, MongoDB, Tor, Raspberry Pi.
- What can be achieved: scraping specific info, crossing paywalls (newspaper with required subscription), stream information change from websites using RSS technology (or not), archiving, updating data, etc.
-Examine the relevance of cyber geography and how to get round its limitations
- Consider deep web media platforms and platform-specific tools

Expose this data using document classification systems
- Reserach Wikileaks structure?
- What is Eventregistry?
- Classify documents in a database, MongoDB
- Invite requests, guests collaborations, feedback, peaces of code, docs, etc.
- Hidden geolocation (anti online surveillance)
- Create a local web server in the Raspberry Pi
- Reinforce & support tools used by hackers during the 1st of October.

Create an installation
- Raspberry Pi connected to a screen display
- Project live document streaming in the database
- Public can connect through mobile phones
- Print a manual ('how to feed your issue'): explain how this system has been developed, specs, tools, etc.
- Print a book/series of books: compilation of 'epic news changes' arranged by time.