Want to fight Ahmadinejad? Move to China!

Another great revelation of the week: it IS possible to be an uber-effective cyber-dissident in China. You just have to aim your dissent at some other government. Two Shanghai-based young Iranians are defying the Tehran regime with a reworked version of the award-winning graphic novel "Persepolis," telling the story of Iran’s bloody post-election uprising. Written ...

Another great revelation of the week: it IS possible to be an uber-effective cyber-dissident in China. You just have to aim your dissent at some other government.

Another great revelation of the week: it IS possible to be an uber-effective cyber-dissident in China. You just have to aim your dissent at some other government.

Two Shanghai-based young Iranians are defying the Tehran regime with a reworked version of the award-winning graphic novel "Persepolis," telling the story of Iran’s bloody post-election uprising.

Written by Iranian-French emigre Marjane Satrapi, the original "Persepolis" is a black comedy based on her early life in Iran, set against the backdrop of the Islamic revolution, that in 2007 was turned into an Oscar-nominated film.

In "Persepolis 2.0," Satrapi’s black-and-white drawings are reshuffled — with her blessing — to tell of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed victory, the mass protests that shook the country and the crackdown by Tehran.

Posted online at www.spreadpersepolis.com, the 10-page comic rewrites the captions to chart the hope and excitement among Iranians ahead of the June 12 poll, which turned to anger amid accusations of fraud at the ballot box.

…Some 100,000 people have viewed the site since its launch a few weeks ago, from the United States to Italy, France and Canada.

With people inside Iran, "communication has been tight because of the Internet censorship," they said, referring to Tehran’s stepped up control of the web since the election protests, with sites such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube blocked. 

If things continue at this pace, China may want to turn Macau into a cyber-dissident colony, where dissidents, hacktivists, and critical bloggers of all stripes can safely take on their least favorite governments. It would also help if those governments have some beef with China. 

Evgeny Morozov is a fellow at the Open Society Institute and sits on the board of OSI's Information Program. He writes the Net Effect blog on ForeignPolicy.com
Tag: China

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