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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Myanmar Blocks Facebook Access After Online Protests of Military Coup

Thursday, February 4, 2021

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats National Preparedness

Comments: 0

Myanmar blocked access to Facebook after some users in the country in recent days shared material challenging a Monday military coup that ousted the elected civilian government.

People in the country had been posting to Facebook images of people banging pots and pans in a show of opposition to the coup. Some people were also shown making a three-fingered salute that was a symbol of resistance in “The Hunger Games” books and movies, and adopted by protesters after a 2014 military coup in neighboring Thailand.

Some users in Myanmar also changed their Facebook profile photos in recent days to an image showing a white hand making the gesture, set against a black background.

“Telecom providers in Myanmar have been ordered to temporarily block Facebook,” a spokeswoman for Facebook Inc. said Thursday. “We urge authorities to restore connectivity so that people in Myanmar can communicate with family and friends and access important information.”

Telenor Myanmar, part of Norway’s Telenor Group, said it had complied with a government directive to block Facebook and that it was seeking to restore access to the service as soon as possible.

A spokesman for Myanmar’s communications ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

NetBlocks, a London-based organization that monitors internet access, on Thursday said Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and Facebook’s Instagram and WhatsApp services were unavailable on state-owned Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications’ network.

Facebook is Myanmar’s dominant channel for online communications, used by about half of the country’s more than 50 million people. As internet access in the developing Southeast Asian nation has boomed, many have embraced the platform. But it has also been linked to violence in the country.

United Nations investigators in a 2018 report called for Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to be prosecuted for genocide over his role in a military campaign the previous year that killed thousands of members of the Rohingya minority and sent some 740,000 fleeing across the border to Bangladesh. Facebook acknowledged its slow response to a torrent of anti-Rohingya hate speech and misinformation on the platform in Myanmar.

The company in 2018 removed hundreds of pages, groups and accounts, some tied to Myanmar’s military, that it said had abused its services. A Myanmar military television network page later re-emerged, and after Wall Street Journal queries about it, Facebook removed it on Monday.

Gen. Min Aung Hlaing took charge of the country Monday from its civilian-run government after the military detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of her party in a raid that morning.

Twitter Inc., which is less popular than Facebook in Myanmar, remained available on Thursday. With Facebook inaccessible, some people used the platform to voice their anger about the coup. “It’s great to see the transition from Facebook to Twitter among Myanmar people but it’s a shame it has to be under these circumstances,” one wrote.

Photo: Protesting the military on Thursday in Mandalay, Myanmar. - STRINGER/REUTERS

Link: Myanmar Blocks Facebook Access After Online Protests of Military Coup - WSJ

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