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GIYUS.org
A screenshot of the desktop application Internet Megaphone. A tool like this could be used for for activist, PR, or astroturf campaigns ranging far beyond conflicts involving Israel. |
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the recent Israeli-Hizbullah War, are fought with more than missiles, airplanes and homemade rockets. There also have been concerted efforts from all sides to convey their perspectives online.
Now, according to an Aug. 31 Jerusalem Post article, the Israeli Foreign Ministry endorsed a World Union of Jewish Students project called Give Israel Your United Support (GIYUS) to counter anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic "talkbacks" in real time.
Talkbacks are the comments found at the end of articles on some news sites, and on many blogs. They're a highly developed "art" form on Israeli news sites, where articles can draw hundreds of talkbacks. I've previously written how the recently launched U.S. news aggregator site Newsvine quickly became a forum for debate among supporters and opponents of both Israel and the Palestinian cause.
The Jerusalem Post did not specifically state where it obtained the endorsement comments attributed to Amir Gissin, director of public affairs for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. No interview with Gissin was mentioned, and no such statement appears on the foreign ministry site at this time. The original Gissin letter endorsing GIYUS was published July 22 on the web site of Stand With Us, a pro-Israel organization. However, so far the authenticity of that letter has not been independently confirmed.
The GIYUS project takes advantage of a desktop application, Internet Megaphone, which was developed by an Israeli company and donated for the cause, to track Talkback comments on Web sites.
On July 26 the pro-Palestinian site Electronic Intifada cited the Stand By Us posting and indicated its supporters should do the same (use a tool like Megaphone) to comment for their side.
Wikipedia currently has a pretty good entry about Internet Megaphone, so that's a starting point for researching this tool.
Alan For partisan views of the war there is no...
