Former Soviet Bloc to Spy on Social Networks

In a move seen as an attempt to censor the web, members of a former Soviet security bloc have agreed to monitor internet-based social networking sites, to prevent Middle East-style popular unrest from breaking out.

The agreement commits Tajikistan, Russia and the other members of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation to exercising surveillance over sites that could be used as rallying-points for social action.

Parvina Ibodova, head of the Association for Internet Providers in Tajikistan, warns that the proposed surveillance could lead to censorship of sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Saifullo Safarov, deputy head of the Tajikistan’s Institute for Strategic Studies, which has close links with the president’s office, said social networking sites could be a dangerous "weapon" in the hands of regime opponents, who could coordinate protests without anyone being able to stop them.

Ibodova disputed this view of the internet, pointing out that most revolutions in the past took place without social networking sites to coordinate protesters.

“If there’s a bad regime, a dictatorship, a weak economy or poverty in some country or region, then the presence or otherwise of Twitter or Facebook doesn’t obviate the fact that there’s dissatisfaction,” she said.

The audio programme, in Russian and Tajik, went out on national radio stations in Tajikistan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.