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Campaign: Iranians oppose renaming Persian Gulf
Written by Hamid on June 2, 2008 – 12:31 am -
Description: In recent years, Iranians have launched a relatively successful digital campaign against the renaming of the Persian Gulf as the Arabic Gulf. Several magazines and sites have covered the news of this digital protest, including the BBC. The Persian Gulf is one of the most important national symbols for Iranians and any attempt to rename it creates strong reactions in Iran, both online and off. Here are some of the tactics used in the digital campaign:
Google Bombing
Pendar, an Iranian designer and blogger, shares how he started his google bombing campaign to oppose the renaming of the gulf:
In November 2004, National Geographic published a new edition of their World Atlas. In it, they had used the bogus name of Arabian Gulf in addition to the correct name Persian Gulf. So I made a mock page (+), resembling a 404 error message which said ” the gulf you are looking for does not exist“. I asked other bloggers to link to that page. The response was simply overwhelming. Within a week, hundreds of blogs and websites had taken part and the google bomb exploded, creating a frenzy of media hype. It appeared on an AFP article and Yahoo! News, It also made the first page of BBC news page.
You can go and check your self on Google and type Arabic Gulf and then see what is the first result: “The Gulf You Are Looking For Does Not Exist. Try Persian Gulf.”
e-Petition
In 2008 many Iranians got irritated while they discover the “darling” of the Internet , Google Earth made the same mistake and used the term Arabic Gulf and Persian Gulf together. A petition was launched on Internet which read:
We, the undersigned, through this letter, protest your irresponsible, unscientific actions, and demand an immediate and unconditional deletion of “Arabian Gulf” from Google Earth. Arbitrarily designating the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf is an irresponsible violation of all historical and International standards and would undermine the integrity of Google Earth.
So far total signatures are 755,732.
Hackers
Iranians’ digital activity to protest against renaming of Persian Gulf recently entered a more dynamic phase of action: Hacking Arabic Sites that use Arabic Gulf term. Ashyaneh, a group of Iranian hackers, say that they attacked several Arab language sites that renamed Persian Gulf and call it Arabic Gulf. This group claims that they hacked around 100 different sites.
Blogs
Blogs also play an important role to write on this subject and inform about lastest development. Recently several hundred Iranians demonstrated in front of UAE ambassy in Tehran and bloggers covered it. Mojgan Jamshidi says it is pity that security forces repressed such a peaceful demonstration. She has published several photos of the demonstration. image credit: http://persiangulf.cjb.net
Tags: googlebomb, hackers, Iran, persiangulf
Posted in Blogs, Campaigns, E-Petitions, Mid-East & N. Africa |
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