RIM Blackberry – Best Mobile Phone – Standing Against Fascism

Whenever I see a company getting ruthlessly attacked by supposedly impartial media outlets and supposedly free and capitalistic government it always makes me think that company must be doing something right.

RIM Blackberry has been on the wrong end of attacks in the mainstream media for around a year now.

It started off with a big song and dance about the Saudi government banning the use of messaging using the Blackberry.

Saudi Arabia, a puppet of the USA if ever there was one, was merely the conduit by which the US government could put pressure on RIM

This move might have back fired because I at least was unaware that the Blackberry has secure messaging that government could not tap into and it made the product much more attractive for a few reasons.

The first was that Saudi Arabia was admitting that they were tapping people’s phones without their knowledge and without using the legal system and that western governments were harranging Saudi Arabia for their immoral demands.

So that made me think the RIM Blackberry was a bit of a rebel in the mobile phone market.

Another reason was the obvious importance RIM Blackberry placed in personal privacy

Another reason the Blackberry started looking more attractive is that the Saudi government were not targeting any other phone makers which must mean that messaging services from other phone makers are completely unsecure and give you no privacy.

But the attack did not end in Saudi Arabia, one of the western medias favourite examples of an undemocratic state.

No, next in line was the UK, one of the supposedly freest societies in the world.

You have the UK government coming out and publicly stating that people being able to communicate with each other without he government being able to listen in is unacceptable.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/blackberry-messenger-used-to-perpetuate-riots-in-london/12089

Legal moves were then made or threatened to be made to force Blackberry to stop encrypting its messaging service

And then today we have Indonesia threatening RIM Blackberry with a ban on its products if it does not unencrypt its messaging service.

Apparently RIM Blackberry has 2 levels of messaging, the normal and the enterprise edition which allows personnel inside a company to communicate with each other securely.

Indonesia is not happy with this and does not think it is acceptable for people inside a private company to communicate with each other without the government being able to listen in.

And the attacks have contiued with viscious and anaonymous attacks getting massive publicity for no apparent reason other than to attack the name of RIM Blackberry.

http://business.financialpost.com/2011/12/16/analysts-see-bleak-future-for-rim/

http://business.financialpost.com/2011/06/30/rim-responds-to-anonymous-open-letter/

So all in all RIM Blackberry seems to be the shining light of freedom in the face of and ever-increasing tyranny we see around the world.

The fact that RIM Blackberry is having to fold in face of massive government abuse is understandable.

The fact the RIM Blackberry is the only mobile phone company that believes communication between two people should be private means I believe RIM Blackberry is the best mobile phone and RIM is the world’s number manufacturer of mobile phones.

Sources

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BlackBerry-Maker RIM, Saudis, Reach Messaging Agreement
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By: Michelle Maisto2010-08-10Article Rating: / 1
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BlackBerry owners in Saudi Arabia will continue to enjoy BlackBerry Messenger services, following successful negotiations between RIM and authorities in Saudi Arabia. Details of the agreement have not been made public.
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E-mail  Print PDF VersionThe ban on BlackBerry Messenger services in Saudi Arabia is over, the Wall Street Journal reported Aug. 10, citing a statement from the country’s Communication and Information Technology Commission.
BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion had been in talks with the Saudi government, which believed RIM’s ultra-secure Messaging services offered undue benefits to criminals. The government demanded certain, publicly unspecified, changes to the service, and threatened to shut down the service if an agreement wasn’t reached by Aug. 6.
The decision to allow the Messenger service to continue operating followed “positive developments in the completion of part of the regulatory requirements on the part of service providers,” the CITC told the Journal.
While unclear about what exactly had been decided, the CITC added that it “decided to allow the continuation of BlackBerry Messenger services” while it “continues to work with service providers to complete the remainder of the regulatory requirements.”
The Saudi government had announced a non-negotiable deadline of Aug. 6, by which time an agreement would need to be reached. In the end, however, it allowed RIM and mobile operators within the kingdom until Aug. 9 to test proposed solutions, the Journal reported.
Following RIM’s successful negotiations with the Saudi government, company brass is now engaged in talks with authorities in the United Arab Emirates—which also plans to suspend BlackBerry services beginning Oct. 11. More than just Messaging, however, the UAE finds fault with BlackBerry services including e-mailing, Web browsing and instant messaging.
While insisting the deadline is firm, officials have stated that they’re open to talks. Mohammed Al Ghanim, director general of the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, told the Emirates News Agency Aug. 4, “We remain open to discussions in order that an acceptable, regulatory-compliant solution might be developed and applied.”
As RIM negotiates, with customers around the world looking on, the company will have to be careful to protect the security-based image that it has built. Any perception, whether right or wrong, that RIM’s services might become relatively less secure in the future could “dent the RIM brand,” Analyst Neil Mawston, with Strategy Analytics, told eWEEK.
Strategy Analytics believes “corporates will have to be realistic and slightly reset their expectations about security. Few, if any, digital communications can ever operate completely freely from government oversight,” said Mawston. “Countries in Asia and the Middle East that already have relatively tight PC Internet controls will increasingly turn their regulatory focus to wireless data services as they become more popular. RIM can probably expect more governments to come asking for negotiations over the coming months.”
RIM’s expansion into international markets has been a critical part of its ability to continue posting strong revenue figures, even as it struggles in North America against the Apple iPhone and smartphones running Google’s Android OS. During RIM’s fiscal fourth quarter for 2010, 48 percent of its revenue came from outside North America.
In an Aug. 5 report, research firm IDC named RIM as the second-ranking handset maker worldwide, following shipments of 11.2 million handsets during the second quarter of calendar year 2010—a notable achievement for breaking the 11 million mark. Despite this, the firm noted, RIM lost market share in North America for the fifth quarter in a row.
RIM hopes to regain the affections—and subscriptions—of North American customers with the BlackBerry Torch, its first smartphone to feature both a capacitive touch display and a slideout RIM keypad, as well as its improved OS, BlackBerry 6. Introduced Aug. 3, the Torch is scheduled to debut Aug. 12 on the AT&T network.

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Rioting leads to Cameron call for social media clampdownRole of Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerrys in UK violence to be examined by home secretary Theresa May

reddit thisJosh Halliday and Juliette Garsideguardian.co.uk, Thursday 11 August 2011 20.04 BSTArticle history
A spectator films a burning car in Hackney during the riots on 8 August. Photograph: Michael Bowles/Rex FeaturesFacebook has responded to David Cameron’s calls for a clampdown on social networking sites by saying it has already actively removed several “credible threats of violence” related to the riots across England.
The prime minister told parliament on Thursday that Facebook, Twitter and Research in Motion (Rim), the maker of BlackBerry devices, should take more responsibility for content posted on their networks, warning the government would look to ban people from major social networks if they were suspected of inciting violence online.
The home secretary, Theresa May, is to hold meetings with the three companies within weeks.
The police have promised to track down those suspected of inciting the violence on Twitter, but much of the planning for the disturbances took place in the relatively private world of the BlackBerry Messenger service.
A Facebook spokeswoman said: “We look forward to meeting with the home secretary to explain the measures we have been taking to ensure that Facebook is a safe and positive platform for people in the UK at this challenging time.
“In recent days, we have ensured any credible threats of violence are removed from Facebook and we have been pleased to see the very positive uses millions of people have been making of our service to let friends and family know they are safe and to strengthen their communities.”
Mike Conradi, partner and telecoms specialist at the London law firm DLA Piper, said that emergency measures to stop rioters communicating on social media sites would require legislation and threaten free speech.
Conradi said: “What David Cameron appears to be wanting is a police power to trawl through millions of messages – ideally in real time – to prevent possible criminal activity. I don’t believe that any such power exists and nor would I want there to be one. Parliament would have to pass new legislation and I would certainly warn against that. That gets the balance wrong in terms of free speech and security.It would certainly put the UK in a difficult position in terms of talking to authoritarian regimes and trying to convince them not to turn off their networks.”
Current powers allow Rim and others to identify people who may be worth further investigation and potential prosecution without looking at the contents of their messages.
Cameron’s move to curb social media was backed by the opposition. Ivan Lewis, the shadow culture secretary, said: “Free speech is central to our democracy but so is public safety and security. We support the government’s decision to undertake a review of whether measures are necessary to prevent the abuse of social media by those who organise and participate in criminal activities.”
The only organisation which regularly removes illegal content from websites within hours of its discovery is the Internet Watch Foundation, which combats images of child abuse. Funded by internet service providers, mobile operators and other web businesses, it has no legal powers. Any co-operation is voluntary.
It uses “notice and take down procedures”, which have been widely adopted in the US and Europe to protect internet publishers from being held liable for hosting illegally copied material. Most websites, if contacted with a complaint about their content, take down the material.
Efforts to control messaging during riots are likely to focus on social media rather than mobile phone companies, because there is no simple procedure for police to cut off individual phones at short notice.
Vodafone Group communications director Matt Peacock said: “It is not possible to cut off access to an individual subscriber if the police don’t even know who that person is, as would seem highly likely in the middle of a riot with hundreds of masked youths running around the streets.
“In any case, the police must follow a legal process in order to require operators to disclose individual subscriber information. It’s an important process, designed to protect customers’ privacy, and it’s proven and robust. However, it isn’t designed to operate in the context of this kind of fast-moving and highly volatile civil disorder.”
Powers do exist in the UK and most other countries to order the shut down of entire networks or individual base stations, blocking all traffic in a particular area. These are seen as a last resort.
Vodafone and other carriers were widely criticised for shutting their Egyptian networks during anti-government demonstrations.

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Indonesian government threatens BlackBerry service shutdownBy Hana Stewart-Smith | December 10, 2011, 8:17am PST
Summary: The Indonesian government is threatening to shut down BlackBerry services citing ’security reasons’, shortly after RIM chose to build their latest datacenter in Singapore.
The Indonesian government has threatened to shut down BlackBerry services in the region, as the company has not been “cooperative”, the Jakarta Post reports.
This decision likely comes as a result of Research in Motion (RIM) opting to build their latest datacenter in neighbouring Singapore, despite it having a much smaller BlackBerry consumer market.
RIM had agreed with the government that it would establish a datacenter by December 31st as part of a series of agreements decided upon in September.
However it was not specified that RIM would necessarily build the server on Indonesian soil, but it was expected due to Indonesia having the largest number of BlackBerry users in the south-east Asia market.
The Government cited “security reasons” as to why the service should be shut down.
The Indonesian Telecommunication Regulation Body stated that: ”with the condition as it is now, we warn that the country’s users be cautious about using BlackBerry because the data exchanged is not safe.”
All BlackBerry data is processed through Research in Motion’s datacenters in Canada, which allows the data to be uniquely secure; something that no other network offers.
It also means however that the government does not have access to the data. Without a server located in Indonesia, the government is unable to filter any communications going through the BlackBerry networks.
RIM had previously faced some trouble with the Indonesian government by allowing users access to online pornography through its services. Internet pornography was banned in the region in 2008, meaning that RIM could have been breaking the law by not ensuring adequate safeguards.
If the government were able to monitor and access these networks, it would be able to filter and censor ‘illegal’ material. As a consequence, it would therefore also be able to monitor its citizens.
Update: A RIM spokesperson said that it is “working with law enforcement agencies” as per national law, and that the company has “established a content filtering system” per the requirements outlined by the government.
The Indonesian government did not comment as to whether it would continue with shutting down the BlackBerry service in the region.
Related:
BlackBerry Messenger ‘used to perpetuate riots’ in LondonRIM helps police inquiries into London riotsRIM executive suspect in Indonesia’s BlackBerry stampedeRIM to write doen poor-selling PlayBook

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