Australian media

‘The Australian‘ is running a feature on terrorism and virtual worlds. The article again claims that Second Life in particular, is being used by terrorists.

The report quotes Rohan Gunaratna as saying,

“”They are rehearsing their operations in Second Life because they don’t have the opportunity to rehearse in the real world,” Gunaratna says. “And unless governments improve their technical capabilities on a par with the terrorists’ access to globalisation tools like the internet and Second Life, they will not be able to monitor what is happening in the terrorist world.”

No evidence is actually presented that terrorists are using these environments. It therefore remains a potential concern. While it is useful to have the issue highlighted the sensationalist nature of the reporting is unfortunate — a case of virtual life mirroring real life.

I am quoted in the article and wasn’t asked beforehand so I can only presume that the others quoted in the feature were similarly misrepresented.

Some interesting comment also on techcruch and TerraNova.

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Indian MMO – Kreeda

The Financial Times ran an interesting piece on the challenges Kreeda faces in setting-up an MMO in India.

Article here

What jumped out was the way Kreeda is seeking to get around the low-level of credit card usage in India,

“To overcome India’s slow connection speeds, the game is designed to work on dial-up connections rather than broadband. And since credit cards are not yet ubiquitous, Kreeda is distributing cash cards to Internet cafes and other outlets around the country to allow users to buy and sell items on the site.”

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End to privacy in Second Life?

This is kind of old news but the ongoing court case between two avatars in Second Life has bought PayPal into the fray (as reported by Reuters). PayPal has agreed to comply with a subpoena to release details that relate to one of the avatars accounts. This arguably paves the way to the end of privacy in Second Life. However, unverified accounts would still remain immune from this development as they are not required to provide verifiable personal details.

One clear way of reducing the potential for crime in virtual worlds is to ensure the users accounts are verified.  This at least provides a first line of security protection.

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Dark Web

The Digital Journal has once more highlighted the work being done by the Artificial Intelligence Lab at Arizona University under the project title of the Dark Web.

The project has been going for at least three years. The web page links to some fascinating papers the research team has written. One of the best relates to the use of the web by domestic extremist groups in the United States –highlighting the fact that US domestic extremism has benefited in much the same way as jihadi groups have, from use of the Internet.

While there is no recorded evidence of jihadi groups arriving in virtual worlds, there is a wealth of evidence relating to domestic extremists using these platforms. The most notorious arrival was of the French National Front into Second Life, which created a counter protest reaction much of which is documented in a French blog on the subject.

It would be interesting to see how virtual worlds would layer on top of the analysis being conducted under the Dark Web banner as they don’t lend themselves to this kind of link analysis in the say way.

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Economist claims jihadists have set up ‘residents’ in Second Life

The Economist has published a report on Internet Jihad. The inspiration for this article comes from the trial and conviction of the notorious Internet Jihadi Irhabi007 in the UK. During part of this report the economist suggests jihadists are now operating in Second Life,

“Inevitably, experts say, jihadists have also started to create “residents” in the virtual world of Second Life. ”

While it has been the position of this blog that extremists of all kind are likely to migrate to virtual worlds due to the undoubted utility of these environments, there has yet to be any evidence presented anywhere of jihadists operating in Second Life. Hopefully evidence will be forthcoming from the Economist.

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Washington Post on Cyber Jihad

Interesting take on ‘cyber jihad’ by the Washington Post. 

And from Canadian site, InterGovWorld.

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Peta to host virtual anti-fur protest

Peta (People for the ethical treatment of animals) are scheduled to host a week long anti-fur protest in Second Life. Peta is a single issue protest group that successfully highlights Animal Rights causes. It has an interesting history with the more militant part of the animal rights movement, which is best explained by using a recent example:

Peta discovered in 2006 that the juice company POM was experimenting on mice – in order to prove the positive health benefits of its pomegranate juice product. Peta highlighted the actions of POM through its press office and began a peaceful campaign against POM. Meanwhile Animal Rights Extremists operating under the banner of the Animal Liberation Front proceeded to target POM executives at their homes and offices. The campaign culminated in the ALF press office issuing a release stating they had contaminated POM products on the east-coast of the USA – this forced the company to remove their product and subsequently back down over their use of mice in testing.

Peta was not involved in the direct-action part of the campaign but they certainly hailed its success and began the action. Therefore, whether Peta has a responsibility for the violent acts conducted around its peaceful campaigns, is a moral question rather than a legal one.

All shades of activists have been exceptionally adept at exploiting each evolutionary stage of the Internet and it is no surprise Peta is moving into the use of virtual worlds and Second Life in particular. The ability of virtual worlds to highlight political and social issues should be welcomed, its effective use by extremists is unfortunately the flip side of this coin.

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Virtual Police Department

The Vancouver Police Department are opening a presence in Second Life this Thursday. According to the article in the Vancouver Sun the aim is to recruit new officers in Second Life but the project also realizes that cyber crime is a growing concern and virtual worlds are part of that trend.

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