New IPhone May Help Expose Human Rights Abuses

Not many can forget the clashes in Iran in the summer of 2009, especially as leaked video showed the rioting, and even the shooting death of a protestor named Neda Agha-Soltan, a 27 year old aspiring singer. Neda had decided to show up at the nonviolent protest just let the rulers of Iran know that her vote should be counted. She was neither radical nor planning an attack against the government. The footage of this tragic event was shot on a cell phone. As the new Apple 4G iPhone was introduced, with advanced video features, it may mean that mobile video recording devices may play a greater future role in exposing what happens in countries with oppressive governments.

Apple's new product, the highly anticipated new iPhone, which will have a front and back facing camera which will be able to use a new application called, appropriately enough, "FaceTime" which will allow video conferencing over WiFi. Other application besides dry business conferencing would be possible of course, and it might be possible for a protester, or anybody with a cell phone, to provide live streaming video of an event taking place. If so, citizens in countries such as China and Iran will be able to more easily transmit video of what is happening during a crisis such as a military crackdown. Eventually FaceTime will be accessible through cellular phone networks, meaning that the powers that be in a given country would have to shutdown both the Wi-Fi and the cellular phone services to stop transmission of live video.

As the video technology in cell phones becomes more advanced, the resolution and quality of the video produced will become better such that even more realistic depictions of human rights abuses will be made visible to the world. Hopefully this will make authoritarian regimes think twice before attacking nonviolent protesters such as Neda Agha-Soltan. Had Iranian authorities known that her murder would go viral on the internet they may have decided not to use violence against the protesters.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Neda_Agha-Soltan

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2364758,00.asp