Iranian protesters using Israeli software

June 18, 2009 | Paul Boutin | Comments |

tehran300Fring co-founder and CEO Avi Shechter — you may remember him as CEO of the AIM-like ICQ — was interviewed by Sky News about the use of Fring by protesters/dissidents/activists/rock-throwing-brats in Tehran. Fring, an Israeli company, not only runs VoIP calls over a data connection, it allows protesters in Tehran to reach Facebook and Twitter, which the Iranian government has blocked in an attempt to cut off protesters from each other and the rest of the world.

Fring’s success is difficult to measure. It largely serves as a gateway to other services — Twitter, IM, Skype.

Shechter’s talk in the video below is standard CEO fare, but just the fact that his supposed cultural enemies are using his software is worth stopping to think about. It’s a high-visibility example of how people tend to ignore ideological issues when presented with a useful technology. Americans drive German and Japanese cars, and Iranians use Israeli phone software.

[Photo by faramarz]

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About the Author, Paul Boutin

Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • am i the only one who thinks this article is offensive and moronic?
  • danop
    No.
  • lancelee
    no i think the story is wonderful....
  • youare
    Yes
  • hank
    it is moronic. if the the past few days haven't proven that the iranian govt. and a very high percentage of the iranian population have wildly different political beliefs, i don't what will. the japanese/american statement is silly too
  • Peter Antypas
    So now the Iranian Government can claim CIA & MOSAD is "meddling" with their internal affairs ...
  • commentor
    The Iranian Government needs to worry more about the Iranian people 'meddling with their internal affairs'.

    But it's true that the theocracy and their apologists in the west will always try to deflect any criticism with the old 'Zionists/CLI did it' chestnut.
  • commentor
    CLI?! - Mossad made me do a typo.
  • scottmunc
    Didn't we make amends with the Germans and Japanese in 1944?
  • commentor
    Possibly, but that doesn't explain what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki a year later.
  • miket
    How can you call people fighting for their freedom "rock-throwing-brats?" That's the stupidest thing I have heard this month! Yes, people willing to get shot so that their vote counts are brats. What a moron! Paul, you are as stupid as your picture would suggest. And Japanese/German cars? What, can't find another reference this century?