Among the first acts of victorious revolutionaries is to tear down signs bearing the names of the regimes they toppled.
In Syria, the opposition is not waiting for President Bashar Assad to fall.
Anti-government activists in recent weeks have used a Google crowd-sourcing program, Map Maker, to rename key streets, bridges and boulevards after their revolutionary heroes, according to opposition figures and the Syrian government. The idea, activists say, has been to expunge the vestiges of the Assad family’s 40-year-long rule and to commemorate protesters who have fallen over the course of an 11-month-old uprising.
“They have the right to be remembered by the Syrians,” said Rwadan Ziadeh, a representative of the Syrian National Council exile group. “They are making new history.”
On Google, names have changed as the maps have been updated with user proposals, which are approved by other users as well as Google editors.
The campaign started a couple of months ago on Facebook, according to Rami Nakhle, another exile opposition figure, and it has quickly gained the Syrian government’s attention. On Monday, the country’s envoy to the United Nations, Bashar al-Jafaari, digressed from a speech before the General Assembly to accuse Google of participating in a foreign plot to meddle in Syria’s internal affairs and undermine its leader.
The Internet giant declined to make someone available to discuss its mapping practices. But spokeswoman Deanna Yick said Google has built its maps from “a wide range of authoritative sources, ranging from the public and commercial data providers, user contributions and imagery references.”
“Overall,” Yick said, “this provides a very comprehensive and up-to-date map, but maps are constantly changing along with the real world, so we’ll continue to review data and make changes as new information becomes available.”
Meanwhile, Egypt circulated a U.N. General Assembly resolution Tuesday strongly condemning human-rights violations by the Syrian regime and backing an Arab League plan aimed at ending the 11-month conflict in the country, The Associated Press reported.
Diplomats said the resolution could be put to a vote in the 193-member assembly as early as Thursday and is likely to be adopted by a wide margin.
