As President Bashar al-Assad dispatches tanks against peaceful protesters across Syria, pro-regime forces are launching a parallel effort against the uprising on a very different front: the Internet. A collective of pro-Assad hackers and online activists, calling themselves the Syrian Electronic Army, appears to be targeting dissidents within Syria as well as sympathizers without. Though the nature of the group's connection to the regime remains unclear, their tactics -- the most sophisticated response to online activism of the Arab Spring -- reveal the skill of Assad's forces and their determination to defeat the protest movement that toppled fellow dictators in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia.
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