What's the best way to silence one? Silence all, teaches yesterday's Denial of Service attacks against the largest social media sites.
Facebook, Twitter, LiveJournal and other social networking and blogging sites were attacked in attempt to silence a blogger in the Republic of Georgia known as Cyxymu. Cyxymu was supposedly using his blog to criticise Russia for last year's military conflict with Georgia. This news prompted me to reconsider the ways in which Web 2.0 and new media technologies bring real change to a given sociopolitical reality.
Protests in Iran
The first big social media outcry came with the injustice carried out in the Iranian elections. Not only did the people of Iran protest against Ahmadinejad's election, but they also blogged and tweeted about it. They uploaded YouTube videos of the protests and wanted their voice heard. According to BBC "Germany, France, Britain and the US all said they would not be sending letters of congratulation to Mr Ahmadinejad."
Voting in Bulgaria
What influenced my voting decision in the Bulgarian parliamentary elections was a friend's blog post. As someone who currently lives in Bulgaria and is politically active, she has a better grasp of the situation than I do. She got me curious about Bulgaria's top political parties and I went out of my way to find further information online in support of (or against) her judgment.
Military Conflict in Georgia
Today presented a third, very strong example of the real change that social media and blogs bring to the world's sociopolitical landscape. My jaw literally dropped as I read that "Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, YouTube, Google Sites and Google’s Blogger all get attacked yesterday to silence one man." Good job, Cyxymu!
Photo Credit: Ciudadano Poeta