This Week’s Big Question: Can Social Media Bring Down a Government?

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This week’s Big Question:

Can Social Media Bring Down a Government?

When protests began in Egypt, one of President Mubarak’s first countermeasures was to shut down his citizens’ access to the Internet. In doing so, he sought to restrict the instant, electronic communications that have proven to be powerful tools of opposition everywhere. For instance, new media theorist Clay Shirky explains how flash mobs and Twitter were used to organize a passive protest against the Lukashenko regime in Belarus. Meanwhile, Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams explain how the State Department intervened and asked them to delay scheduled system maintenance so that tweets from Iran, and possibly a revolution, could go on.

Watch and share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.

TWO VIEWS: Clay Shirky and Biz Stone/Evan Williams

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