Virtual revolution- Episode 2

Virtual revolution: Episode 2

Enemy of the state?

Web seems to have set information free.
Anyone who wants to participate has a least the means to participate.
Powerful tool for the state to control us.
Old centres of power are crumbling
History is littered with unintended circumstances.
Iran put a ban on any media reporting in country- turned to Twitter. 200,000 tweets about Iran posted every hour at it’s heights.
Messages forwarded to a larger audience. Key link from protestors to outside world.
Info placed in the hands of people making it like ‘quick silver- irrepressible and uncontainable’.
Soon you tube was involved- millions witnessed a woman dying because of regime.
Shaking up world politics because it can transmit info globally from the hands of people who have seen it first hand.
Use the power of info to inspire other people and uprising- done this through Twitter.
Twitter didn’t cause the uprising, but they could use it to help them do something about it.
Internet works against central control- that’s why information can be spread. Data can be transported through various roots- this would cause problems or the government for years to come.
Internet links up ¼ of the world
Individual countries like Iran cannot just shut the internet down, even if they wanted to.
In 20^th century, if you had something to say in public you couldn’t.
Not a controlled environment- number of individuals who can do what they want with information.
With computers we are all on a level playing field- one person can take on a government.
Web gives citizens power to root around censorship and access allows them to point out wrong doings.
Younger generations feel left out by politics, in the past they were limited as to where they could express their views but now they can just log on to the internet.
Before communities were only ones they could be physically present in- now you don’t have to be.
　Wikileaks
Anonymous users
Posted a membership list of BMP, classified army documents, contents of Sarah Palin’s private yahoo account to access public records etc…
Over 1.2 billion pages.
No logs
Military grade inscriptions to protect
Under constant attack
Court injunction by bank following wikileaks published claims of tax invasions- first time had been attacked
Got taken offline- just got people more interested. People became interested in the stories of Wikileaks.
Taking them offline didn’t work. There web address just changes slightly. Information is still out there.