Think Again: Twitter

The groundbreaking microblogging service is great for sharing links and communicating with friends. It's not so good at spreading democracy and overthrowing dictatorships.

BY EVGENY MOROZOV | AUGUST 6, 2009

"Authoritarian regimes should fear Twitter"

Not at all. You can't fear what doesn't exist -- and Twitter barely exists, if it exists at all, in most authoritarian countries. Generally, either they have their own microblogging services or Internet access is too slow and expensive for Twitter to be broadly useful. Furthermore, anyone who does use Twitter probably speaks English, has international contacts, and travels more than the rest of the population -- in other words, they are already lost causes, as far as the regime is concerned.

Don't Miss

The FP Twitterati 100
The world's top foreign-policy twitterers.

Combined with other tools - e-mail, social networking, and blogs -- Twitter can certainly be helpful in spreading news about upcoming flashmobs and protests. The demonstrations following Moldova's disputed election earlier this year were a perfect example, where a dozen local Twitter maniacs used the service to spread news about their flashmob. Eventually, their campaign (which went beyond Twitter and included Facebook and LiveJournal as well) attracted thousands of people and spilled into loud protests. While the Moldovan "Twitterati" had very little impact on the events on the ground, they did a great job using Twitter's global, viral reach to keep the protests in the international news.

However, Twitter use in authoritarian countries comes with major drawbacks. Twitter creates an extensive online paper trail that can be easily used against dissidents. In fact, as Twitter use becomes more common, authoritarian governments are likely to exploit Twitter to gather open-source intelligence on the opposition -- not a difficult task for anyone with an Internet hook-up. So Twitter could help authorities identify dissent at very early stages, tracking not just individual activists, but entire activist networks. An online friend list could enable a serious crack-down.

 SUBJECTS:
 

Evgeny Morozov is a fellow at the Open Society Institute and sits on the board of OSI's Information Program. He writes the Net Effect blog on ForeignPolicy.com

JENG13

10:13 AM ET

August 9, 2009

Think Again: Twitter

Evgeny Morozov's article is even-handed and well written. As an avid Twitterer, I have become tired of the tendency of the ignorant to knock a piece of social networking they simply don't understand, but as Mr Morozov's points out there have been some ridiculous claims made by Twitter boosters, too.

Those who knock it are pinpointing the vapidity of most Twitterer's commentary. But if you're lucky enough to be living a relatively free state then using your 140 characters to explain to the world what kind of pasta you're cooking is your right.

I hope I never need to tweet about waiting with an angry mob outside the People's Palace to see if the Supreme Leader's Guard is going to fire upon our protest or not. I am thankfully free to express my lightweight concerns.

The interesting thing about this wave of Twitter loathing (which feels very similar to 2007's Facebook hate-fest) is that those who proclaim social networking and micro-blogging to be so deleterious to real communication and/or a mere distraction, seem very certain that these things won't lead to other types of networking and communication that we are not yet able to imagine or extrapolate.

I have been emailing people for a dozen years now. Recently I had a video chat with a friend in another city through my Gmail, using free software. I find that amazing. I don't think for a moment that this or Facebook or Twitter will bring about world peace or democracy, but how is it that the critics are so damned certain that these new ideas won't lead us somewhere positive that we've never been before?

 

ANDYDW

10:59 AM ET

August 10, 2009

Think again

Obviously since this article was written, dictatorships are getting worried about Twitter!
See here!