In “Smart Mobs” a book by Howard Rheingold, I read about how the Filipinos managed to form a protest of ten thousands of people on one street by sending this small text message “Go 2EDA, Wear blck” which means go to Estada st and wear black. This message was sent between million of manila’s residents. They bring down the government by using networks and the technology.
Now, I really wonder if text messaging is that powerful and could really make different, do government or telephone companies filter these messages to prevent future act or to notify to authorities about protests or actions planned by some group by using this technology. Do some dictators in the world put some control in such messages? Do we really message freely or there are some consequences of sending some messages.
4 comments:
I have to admit, especially living in DC, I'm always a little wary of what I say or send of electronic communication systems. Isn't the point of the NSA to monitor communication systems? Our only way to prevent or limit these intrusions is through laws and faith in those laws.
Last year, during the execution of Saddam many witnesses used phones to take pictures and even video record the execution on their phones. These videos made it to the internet yet I feel like if the government really wanted they could have censored flow of graphic and media clips of the event. They did not which is why you can see them. However, some did get arrested. See below.
http://mashable.com/2007/01/03/saddam-execution-video/
George, I agree with you. If I'm not mistaken there is a law to protect our privacy but I think after 9/11 things changed little bit.
Allison, I think wanted the people to watch the movie otherwise they would prevented the other movies for Sadam's brother and the other guy to make it to the public.
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