Political efforts at controlling social media

Following on from Rami's post on social media's influence in revolutions, you can also look at the efforts of China's government to control and suppress social media as evidence of this media's resilience. This is especially interesting in the wake of the Arab Spring and the Chinese governments efforts at stopping information about these events from reaching their own population.

The Chinese government seems to treat social media, and indeed the whole internet, in the same way it treats other communications channels - something that can be shut down at will, much like mobile phone networks were shut down during the recent unrest in Tibet.

The continued activity of both Tibetan and Uighur activists, and their ability to communicate with outside media sources using social media, speaks to the resilience of it as an organizational tool, even in the face of sustained government efforts to control it.

As Rami said - not a replacement for actual action, but a great organizational tool.