(2008-03-06) Social Networking And Censorship

Social Networking sites are targets for blocking/Censorship as more people in icky countries use them. "If you build tools specifically for activists they won't use them, but if you build tools not for activists, they will use them," Zuckerman told a packed room of attendees at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology (ETech) Conference in San Diego Tuesday. That's because for most activists outside the United States, it's not a lifestyle choice or a profession. They become dissidents after something terrible happens to them or a family member, and turn to the tools closest at hand. But that brings up an inevitable question...

"ChinA blocks most of the Web 2.0 companies you know and provides alternatives," Ethan Zuckerman said. "It's a really unique form of censorship. You not only block Web 2.0 but you have censorship baked into the replacements."... Still some services remain too big for even China to block. For instance, GMail is popular among Communist party elite, so neither it, nor encrypted urls, are blocked. Likewise, Skype is too pervasive and useful for communicating with the outside world for China to block. Since Skype now supports chat rooms, it's a perfect platform to pipe out or in a podcast or online radio station, Zuckerman said. And the tools do help. Zuckerman specifically noted that Twitter, the MicroBlog-ging tool that can be read on the web or sent out as SMS messages, is being used in developing countries for news reporting, since Mobile phones, not traditional computers, dominate in those countries.