Even though not being Twitter Alex Madrigal shows in his article how Facebook was used in the Tunisian dissent and uproar End of 2010/ Beginning of 2011 and how Facebook even facilitated the dissent movement.
Facebook at that time served as one of the most important communication medium for the Tunisian people as well as for the Tunisian activists. As the regime tried to undermine this medium (by actually hacking the Facebook accounts by stealing the passwords of the Tunisian people with a man-in-the-middle attach) Facebook responded with a clever and real social approach to this key logger.
I like this story for four reasons:
1.) It shows in a very well written manner the use of social media in a recent conflict
2.) It illustrates the vulnerability of this media to censorship (other examples include China, North Korea etc.)
3.) It outlines why social media is social and that sometimes seemingly easy solution to a problem (how to prevent the hacking of the Tunisian regime by means of a "mother's maiden name" question)
4.) The German article is written by one of my favorite bloggers Sascha Lobo (can recommend his blog on Spiegel online as well as the blogs on: http://saschalobo.com/ and http://riesenmaschine.de/
This story is a good example how Social Networks can become a real tool for democratic movements instead of a simple time waster (as it is most of the time in my case).
Original story in English:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/01/the-inside-story-of-how-facebook-responded-to-tunisian-hacks/70044/
Story adapted by German blogger Sascha Lobo:
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,742961,00.html
Monday, May 9, 2011
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