On one hand, the protests demonstrated the capacity of native and expatriate Tibetans, as well as foreign tourists, to use the Internet to get news of the protest

cell phone image of protests published on the site of a Tibetan rights NGO based in India

According to the Vancouver Sun, “Amateur cellphone photos and video clips showing what were described as confrontations between police and Tibetans protesting Chinese rule poured onto websites big and small, including those for major news media,

Yet there is another Fouad - Fouad Alfarhan - who has been in jail for three months with no release imminent. Fouad, who is a politically vocal blogger, was arrested on December 10th, and an online campaign to free him started soon after.

However, when President Bush visited Saudi Arabia in mid-January, Fouad's wife asked the people taking part in the campaign to back down, fearing that the campaign

                        

One of the most serious limitations on the ability of activists to use the Internet to organize for political change is that freedom of the Internet is inversely proportional to political oppression. That is, the greater the need for Internet organizing methods, the less the ability of activists to make use of those tools.

In short, It is most difficult to use the Internet for activism in countries in which that activism is most necessary. This is no coincidence, of course. Censorship or control of the Internet is part of the overall repression policy of autocratic governments who feel the

The exile site Irrawaddy.com posted these images e-mailed from those still in Burma

I wish I had more time and knowledge to devote to the shutting down of the Internet and phone lines in Burma (Myanmar). As the New York Times reports, until last Friday, text messages, cell phone and digital camera images, and e-mail accounts were pouring out of Burma showing in vivid detail how the Burmese government is repressing the pro-democracy rallies there. Even as a means of information (the article does not mention that there tools are bring used to organize the protests), the Internet and

Today that paragraph, written in 1993, seems naive and ill-informed. There certainly are censors on the Internet. Look at China and Saudi Arabia. While there is no "Internet Inc." the Internet is most certainly a commercial entity with its associated "bosses," "boards of directors" and "stockholders." I am not just talking about the

A man (center) wears a gas mask to protest a proposed toxic chemical plant in Xiamen

Despite the fact that China has the most elaborate system of internet censorship in the world, creative Chinese activists are still finding ways to use the medium for political activism.

On June 1, one million residents of coastal Xiamen protested against the proposed construction of a toxic chemical plant near the city center. Cell phones and the internet made it possible. The Chinese blogger collective Bullog used the internet and SMS to promote the event.

Because the state-controlled media refused to broadcast details of