Preface
Tweeting to Freedom offers an analysis of how freedom-loving people in 32 coun-
tries around the world are harnessing the power of the Internet to push for greater
liberties and to promote what they believe to be just causes. The countries were
chosen because they are representative of the ways the Internet and social media
are being used—and how that use is often being challenged by their governments.
Many of these governments have erected access barriers to different sites on the
Web, filtering out content and intimidating and arresting those who try to skirt
those barriers. In many countries of the world, the simple act of seeking informa-
tion can be deemed a crime. And voicing disagreement with government leaders
and their policies can get these protesters jail terms or can even get them murdered.
But the Internet is not only being used by those who are seeking greater free-
doms and liberties. Like all communication channels and platforms, the Internet
has no ideology of its own; it is simply a tool that is used by people with ideolo-
gies. Some of these ideologies are extremist worldviews that include violence as a
means to their end. Such is the case with the Islamic State (ISIS), and its leaders
have also tapped into the power of the Internet to spread their message of terror
and to recruit new terrorists in the process.
Finally, this study looks at histories, current social and economic situations, and
other issues confronting these countries that have given rise to protests and dem-
onstrations, most of which are now being organized and promoted on the Internet,
its blogosphere, and its social media platforms.
Each country is portrayed in its own essay, which is organized into sections titled
General Overview, Economic Conditions, Social Conditions, Media and Internet
Activity, and Threats to Journalists. Included in these sections are discussions of
macro issues as well as numerous individual anecdotes about how individuals,
groups, and movements are protesting the conditions that they find threatening
and/or oppressive. Sprinkled throughout the essays are summary sidebars that
focus on some of these movers and shakers in the world of the online protest
movements. Most of these sidebars relate to the country chapters in which they
appear. A few sidebars relate to other countries. The stories are documented via
hundreds of sources and accounts, all of which are found in the Further Reading
section of each essay.
The purpose of Tweeting to Freedom is to show how the world’s latest major
communication platform—the Internet—is being harnessed around the world to
reveal oppressive conditions that people may not learn about in any other way. In
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