Increasingly dissidents in the Middle East, China and places like Belarus are turning to server-based tools like Facebook, Twitter and LiveJournal — the communication tools at hand — to get their messages out, according to Zuckerman, who works for Global Voices, a group dedicated to spreading online conversation.
“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 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.
“What happens when the governments wake up?” Zuckerman asks.
