Social networks drive social reform and liberties

Governments around the world are crapping themselves as social network sites and especially Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are changing the world in ways that their founders and users never foresaw.

Shit, even I am starting to like Mark Zuckerberg.

The change taking place in Tunisia and Egypt would never have taken place without Facebook and twitter.
Social network sites are feeding and driving social reform and revolution in a way never imagined.

The world has become a smaller place.
A student in Cairo can see, taste and smell the freedom a student, say, in Cape Town might enjoy, and want it. And demand it as his right.
And once you have given somebody a taste of freedom, you cannot take it back. It is like Pandora's box. It is out, and it's not going back. Ever.
It is seared in your memory.
Spawning
Once this realization dawns, it spawns. Friends tell friends. Soon every student in Cairo tastes some, wants some.
Now, instead of isolated reformists, reform becomes mainstream. Shit. It's accessible to everybody.
Screw the leftists. Revolutionary and social reform is centrist. It becomes a norm.
Organizing
Need to get a lot of people organized really quickly. Shit.
Facebook and twitter are the new graffiti of the people. But instead of left wing slogans spray painted overnight, we now have digital, instant and spawning graffiti.
Suddenly a lot of people can get organized very quickly.
Remember that old TV shampoo advert "she told two friends, and they told two friends..." and soon the TV screen was full.
Same deal. But at the speed of light.
Monitoring and Moderation
Want to be tried for war crimes? Do something in range of a cell phone.
Suddenly dictators and their lackeys are being filmed and posted. Not so easy to squash a demonstration quietly anymore. You are filmed a hundred times on a hundred phones,and before the tear gas has settled you are on YouTube. For all the world to see. And judge.
Exciting stuff.

But somewhere, someone is sitting and asking "how can we make revenue out of this"
And more scary, someone else is asking themselves "how can we plant and control this effect for our own good"

Both of you piss off.

It doesn't belong to you.
It belongs to us.