Posts Tagged ‘Iran’

Following last weekend’s deadly riots in China’s western region of Xinjiang, the Chinese government has taken extreme, but usual measures to block its citizens from accessing foreign web services. The authorities have blocked Twitter, barred access to Facebook and removed content pertaining to the violence from search engines.

Of course, those familiar with China’s policies of restricting unapproved information and communication will not be surprised. Just two weeks ago, the central government had already banned access to most Google services, including Gmail, Google Apps, and Google Talk, claiming Google’s search engine spread “vulgar” content.

The people of Iran face a similar struggle. After Ahmadinejad’s much contested victory, riots broke out across town centers and suburbs. The Iranian government responded pretty much the same way as their Chinese counterparts did. Authorities blocked foreign websites, dissidents’ blogs, Twitter, and Facebook or anywhere criticisms of Iran’s political leaders may arise.

The situation on the use of social media is much different here in the U.S.; we have access to all social media tools, like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We can freely contribute content on websites and blogs. We can search for information that may be critical of our government, institutions, and ourselves. We can socialize and connect with whoever we want, whenever we want.

However, that same “whatever we want, whenever we want” mentality seems to diminish the importance of social media. Our free access to all things digital has turned us into modern-day Caligulas. On a whim, we can see babies and cats dancing on YouTube, or read up on celebrity non-news. We participate in the most narcissistic of activities like “25 things you didn’t know about me” letter on Facebook, not to mention MySpace is a personal shrine dedicated to ourselves.

Do we deserve social media when our intent of use seems much less noble than our Iranian and Chinese counterparts? Do we deserve Twitter when we tweet about that state of our clothes, as opposed to the state of a nation? Is social media a right or a privilege?