- It is not obvious that the sort of people who think of the world in terms of operating systems will prove to be the best at using that new potential, or find in it the power to protect the freedom and openness of all the infrastructure that they care about. But many of them are increasingly serious about trying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk8x3V-sUgU&feature=yout... I found this video a while back and I think has some valid points to internet democracy and that it is a double edge sword. If the internet can spread democracy, it can be used to quell it as well.
Is that different than any other form of media though? You could make the same argument for news and politics contained within newspaper publications, radio, and television.
I think the Internet is different because not everyone has access to a studio and a satellite dish, or print and deliver enough newspaper across across a country as well as a government could. But most people have access to a phone, laptop or just an old dial up connection. But unlike other mediums, the Internet is directly traceable. If a rebel is posting to twitter, Facebook, or some other social website, anyone can trace it, not only to the person who posted it, but to people who "liked it", shared it, and retweeted it and potentially giving up the position of sympathesizers to a rebel cause.