Thanks to Miley Cyrus, we all know about twerking, but do you know the definition of 'twurking?' It's a new word I just created about 2 minutes before sitting down to write today's blog post... 'Twurking' is when you illegally send a tweet from within Turkey, a country that has banned the use of Twitter (and most recently YouTube). But why? According to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,"Social media is the greatest threat to society."
But is it? I would argue the complete opposite -- social media allows those behind censored lines to share information that otherwise wouldn't escape the hands of state-run media. Remember the Arab Spring? Social media allowed tweets and Facebook updates from Egypt during the protests that became known as #Jan25. When the Egyptian government blocked all Internet communications on January 27, 2011, it only made the use of social media increase through the help of many activists world-wide who shared how to bypass blocks and post to Twitter or Facebook.
The lack of Internet in Egypt also created more protests outside! Since there was no network online, they created a new network offline and right in the center of Cairo. Have we not learned anything from the Arab Spring? A government cannot kill the spread of information. One way or another, it will get out. By blocking these social networks, it just proves the government is hiding something. Corruption, scandal, or conspiracies will continue to leak out... and how does news break today? It usually occurs via social media, right?