'The Virtual Revolution' Episode 2

Quotes highlighted in bold.

This part of the document focuses on the how the internet is a powerful tool in the world. The presenter Krotoski stated that "already a quarter of our population is connected, providing individual users  access to knowledge and to each other". Similarly, "the web makes openness easy and closeness more different" (Sir Tim Bernes- Lee).  This establishes that the internet is beneficial in allowing people to stay connected and the fact that many individuals are using the internet shows it is a vital source of information. Notably, the main advantage of using the internet is that it has made a society more democratic in some countries. This is established in the documentary which focuses on the protest occurred in Iran. The protest led to devastating situations of many Iranians being killed and badly injured. The result of the protest was caused by the social networking site Twitter, which was first development in San Francisco 2006.

Effectively, "It is a web phenomenon, known as the social network"(Kroteski) which led the Iranians to use Twitter to fill the rest of the world on what is happening. Additionally, the first 18 days of the protests in Iran over 2 million tweets were sent out of Iran by half a million of people. (Kroteski) Significantly "2000 tweets about Iran was posted every hour" (Kroteski) which reinforces the idea of a 'digital revolution' as social networking sites has now become the main source for individuals to express their views publically. Thus, this led to a Arab Spring which increased democracy for citizens as the "web is like a tool box or protest" (Kroteski).

 Furthermore, Wikipedia has giving individuals the opportunity to challenge the authority in society by editing the information online. Notably, the government of Iran blocked social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to stop citizens from communicating to each other. However, Austin Heap developed a software called 'Haystack' which gave the Iranians the opportunity to use the social networking sites freely without the government tracing them. Significantly, this establishes the power of the web as it "gives power for citizens to root around censorship"(Kroteski). Similarly, "the web is a fantastic resource for transmitting information and gathering people together around the issue" (Runciman).

China has the highest population of internet users compared to any nation, however the government banned citizens to use the social media. This is because, the government believe that social interaction threats the state  state and therefore he banned all western sites.