The “media baron” in the traditional sense is dead. The people who provide platforms for others to tell stories that reach millions of people in an instant are the new titans and the opportunity to create those platforms is equally available to all. This argument is effectively articulated in Larry Lessig’s review of The Social Network.
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While speaking at Web 2.0 Summit last week, Mark Zuckerberg briefly commented on Facebook being used to overthrow aggressive regimes. The audience chuckled at his comment but the reality is that Facebook has been the source of many protests around the world. Egypt is one place where protests are being staged and as the following documentary shows, Facebook is the center of these protests.

I highly recommend taking 24 minutes to watch the following documentary. It’s insightful and extremely powerful and it show how powerful Facebook has become for some. Ultimately, Facebook is effective at spreading freedom and democracy. The government has even gone so far as to publish propaganda in which individuals that were temporarily detained saying that they’ll never use Facebook again.

The video below includes interviews with the creators of the pages calling for protests against the government. It’s extremely powerful so check it out!