Tweet on, you dissenters

The more people hate Twitter, the more we should tweet.

And blog, and Facebook and YouTube... This free-flowing river of information is threatening to tyrants -- and truly annoying to reasonable people, as well. The real-time Web is also a new voice of liberty, dissent, self-expression and, yes, our right to be annoying.

The strange motivation behind Thursday's attacks on LiveJournal, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and apparently even Google makes clear that these social media sites are powerful sites of expression. Tyrants and oppressors hate that. Good. 

Facebook is now confirming what a Web traffic-tracking expert told The New York Times yesterday: That these attacks were aimed at one political blogger. Russian groups tried to take down the social media world to silence the critic who uses the name Cyxymu online. 

He has actually criticized both sides in the Russia-Georgia conflict, and his tweets are pedestrian and tame. His LiveJournal account, however, has been seen as a news hub for Russian critics. And the cyber attackers might have been simply showing the world that they can do this kind of thing. For excellent detail on all of this click here. 

I don't know if he supports good causes or not, whether he says great or terrible things, and I don't have any opinion about that conflict. But Cyxymu, you have a powerful voice, and it deserves to be heard. I don't know you, or how to pronounce that tangle of alphabet that is your name. But this tweet's for you. Follow him here. (President Obama now does.)

That makes the great social media meltdown, which lasted all of two hours, with lingering effects, stunning, bizarre and important.

That these attacks were able to have significant success against Twitter is troubling and points out significant security vulnerabilities. But this also points out the power of political dissent these sites now carry. Twitter's role in the Iranian election dissent has been clear. (To see what Time magazine says about that, click here.) Apparently repressive powers elsewhere now fear social media enough to launch intense efforts to squelch it. 

In other words, this was no joke -- and neither is social media. The pop culture obsession with Twitter and Facebook, and the resulting backlash, are only part of the story. I have written that Twitter and Facebook are "annoying fads." They are -- in one aspect. The current craze will not last, and it is as irritating as any pop culture trend, maybe moreso. I have also written in the same breath that "they are pioneering, hugely influential portals into another era. Before our eyes they are leading to new and better forms of social dialogue. And the impact they are having on how we relate to one another is nothing short of revolutionary. Pay attention: This is the biggest change in communications -- in freedom of speech -- since desktop publishing."

Thursday was further proof of that. Conan O'Brien viciously mocked the Twitter shutdown last night, parodying Twitter as carrying only nonsense about what Ashton Kutcher eats for lunch. How's it feel to be really wrong, Conan? Anytime oppressors are shutting down voices of dissent, something important is going on.