The great human innovation

Imagine waking up one morning to find out the Internet of your entire country has been cut off by your government. Your Facebook and Twitter accounts are completely unreachable, and you can’t access any sort of news organization to find out what’s happened.

You now have to rely on the government-controlled television media to get your information. A scary thought, right?

Now imagine you’re fighting a revolutionary war against that same government.
This is the situation the Syrian rebels found themselves in last Thursday when President Bashar al-Assad’s government pulled the plug on every IP address in Syria.

Although the Syrian government claims this to be an act of cyberterrorism, major authorities on the matter said such a shutdown would be completely impossible for any non-government force to institute.

Since the beginnings of the Arab Spring revolutions almost two years ago, the Internet has played a key role in connecting rebels with each other.

Countless protests have been arranged through Facebook and rebel troops use the Internet to coordinate attacks.

While this loss of Internet connection is definitely going to destroy rebel communication, it’s also going to create a news blackout within the region for the rest of the world.

The stories about government atrocities have been flowing out through informal means, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Internet access has been the biggest reason the world has been able to keep such a close eye on the rebels’ struggles.

The Internet is the greatest tool ever created by man. It’s the printing press of our
generation.

With a device that can reach millions from your pocket, any person can have access to literally every piece of collective human information.

It puts both the power of knowledge and organization in the hands of the people. This scares our governments to death.

Many governments especially more oppressive ones like Syria don’t want us to have access to something like the Internet.

They don’t want us to have the power to call them out instantly and on the spot when they lie, then spread the truth faster than they can refute it. They don’t want us to be able to organize quickly and efficiently, and they don’t want us to know more than they do.

Remember how hard politicians fought for SOPA and PIPA?

They want us ignorant and kept in the dark, and this is exactly why we need to be up in arms about Syria’s actions.

This severance from the greatest human innovation shows that Syria will do anything in their power to keep its people uninformed and unorganized.

This Internet blackout is a veil for the Syrian government to get away with brutal violence against its own people, and we need to show the Syrian government actions like this have no place in a modern world.