Web as Weapon of War : Wired to Win

Africa is the world’s least developed continent, and most rural inhabitants
live without electricity or running water. But in some of its poorest
and most remote corners, the Internet has become a powerful weapon for
rebel and opposition leaders.

In countries where newspapers and radio stations are routinely shut down
and dissidents are often jailed, the Internet is giving Africans new freedom
to debate political and social issues. ”The Internet is a war weapon," Aboude
Coulibaly, director of the New Forces rebel group in Ivory Coast, wrote
in a recent e-mail. In 2002, the group used its website and television
station to launch a mutiny that toppled the government. ”In these matters
of revolution, we have to be wired to win," he wrote.

Now we are truly entering the Age of the Internet, in which the Web
becomes all things to all people.Not only is it the Information Superhighway,
but the Soap Box, Jury Box, X Box, box office, office office, playground,
classroom, political arena, military staging area, battlefield, medical
center, church and afterlife.

We have long held that there is nothing inherently liberating or
even liberal about the web.  It can be used at least as efficiently
to promote hatred, repression and war as to foster understanding, tolerance
and peace. Eternal vigilance is the price of all freedom, including
electronic.

from the Boston Globe