Using the Internet to Protect Your Crotch
As we push through the second week of 24-hour coverage of America's security crotch grab epidemic and head toward Thanksgiving, Jerry Brito at Tech Liberation Front reminds us to take a moment be grateful for the tools we have at our disposal to organize civil disobedience:
- It was John Tyner's cell phone video recording of his encounter with TSA, which he posted to his blog, that really galvanized folks to take action.
- The Fly With Dignity campaign was conceived and organized by folks collaborating on the Reddit community.
- It is through online social networks that the meme of Nov. 24 as National Opt-Out Day has spread.
Without the internet, we would have been at the mercy of the news media to get the word out about citizen frustration. Complaining would have been relegated to writing your congressman. And organizing a wide-spread protest would likely have been impossible.
Without Internet-powered resistance (and perhaps even in spite of it), a low-resolution future of naked despair threatens:
