A FOLLOW-UP THOUGHT ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

(images by Edel Rodriguez via WSJ)

A follow-up thought about social media, wherein my prior curiosity about the decentralized,
global markets for social media get an autocratic, socialist makeover.  Hugo Chavez is allocating
200 staffers to bolster his presence on Twitter, and China is maintaining an army of "50-Centers"
whose job is to combat negative government sentiment on the Internet by contributing
government propaganda in comment form on blogs and social networks.  Sound the alarm. 
Evgeny Morozov astutely remarks in her WSJ piece Rise of the Online Autocrats:

“The decentralized nature of online conversations often makes it easier to manipulate

public opinion, both domestically and globally. Regimes that once relied on centralized

systems of media control can now deliver ideological messages more subtly, with the

help of little-known intermediaries like anonymous commenters on websites.”

These thoughts align well with the thought that social media presence has migrated from
predominant western media outlets, to a decentralized global market.  As previously argued,
these new sources of information sharing and communication should be watched with equal
vigor to what is happening in Northern California, LA and NYC.
A new question; is there value is reconsidering the merits of an open Net? If, as Evgeny points
out, that the same values of open technology can "be co-opted to serve ends very different from
free expression," then do we need to consider a more controlled/closed approach to the Internet. 
That is, are we beginning to observe the limits of "openness" and should these observations
foster a new debate that reconstitutes the best course of action in dealing with the Internet's
evolution as a market for commerce and social communications?