The revolution may, or may not, be tweeted

Just listening to stuff about Tunisia the kinds of issues they seem to be rioting about seem eerily similar to those in the UK - public spending cuts, high unemployment and a rising cost of living.



If, as is widely expected at the moment, there are further protests and possibly riots in the UK this year I think we can expect a similar kind of response, with bloggers and twitterers being in the front line when it comes to censorship.  The Digital Economy Act gives politicians sufficient legal powers to block the internet connections of individuals, and probably all they would need to be able to claim was that some copyright violation had taken place (which would be fairly easy if any advertising billboards or company logos are visible within video footage) or that national security might be threatened.  As a precedent there were some attempts to censor web sites last year after the student protests, but as always the internet routes around any such disruptions.

Some additional commentary on the Tunisian internet battles can be found here.