TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Brilliant essay by Clay Shirky on to whether and to what extent social media can be a force for democracy. His basic thesis is that a strong civil society, not communication, precedes the defeat of authoritarianism, but that communication is necessary to build it. Therefore, the U.S. should support social media generally in less-than-free nations, rather than just as an issue of freedom of speech:

But nearly every country in the world desires economic growth. Since governments jeopardize that growth when they ban technologies that can be used for both political and economic coordination, the United States should rely on countries’ economic incentives to allow widespread media use. In other words, the U.S. government should work for conditions that increase the conservative dilemma, appealing to states’ self-interest rather than the contentious virtue of freedom, as a way to create or strengthen countries’ public spheres.