I am, and always have been, very wary of making an obvious case of myself or my family in any way shape or form. I must add that I do not know how the foreign regimes of Egypt and Libya manage social networking, all I know is that in Egypt’s case, the Internet was shut down early on. If anyone was held? I don’t know. I also remember a specific case on twitter a few years ago from Iran where a tweeter was keeping the world updated – and suddenly disappeared. I believe the account was resuscitated, but if it was the same person? Again, I don’t know. I do feel – strongly that if you have feelings you are willing to stand for, you should do them in person as well as online, and prepare to take the consequences of either. Hiding on the internet works for the clever re-routers and hackers, we’re not all that smart. I’m not. In their place, I would lay-low or hide with my children. When younger, perhaps I would have got involved. My kids changed a lot of my thinking and behavior.

And I still feel that you need to consider your family and close friends when taking a political or religious stand-point in the social networks. It is very possibly being recorded, by whom I can’t say; to what end I can’t say. But if you can find a staunch, undisputed, bible-believing person in China telling it like it is in terms of their religious and political beliefs as we might understand or rally to on this side of the world, uncensored; please let me know?

To that end, without including any URLs, search for repression, it’s not hard to dig-deeper. You’ll find that freedom of speech and lack of religious freedom is a top concern for many worldwide. I very much doubt they would limit themselves further by making a public social statement, even if they could. Many are already entrenched in a mind-set of self-preservation and fear – one we have not experienced for some few generations. Just because we don’t personally know it does not mean it is not there. Should we stand up for them? For sure… No doubt. My husband and I have a select few charities we support where we know EXACTLY where the money is going and for what. Is verbal/written/vociferous social chat going to help? Again, I don’t know. But it hasn’t helped the orphans in America, or the addicts in Canada.

The charities carry on regardless – with help, internal and international… is social driving donations? Not that I have seen. I may be wrong. Is social driving persecution? Again, I don’t know. But mankind tends to leap on the easy targets, and socially verbose and identifiable detractors are a very easy target – and always have been, regardless of the technology or lack thereof.

AGAIN, please refer to the opening line of my post. These are my personal thoughts only, with some small experience.
-L