Syrian Government Stronger Than Social Media?

This article showcases the weaknesses of a social media campaign against a ruthless leader such as Syria's Assad. With the international community largely unwilling to intervene in Syria, social media will do little compared to what well organized fighters could do. While Egypt and Libya saw great success in their social media revolts, they had leadership that was much less politically powerful and largely unwilling to fight back as aggressively as Assad is. As the article states, "To overthrow a dictator as skilled and as ruthless as this... You need a rigidly hierarchical, relatively small and highly organized circle of people, located within the country, capable of taking direct action against the state." Assad's government is quite capable of hacking into the Facebook and Twitter accounts of the protestors, a feat that would gain them the names of the protestors and rebels. Information that would take days or weeks or torture to obtain can be gained through a quick hacking. Social media is so easily taken advantage of by savvy government officials who realize that fake profiles and accounts can gain them inside and up to date information on the protests. The social media campaigns worked in Egypt and Tunisia because the governments opened their borders and allowed the international community a first hand glimpse of the protests and responses, a fact that made it nearly impossible to strike back viciously like Assad is doing.