The rise of Facebook and other social media outlets has led to spirited debates as to their impact on the ability of political authorities to control political speech and to suppress public unrest. There is no question that social media present new challenges to authoritarian regimes, which have historically sought to control their publics by giving them a shared sense of destiny while at the same time atomizing the people as individuals. The goal has been to suppress dissent by forcing anyone who has critical thoughts about the state to keep these to themselves. Has the traditional authoritarian strategy of atomizing the public been destroyed?
