Cute cats and repressive regimes

The Irish Times of 16 May carried a report on the Media Future conference held in Dún Laoghaire. Much of it was about digital in the newsroom, but not all. Some was about unintended consequences:

Bilal Randeree, social media and web editor for Al Jazeera English, told the conference that attempts by regimes in some parts of the world to close off access to social media are usually counter-productive because of “the cute cat theory”, he explained.

“People like to share pictures of cute cats on social media. When you block Facebook for 10 days, you’re basically pissing these people off. They get upset because they can’t share pictures of cute cats any more, and they get politicised,” he said.

More here and here.

  

Monitor: Private Eye