reverse. Simply that we should not fool ourselves. It has always been hard to win a change worth having, and it will soon get harder. Comments Well we'll see how Chinese style authoritarianism works in the EU when they buy what's left of Germany-on-the-Med, sorry I mean Greece :P In all seriousness I honestly think the role of twitter has been overrated. The Arab Spring last year was based on decades of repression. Social media might have oiled a spring but it was going to happen soon regardless Authoritarian men have learned the lessons of the Arab Spring well. They are exploiting the sinister potential of the new technologies to ensure that the net-literate activists never surprise them again. Western companies are eager to oblige them. Any surprises there? Not Western companies only but Western Governments are happy to bend backwards to tyrants and despots. At the same time Western politicians are learning how to manipulate and spy on their own electorates. Britain and the US are the best examples of pioneering anti-democratic governments in the 21st Century. The traditional response of human rights activists has been to force the west to behave with at least a minimum of morality. I worry they will not win their arguments in a recession. It is, however, interesting to note that it is still fatal to be caught red handed. Even Hitler was careful to play the plausible deniability game and it would be interesting to speculate whether he would have got anywhere