For Edin and thousands of others in repressed and conflicted areas, the global web of computer networks has become a sounding board for voices that otherwise would be silenced. Writings of imprisoned dissidents are circulated on the Internet. Manifestoes from rebels in Mexico's impoverished highlands are posted almost daily.
Families separated by war find each other in cyberspace.
Pleas for political prisoners receive instant circulation via computer. From Seattle to Zagreb, activists turn to the Internet to look after their neighbors in the global village. One appeal of the Internet is speed. Amnesty International boasts its computer network spreads the word of an arrest so quickly that an appeal sometimes can be disseminated worldwide before the prisoner reaches the central police station. It is also cheap.