George Dvorsky - le Menace des bloggers

Cyberwarfare and the "blogger threat"

It's generally felt that, with the meteoric rise of the Internet and with the information and communication revolutions still in full swing, the threat of networked groups and individuals to spread disinfo and to engage in widescale social engineering campaigns has never been greater. One could imagine a fleet of blogs calling for people to rise up over an issue like runaway global warming.

Consequently, that the Homeland Security Department considers bloggers a potential threat really shouldn't come as a complete surprise; the military would likely shut down threatening and subversive blogs during times of war or civil unrest. (voir par exemple les blogs de soldats en Irak qui documentaient la guerre sur le terrain et qui se sont vu fermé car ils propageaient une vision différente de la vision officiel).

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Freedom of speech is a peacetime luxury.

At the same time, however, I have to think that the real impact bloggers could conceivably have is over-stated. I don't think memes work in such a pervasive way, particularly not today in the age of diversified media. If blogs could actually cause people to riot, for example, it's not because the blogs are telling them to do so, but because there's a genuine reason for doing so. (conclusion : les blogs sont un symptome d'un besoin d'information et non à l'origine d'un phénomène, ils ne font que le colporter).