Twitter and YouTube: Positive Developments for Human Rights Protection?

A number of statements have been made regarding the benefit to human rights protection of advances in technology. However, can these advances also have a negative impact? Focusing on instant messaging and social network services such as Twitter and YouTube, the positives are quickly apparent. They can draw immediate attention to human rights violations that may otherwise go unnoticed, allow interested parties to stay abreast of developments in the protection of human rights, and create strength and courage in numbers for action that may not be anticipated by the perpetrator.

These services also enable human rights activists to tweet their movements to family and friends confirming that they are alive and well.