Ideas worth spreading

How social media can make history

2,072,106 views |

Clay Shirky |

TED@State

• June 2009

While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics.

While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Clay Shirky

Social Media Theorist

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Clay Shirky argues that the history of the modern world could be rendered as the history of ways of arguing, where changes in media change what sort of arguments are possible -- with deep social and political implications.

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.