A recent political event that has been covered extensively in the US media is the death of Osama Bin Laden. The event, which took place last week, became a national event that was announced by the president during a special speech. However, even before the president gave his speech, the event had been live-tweeted on Twitter by Sohaib Athar, a Twitter user in Abbottabad, where Osama was found. Unbeknownst to Athar, he tweeted about the capture of Osama when remarking about some sort of event going on near his home.
What this relates to is the idea of net neutrality, especially in terms of the freedom social networks provide. Athar was able to comment on the event happening in his town because of the freedom that the Internet allows for every person to have a profile on Twitter and the ability to post on it. People were able to understand this event in the way people in the town did thanks to the freedom Twitter allows. Twitter allowed Athar a voice, which has led to him having 104,589 followers and coverage on the national media. Without the freedom of the Internet, this likely would have never been possible.
(Extra Credit)
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