ABSTRACT
Liberation technology citizens to report news, expose wrongdoing, mobilize protest, scrutinize government, and expand the horizons of freedom. Liberation technology is any form of information and communication technology (ICT) that can expand political, social, and economic freedom. Mobilizing against authoritarian rule represents only one possible liberating use of digital ICT. The new ICTs are also powerful instruments for transparency and accountability, documenting and deterring abuses of human rights and democratic procedures. Malaysiakini and its brethren perform a number of democratic functions. They provide an uncensored forum for commentary and debate, giving rise to a critical public sphere. The public sphere in China involves much more than 'tweets', of course. Many Chinese were upset that Google would abandon them to the more pervasive censorship of the Chinese search-engine alternatives, and they worried that the Great Firewall would block other services such as Google Scholar and Google Maps.
