I'm in the process of pulling together a presentation on the special tension between security and openness faced by organizations like the Laogai Research Foundation, who serve the impossible-to-secure dissidents of the repressive Chinese Communist Party.  So I was particularly interested, in light of our Twitter campaign to Free Liu Xiaobo, and our own interest in how the growing community of Chinese dissidents on Twitter have managed to create a much-needed public forum, in the question posed yesterday by C. Custer - "Is it a trap?"

Is Twitter a trap?  Custer certainly makes a compelling argument that Twitter, as an immensely popular micro-blogging service, provides a lovely pool of material for "would-be prosecutors to compile evidence of thoughtcrime".  And he certainly doesn't overstate the danger involved in public dissent in China - Just last week activist Tan Zuoren was sentenced to 5 years in prison for reporting on the Sichuan earthquake and the Beijing Municipal High Court rejected the appeal of democracy activist Liu Xiaobo.  There is reason to be concerned about the safety of the Twitter community of Chinese dissidents, and to a certain extent the platform is the responsibility of its creator.  (Read more after the jump)

In short, there's certainly every reason to believe that the Chinese government is capable of using Twitter as a trap.

But as a technology developer and a human rights activist, I note real tension behind individual decisions to participate in the Twitter "trap", because while users value security, they may also need an open, public forum to air their political disappointments and fears. Custer posits that Twitter may be more dangerous than blogging because it promotes publication that is less thoughtful; but perhaps it is more dangerous because it is more interactive.  On Twitter, your community can react so quickly to your thoughts, and can share them so effortlessly, that this increased interactivity may simply be a more effective simulation of a real-life public forum, a space denied to Chinese dissidents in their own real life. 

Of course its quite clear that users are (often) adults, capable of making decisions of how to present themselves to the world - but there is some noise to be made about the implications and consequences that lie beyond that obvious fact.  I do think that Twitter shares some responsibility in fostering a forum that is dangerous, but we can't ignore that they are fostering a forum that is needed - that Twitter is so popular because it fills a real need, and offers a real service.  It is probable that users are aware of the danger, and are making their own peace with the tension between security and openness.

Twitter may very well be dangerous for Chinese dissident users, but perhaps its popularity is reason to suspect that it may be just as dangerous for a repressive government.  And in that case, we could stand to create more forums like Twitter, risky as them may be.