Social media designed by and for activists

In an interesting article about the recent surge in “hactivism,” Adbusters senior editor Micah White mentions a new resource being developed for activists operating in repressive environments that looks like it could be promising:

Responding to the call for a non-commercial, anti-corporate, revolutionary alternative to Facebook, one programmer has released Wire. “In light of the fact that services like Twitter, Facebook, and SMS have been compromised by large companies pandering to government interests,” the developer explains, “and the vast amount of arrests of protestors that have been politically motivated and nothing to do with anyone actually doing anything wrong, then having ‘evidence’ from aforementioned messaging services used against them, I thought it was time for a system that would enable people to communicate … in a secure way, with a variety of options, such as messages self-destructing on receipt, messages that aren’t stored on a hard-disk anywhere … and other things one might find in a spy movie.” The platform is still in alpha state, but it is already showing great potential. Try it out.