As Egyptian police were descending on UC Berkeley graduate journalism student James Karl Buck, he had time to send just one word to his friends on Twitter: "ARRESTED." Buck had been photographing a noisy demonstration, and as he was being hauled off to jail, friends around the world rallied to his support.

A day later, he walked out of jail, accompanied by an Egyptian attorney hired by UC Berkeley and the U.S. Embassy on the phone.

MercuryNews.com reported:

He recalls advice from his Twitter friends came in mounds of terse messages. "It was a combination of things, my Egyptian friends told me to play the 'American bitch' and try to force my way out." They also told him that it was no big deal and to just stay calm.

"They use Twitter sort of like an instant wire service," he said. "It's the way they keep in touch with each other. They go to an event and Twitter what's happening."

Meanwhile, U.S. friends on his Twitter net called the university and the American Embassy.

They also alerted the Associated Press, the International Herald Tribune, and other media, which helped put the heat on the Egyptian authorities.

(Via the Twitter Blog.)

A few days ago and closer to home, American libertarians used blogs, YouTube, and other social media services to rally support when one of their number was arrested in Washington, D.C., during a demonstration to celebrate Thomas Jefferson's birthday at the Jefferson Memorial.

When I blogged about the Jefferson Memorial incident yesterday, I noted that it was an example of the power of the Internet to bring together ad hoc groups of people quickly, to self-organize and challenge big institutions. The incident in Egypt, coming a few days later, is yet another example.

We often discuss how the Internet and 21st century surveillance technology threaten individual privacy. And those concerns are valid. But it's equally true that these technologies make it more difficult for governments, big business, and other large institutions to operate in secrecy against individuals.

(A couple of days ago, I was prepared to denounce the Jefferson Memorial incident as an example of the Jackboots Of Authority Stamping Down On American Free Speech. Now, as more facts of the matter come out, the situation seems unclear. The best possible outcome would be for the arrested person to have the charges dropped against her, and for everyone involved in the incident -- both libertarians and cops -- to shake hands and apologize to each other, because that's what civilized people do when there's a misunderstanding and tempers flare. Does anybody think that's actually going to happen?)

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