The Current Discussion: Egypt has detained a number of its citizens for using the social networking site Facebook to organize anti-government protests. What online sites are most effective in influencing politics -- and is the impact positive?

President Hosni Mubarak, who recently turned 80, has ruled Egypt for 26 years. What compels his regime to arrest and bully young people - who have known no other leader – simply for creating Facebook groups to call for a general strike in support of the poor and to protest spiraling food prices?

The Saudi Arabian royal family is firmly in charge of its kingdom and oil wealth. What compels it to detain a blogger without charge for four months because he defended the rights of dissidents?

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, once hailed as Mr. Technology for his keenness to get Syria online and connected, is also firmly in control in Syria. So what compels his regime to block Syrians from accessing Facebook and to arrest and bully the same young people who took him at his earlier word and went online and got connected by blogging?

A desire to express themselves and a determination to use blogs and social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace to circumvent censorship has created a thrilling equation in the Arab world: one man/woman + internet = very angry dictator.

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