I heard some interesting things on the radio this morning about how the protestors are using blogs and other social software to organize and coordinate their protests across France. This is a wonderful example of how new technologies can impact democracy.
Of course, this poses a threat to the establishment. According to Wired News, French prosecutors shut down several blogs this week and arrested bloggers suspected of inciting violence.
I'm trying to find out the substance of the law they are accused of violating and the contents of their posts. Inciting violence is always a sketchy area because a lot depends on the discretion of the prosecutor. I hope this is not like China's broad definition of national security information that resulted in serious human rights crtiques because a journalist was sentenced to ten years for an email about government suppression of reporting on protests.