In an act to silence the opposition (activists), police beat 28 year-old Khaled Said to death because human rights advocates claimed that there was proof he had evidence of police corruption.

Fortunately, Said's death caused an uproar of activists to come forth and band together against police torture. Through the Internet and social media, activists were able to use blogging, Facebooking, Youtubing, filming, photographing, etc. to catch these acts and display them for all to see.

The chilling part of this story is that he was an ordinary businessman who had a video showing officers with illegal drugs and simply wanted to inform the public about this interaction.

Putting into context of the current situation of the United States of America and its new presidency — the danger of silencing the truth is just as possible. With the current president picking and choosing which media outlets he endorses, the favoritism also guarentees a dictated bubble in which his truths are untouchable and the major companies, law enforcement, etc. are untouchable. It would be reassuring to know that as a journalist trying to reveal the truth surrounding law enforcement, we are safe from being beaten up in a public forum, however, is silencing the facts and blurring the line between the truth and ignorance really any different?

Through videos that pop up on Facebook from Al Jazeera, Now This, etc., through created public events (protests, rallies), through short segments and clips from factual news outlets, and through the networking that happens around social media, we have the ability to re-establish this divide between truth and ignorance, and educate the public about what a corrupted government looks like.