Hillary Clinton's adviser for innovation has praised the role that the Internet played in the overthrowing of dictatorships. Alec Ross said the Internet was the “Che Guevar” of the 21st century and "dictatorships are now more vulnerable than ever" as disaffected citizens organize influential protest movements on Facebook and Twitter.

This is fairly accurate as Che Guevara also took on dictators whose regimes were propped by US cash. Ultimately it was a CIA backed government that took Guevara out, leaving him banished to the bedroom walls of “right on” students.

The US has pledged to back the pro-democracy movements that have swept the Middle East and north Africa since January. Well not Syria of course, that is a real can of worms.

Dictatorships are now more vulnerable because of the devolution of power from the nation state to the individual, he said. He claimed that networks disrupt the exercise of power. They devolve power from the nation state – from governments and large institutions – to individuals and small institutions. The overarching pattern is the redistribution of power from governments and large institutions to people and small institutions.