Twenty years ago, fax machines made it hard for the Chinese government to mask what it was doing to protesters at Tiananmen Square. It was a two-way deal. Reporters in Beijing used a device called a Pixolator to transmit images over telephone lines to the United States. Over here, even at AlphaGraphics in downtown Salt Lake City, Chinese students faxed reliable news accounts back to their homeland, where all official news was censored.

Only two years ago, the role cell phones played as the government in Myanmar cracked down on protesting monks enthralled us. The phones acted like tiny cameras, instantly transmitting videos and still photographs and making a mockery of official censorship.

So why am I discouraged? Because the fax machines didn't keep the Chinese government from its bloody massacre of young protesters. The cell phones, for all their clarity and unadorned frankness, didn't stop Myanmar from its heavy-handed tactics.

When it comes to deciding whether to incur the wrath of the world for being brutal in the preservation of power, or to back off in shame and relinquish power, regimes like those in China, Myanmar and Iran always choose to endure a little wrath.

Perhaps that is the true value of technology and social-networking sites like Twitter. They show us other people as they really are, whether it's some guy scratching himself in the morning, some dictator murdering people indiscriminately or millions of Iranians yearning for freedom.

Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret News edito?rial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com. Visit his blog at deseretnews.com/blogs.