"Had I been charged with hate speech 10 years ago, I could not have fought back as effectively. If all this had happened in 1996 instead of 2006, few would have known anything about my battle. YouTube, which brought my story alive for 600,000 people by the time the traffic died down, debuted only in 2005. Before that, there was no universally surfed repository of current event–themed videos, and bloggers were much less prevalent. And without the credit card donations made possible by PayPal (which was started in 2000), it’s unlikely that I could have raised the money to cover my legal expenses.
"In short, the Internet saved me. In that sense, my story isn’t just about free speech. It’s also about the way new technology has leveled the playing field between big government and private citizens. ""The Internet may also spell the beginning of the end for the HRCs of the world
. In the days after my meeting with McGovern, I began to blog about human rights commissions and free speech, encouraged by my worldwide support. EzraLevant.com became one of the five most popular political blogs in Canada, according to the statistics on Alexa.com. The Internet support, which soon crossed over into the mainstream media, reassured me that I was the “normal” one—that free speech was normal, that resisting government nosiness was normal—and that it was the HRCs and the Syed Soharwardys who were affronts to our Western values".
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