Roughly three hundred years ago, a bunch of hicks on the outskirts of one of the world’s largest empires took up hunting rifles and cannons, starting the revolution that forged our country. In the modern era however, guns, while still deadly, lack the power to create real change on their own. Now more than ever, information is the ammunition of choice.

While the idea of “the selfie seen round the world” might not sound very dramatic, the free exchange of ideas is mandatory for the preservation of liberty. Some may scoff at the idea that a platform used primarily to display pictures of our lunch or pets could play such a huge role in world politics, yet the events in Hong Kong over the last week demonstrate how even services like Instagram can terrify those in power.

Instragram, one of the few western based social web services permitted in China, was blocked throughout that country last Monday after thousands of images of the massive protests clogging Hong Kong’s financial district were posted to the site. Web services based out of China have also been heavily censored, leaving most of the country’s mainland population in the dark about the true scope of the protests. Instead, Chinese social sites trend topics like “selfies with the Chinese flag”.

In fact, the Chinese government has not stopped at censoring search results, photos, and posts about the protests. It has actively sought out and detained Chinese citizens on the mainland who have attempted to spread photos of or related to the protests, even arresting several who’s only crime were posting photos of themselves after shaving their heads in support of the people of Hong Kong.

However, where there is a will there’s a way, and like with the attempted ban of Twitter in Turkey earlier this year, the desire to make themselves heard has led thousands to circumvent these measures. According to an an article on Forbes.com, the app FireChat, which allows users to directly connect their phones through Bluetooth, gained over 100,000 new users last Monday alone. While all images on Instagram have been blocked from view for the Chinese people, protestors still regularly upload photos for the outside world to follow along with their struggle.

For those who dismiss services like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook out of hand as the playground of self-absorbed hipsters, it’s time to reconsider. In the digital era, bloggers, tweeters, and Instagram fanatics are the vanguard of our democracy.