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Russian opposition activists carry portraits of activists and placards reading Freedom to prisoners of 06 May 2012 during a rally in support of freedom of the press in downtown Moscow today. Photograph: Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA

About 5,000 Russians, some waving Ukrainian flags, rallied in central Moscow today to protest at what they say is a government crackdown on independent media intended to stifle debate about the crisis in Ukraine.

In the past few weeks, Russia has removed the long-time editor of popular Russian internet news site Lenta.ru and taken an independent television channel off air.

The Kremlin denies allegations of censorship or pressure on the media. Most Russians support the Kremlins policy on Ukraine, and the annexation of the Crimean peninsula has significantly boosted public approval ratings of President Vladimir Putin, polls indicate.

Protesters at the heavily policed rally listened to speeches from activists, decrying state control of the media.

Russias main problem at the moment is lying, a problem leading to war in Ukraine, [and] the isolation of Russia from the rest of the world, said Igor Yakovenko, the former head of Russias Union of Journalists, who helped to organise the protest.

The crisis in Ukraine has led to the most serious standoff between Russia and the West in decades. Both sides accuse each other of manipulating the news for political ends.

In March, Russia blocked access to the blogs of prominent Kremlin foes Alexei Navalny and Garry Kasparov and other internet sites that have become platforms for opposition voices.

The move followed the enactment of a law allowing prosecutors to order providers to block access to sites deemed to have published calls for participation in demonstrations planned without the consent of the government.

At todays rally, protester Ekaterina Maldonko said the media atmosphere in Russia was reminiscent of the countrys Communist totalitarian past.

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Moscow protest for media freedom draws about 5,000

Limited internet penetration means social media activity may not quite define the Indian elections. But the value of 'likes', tweets and 'shares' is far from lost on political leaders

arack Obamas 2012 campaign made him what many call the first social media president (much like JFK was the first television president in 1961); it also made his digital campaign the gold standard for political parties in other democracies.

However, in the US, social media is ubiquitous, with more than 70 percent of the adult population engaging with it in some form. In India, on the other hand, internet penetration is just 205 million out of 1.2 billion, and registered voters (814 million) vastly outnumber social media users (103 million). So it may be premature to call these parliamentary elections Indias first social media elections. But a significant amount of the political discourse and campaigning has definitely shifted to the third and fourth screens.

A 2013 study by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) indicates that there are 160 high impact constituencies out of 543, where social media will not only influence voter turnout but also sway poll results by 34 percent. This impact is not limited to metros and Tier I cities, because a third of Indias social media traffic comes from towns with populations of less than 500,000.

More importantly, the impact of social/digital media is not limited only to direct access. Conversations seeded online find their way into mainstream media, and get read, seen and discussed in towns and villages, says Rajesh Lalwani, founder of Blogworks, a social media consulting firm.

In national outfits like the BJP, the Congress, and new kid on the block, AAP, and state parties like the Shiv Sena, TMC and Telugu Desam, leaders and candidates have taken to online electioneering with much gusto. And the major social media platforms are not only acting as facilitators but also driving voter engagement in many ways. Falling in Like With Politics Facebook is the mass social network in India, leading the pack by quite a margin. Ninety percent of its 93 million Indian users are of voting age, and 11 percent of the countrys voting population is using the platform.

Most of the activity happens on Facebook Pages: There are close to 52,000 pages for politicians and political parties in India, according to data provided by the company, and 60 of these are verified pages.

Some have staggering numbers: Narendra Modi is one of the most influential global leaders on the platform with 11.8 million fans (second only to Barack Obamas 39.5 million). At any given point, more than a million fans are bustling around his page, twice the number on Obamas page. (The BJP, however, has a fan base of only 3.1 million.)

Facebook pages are mission control for politicians. They lend themselves well for political causes and public movements, says Ankhi Das, public policy director, India & South Asia, Facebook. The conversational power of the medium allows politicians to build real-time engagement with users. And they are engaging with authentic, real-name identities as opposed to fake or anonymous ones.

Facebook recently launched its India Election Tracker , a dashboard that tracks mentions of candidates and parties in real-time. Users see a live-stream of candidates and can take a poll on issues (like health care, jobs, education, corruption, etc) that concern them most.

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Social Media: Limited, but 'Liked' in Indian Elections

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Whooping cough first sickened the Illinois high school cheerleaders, then it struck the football players, the cross-country team and the band.

As it spread within the Chicago suburb of McHenry County in late 2011, another outbreak took place -- on social media. A small business called Sickweather LLC said it detected the online flare-up on Twitter Inc. (TWTR) and Facebook Inc. (FB) postings in early October that year. Thats about two weeks before local health officials issued a public statement.

Now, U.S. agencies want to expand their use of social media to spot potential biological attacks and outbreaks of deadly infectious diseases, including the new H7N9 avian flu that has killed dozens of people in China.

Thats the Holy Grail, said Mark Dredze, an assistant research professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a Sickweather adviser. Wed love these systems to tell us theres a brand new disease and its going to be a big thing.

The online disease trackers have had mixed results, with academics criticizing a tool by Mountain View, California-based Google Inc. (GOOG), the worlds biggest Internet search engine, for overestimating the number of U.S. influenza cases in recent years.

The system, dubbed Google Flu Trends, relied on search terms. It was never intended to be used on its own, said Matt Mohebbi, a former company engineer who helped create the tool.

Kelly Mason, a Google spokeswoman, said the company is open to feedback on how it can refine Flu Trends to help estimate influenza levels and complement existing surveillance systems.

Companies such as Sickweather and Boston-based Epidemico Inc. are trying to get past the noise on the Internet. They rely on computer algorithms to scan social media and news articles for references to disease like whooping cough. They try to screen out unrelated posts that might use sick (when they mean cool or insane) or Bieber fever (obsessed with pop star Justin Bieber).

The work also involves humans, in case the filters dont catch everything and the algorithms exaggerate illness reports.

The big advantage of social media is you can get a lot more data, and you can get it more quickly and more economically, said Henry Niman, a biomedical researcher and president of Pittsburgh-based Recombinomics Inc., which analyzes viral evolution and the spread of disease. It is a matter of fine-tuning that data so you come up with results that are more reliable.

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Disease Outbreak Warnings Via Social Media Sought by U.S.

Time and time again business owners ask me how to find the time to do social media. Does it distract you from your "day job"?

It seems very easy to start using it, get distracted and then lose time reading/ replying to other items and still not have got any value. Thats when I thought that social media is like a weapon of mass distraction, always able to draw people away from their day job.

How to find the time for social media

Control and some form of discipline is essential to make it work, along with very clear objectives (who your audience is, what youre trying to achieve). Then its possible to develop regular habits, and a routine (that works for you) making results lots easier.

Some background rules

There are three simple rules that work for me, and others have adopted very similar approaches based on time management techniques. What works for you?

What might go in your routine?

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Is Social Media just a weapon of mass distraction?