Luther, rather than being controlled by the devil, was rather media savvy

On the flip side of social media use by government is social media use against the government: How Luther went viral.

Social media in social uprising is not new, but good reformers centuries ago learned how to use the communications tools and networks available at the time to reach their audiences.

Perhaps we can generalize that government and authority which are geared toward stability (or stasis or worse depending on the critic) will usually lag behind those with passion and zeal for change.  But, government officials can learn to use grass-roots tools – even the Vatican has a YouTube channel.