Social media closely monitored during civil conflict in Syria - Houston weather, traffic, news | FOX 26 | MyFoxHouston

Social media closely monitored during civil conflict in Syria

Syrian military forces have retaliated against rebel insurgents for the attack they launched Wednesday; three top officials in the Syrian government were killed in that attack.

Representatives from Russian and the People's Republic of China have blocked attempts by the United Nations Security Council to approve sanctions against the Syrian government.

After a Syrian national television appearance, Syrian president Bashar Assad has not been seen.

Plenty of reports from Syria and regarding the conflict there are coming through various social networking media platforms.

Following the progression of events from Syria with Twitter is riveting; just search for Damascus Syria and watch the feed update with hundreds of posts every minute.

Juan Torres, CEO of E-nnovations Technologies & Marketing, LLC, says controlling governments sometimes cannot control the content posted by citizens on social media.

"If it's a news agency, you can give them a little more credibility. If the tweet or the posting has some sort of video or link or picture, you can give more credibility to it," says Torres. 

Occasionally, there are Twitter posts from people within the war zone or from people with loved ones there. That brings what could be a detached feeling of the civil war back to reality and closer to the heart.

"Either the regime falls apart or they regroup and get more brutal and possibly use chemical or biological weapons that have been reported as being moved," says international political affairs expert Mustafa Tameez.

Sometimes the tweets are not news postings, but rather they show the fear from the Syrian people. As the rebels appear to close in on Assad, no one in Syria is safe.