At least two nonprofit organizations are currently working to raise awareness of the contributions of cyber-dissidents and to defend them against the human rights violations to which some of them are subjected: Global Voices Online and Reporters Without Borders.
[2] In regions where print and broadcast media are tightly controlled, anonymous online postings by cyber-dissidents may be the only source of information about the experiences, feelings, and opinions of ordinary citizens.
This advantage may be offset by the difficulty in assessing the good faith and accuracy of reports originating from anonymous sources.
[5][6] In 2003, Cai Lujun was imprisoned for posting a series of articles online under the pen name "盼民主"("expecting for democracy") criticizing the Chinese government.
Rakhmankov was found guilty of offending Vladimir Putin, and fined by the court of the region he lived in to the sum equal of US$680.