The Boston blasts have heralded the emergence of a new type of a terrorism era. In previous years, a terrorist dreamt of his actions being photographed or shot by cameramen. Nowadays, a terrorist counts on hundreds of eyewitnesses who film a terrorist act with the help of their smart phones and then post this footage on social networking websites.

Experts say that public response remains a compulsory condition of any terrorist act that should by all means cause a wide public outcry. In this regard, the Boston blasts were ideal acts of terror that immediately provoked an international uproar. To satisfy their curiosity, people don’t even need to go home and turn on TV. Instead, they can look at their cell phones’ displays and see all the details of the explosions.

A new era of terrorism sees the latest events being spread independently through a whole array of information channels that cannot be blocked. These include CCTV cameras that worked for terrorists in Boston by filming the blasts from various angles. In other words, civilization reaps the fruits of its own development, says Alexander Mikhailov, member of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy.

“It is absolutely normal that we touch upon taking control of the situation during mass gatherings in places of possible terrorist attacks, Mikhailov says. The question is that special services should prevent information from being leaked in order to contain terrorism. I think that we currently live in a new information space and we should hammer out new methods of work so as to capitalize both on advantages and shortcomings of the world we live in”, Mikhailov concludes.

For his part, Moscow-based pundit Igor Yakovenko says that the development of mass media significantly contributes to forming public opinion, something that in turn plays into the hands of terrorists.

Some experts say that special services worldwide will someday agree on the necessity of introducing means to restrict dissemination of information. This will further ride roughshod over a concept of civil freedom priorities that is already stuck.

In a word, the Boston terrorist attacks have become a challenge to liberal civilization, and a wide range of relevant issues has yet to be resolved.