Social media has become a powerful tool for those who don't have a voice in their country. In some cases like in Egypt, social media has helped organize a revolution. Now social media is being used in Mexico as an alternative means of getting information when traditional media can't provide it.

In a country rife with drug-related violence, Mexicans are relying more and more on social media to find out what's going on when newspapers, television and radio stations have been silenced by the drug cartels.

Last week when gunmen dumped 35 bodies at an underpass in Veracruz, blogs and Twitter were already reporting the incident.

"Avoid Plaza Las Américas," several people wrote, giving the location.

"There are gunmen," wrote others, adding, "they're not soldiers or marines, their faces are masked."

Social media has become a necessity for ordinary Mexicans who use it to survive everyday life.

"These aren't acts of political sedition or real-time attempts to bring about a change in government," said Nicholas T. Goodbody, a professor of Mexican cultural studies at Williams College. "These are people trying to navigate daily life."

The cartels have also started paying attention to social media. Before the cartels only used intimidation tactics against traditional media but just last week the mangled bodies of a young man and woman were hung from a highway bridge in Nuevo Laredo with a sign that read: "This is what happens to people who post funny things on the Internet. Pay attention."

"It suggests that the blogosphere has been included in the media landscape that the cartels are looking at. Because up until now it has only been traditional media - print, TV and radio," says Javier Garza, the editor of El Siglo de Torreon, a newspaper in neighboring Coahuila state, which has also experienced cartel violence.

The drug cartels clearly believe that the power of social media will be harder to control and silence than mainstream media.

"People are uniting and exposing the truth," said @OVEMEX, saying that the cartel will have a harder time pinpointing who started disseminating the information since it passes through several people or accounts before it becomes public. "We all watch each other's backs."