Did Facebook’s U.S. creators realize their social networking site where friends shared jokes, photos and personal messages would become a powerful organizational tool for political groups worldwide?

Web sites like Facebook can be edited by anyone anywhere – one of its 69 million users worldwide can create a group to meet fans of a favorite film and invite people to a house party, while another can set up a group with a political agenda to raise funds from thousands of donors and organize mass demonstrations.

Early on a January afternoon, a young Colombian civil engineer frustrated over the violence in his country created a Facebook group to protest the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). By the time he got home that evening 1,500 people had joined his group.

Discussions in that Facebook group during the next few weeks led to the February 4 “One Million Voices Against the FARC” march that drew thousands of participants and made international headlines.