The BBC has an interesting story about SARS in China. Specifically, the Chinese government at first had a media blackout about SARS altogether. It has relented somewhat, but is clearly not telling its own people, much less the rest of the world, the true extent of SARS cases in China.
So people in China are using text messaging on their mobile phones to route around the lack of information in regular media channels.
This, in turn, pissed off the government which in some cases has gone so far as to block most text messages that originate in foreign countries as well as complaining that text messaging is a threat to national security.
Of course the main problem with that approach is that those acts in themselves are helpful bits of information that practically screams out that the government is lying about SARS.
Source:
Chinese txt for virus information. Holly Williams, BBC, April 9, 2003.