The pressure to conform is lower when there are other people who aren't conforming. Even in Asch's experiment where the confederate isn't giving the right answer but isn't conforming, conformity rates dropped. Simply the act of someone not following the majority is social support. The confederate acts as a model of independent behaviour and their dissent gives rise to more dissent; it shows that the majority is no longer unanimous.
Resisting obedience
The pressure to obey is lower when there are other people who aren't obeying. In a variation of Milgram, obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine participant was joined by a disobedient confederate. The other person's behaviour acts as a model of dissent for the participant to copy & this frees him to act free his own mind. The disobedient model challenges the legitimacy and authority, making it easier to disobey.
