You are on page 1of 7

Title

Executive Summary

Introduction

The recent successful protests in both Tunisia and Egypt, as well as uprising across the Middle East has identified social media as a powerful channel that allowed peopleto spread the works of political reform and break the barrier of fear (Bhuiyan, 2011). Rapid dissemination of information through social networking sites allowed for increased level of geographical participation of protests domestically, as well as informing the world of the activists democratic motives. By utilizing social networking tools available it appeared to have allowed a shift of power towards activists by creating an effective two way communication with the general public. Oppressive regimes are overthrown by people and not by social networking tools, the use of social networking did not instigate the revolution, but it does appear that protestors have been able to make use of its potential and evoke peoples desire for democracy. Twitter and Facebook may have been used by demonstrators to communicated during the recent uprisings in countries like Tunisia and Egypt, but it isnt clear there were crucial in any way to the revolutions there (Gladwell, 2011 cited in Ingram, 2011) The arguments suggesting that the use of social networks were not crucial base their argument upon historical success of revolution without these tools but as their impact upon overall success isnt quantitatively measurable there is debate as to the role played and influence upon success. Arguments supporting the importance of these tools suggest that observations of social media show that it played a purposeful role in the development of a politically conscious society prior to the uprisings and also noticeably increased the speed of events while reducing the costs involved with participation leading up to and during the revolution. Social networking has allowed people from different areas of a country to share views and therefore aids the development of a civil society, particularly in countries where open political opposition is curbed by force (Baiasu, 2011). The ability to share political views with some degree of anonymity has given activists the opportunity to inspire and motivate people to participate within a cause. As identified, social media participation is not enough to cause revolution on its own, to create a significant impact there is still need for people to mobilize and

actively participate within the uprising by further developing upon the methods in which it initially engaged and informed the public. The organizing groups, although small seem to have made effective use of the social media tools available to them in order to bring people, many of whom had never previously been involved in political activity, onto the streets. Successfully using social media tools over traditional communication methods to rally the general public appeared to be a key factor in laying the foundations for a successful political revolution. However, as with any tool, social media does have fundamental strengths and weaknesses and therefore its effectiveness is dependent upon how it is used and at which stage and what level of government intervention imposed upon it.

Role of Social Networking

Although to the world it seemed as if political revolutions, specifically in both Tunisia and Egypt had been created in a short amount of time, this was not the case. In both countries there had been a considerable use of social media to express political views many months and years prior to the events that took place. Research conducted into the social movements in the Middle East, found that political opposition movements were using the internet to disseminate information and increase participation for their cause as early as 1999 (Fandy,2001). The use of the internet provided an open space for political discussion in which a physical presence was not necessary to participate and therefore reduced the risks involved with traditional methods used to speak out under control of an oppressive regime. This was particularly significant in Egypt in which emergency law had been in place for several years, criminalizing any group which is seen as a threat to public disorder (Baiasu, 2011). The level of public involvement achieved prior to the physical uprising spread across socio economic groups and developed geographically to provide a wide base from which information could be dispersed as well as acting as reassurance to the public that they would not be alone in the upcoming and ongoing events. The speed at which information diffusion takes place during a political uprising is perceived as being particularly important when facing an oppressive regime as they may seek for opportunity to quell activists whilst participation is low. Critics might argue that there was little difference between the use of email and the more traditional method of distributing cassette tapes by anti regime clerics, but the novelty wasinformation could be disseminated simultaneously and immediately to a large number of people (Baiasu, 2011) Real time characteristics of social networking tools helped spread the word of the revolution and rapidly increase participation which otherwise could not have been achieved in the same time

frame through traditional distribution methods. Although this information was distributed in what many perceived as an anonymous method, a trade off to the benefits of social media is that it only provides relative anonymity which both governments and security agencies are able to bypass (Schlozman, Verba and Brady, 2008). This became apparent in the early parts of the uprisings in Tunisia and more notably in Egypt when several leading activists were brought into and held in custody in relation to their online activity (Nguyen, 2011). This situation highlighted the importance of the solid base for information diffusion which has been created and continued to allow the growth in participation of the revolution even though many leading political activists had been detained. In the years leading up to the revolt in the Middle East and North Africa, internet had offered many people access to informationunimaginable a few years ago (Sterling, 2010), the importance of this was demonstrated as the public were able to effectively increase not only local but global participation and support through social networking and media coverage. During the development of the uprisings it became a western obsession to not only keep up to date with the Middle East and North African events via traditional media methods such as news broadcasts but also to follow and communicate with people involved in revolution itself through social networking tools available. Social network following of the Egyptian revolution became so global and created such a strong following that after the Egyptian government intervened and shut down the internet Google designed and launched a special service for the activists to tweet via text and voice messaging services enabling them to continue global contact (Herb, 2011). The influence of Egyptian activists upon on western media became most apparent when a message from a Egyptian blogger I urge you to use the words revolt, uprising and revolution and not chaos and unrest (anon, 2011 cited in Boyd, 2011) persuaded CNN to change their on screen headline from CHAOS IN EGYPT to UPRISING IN EGYPT. Global public awareness, support and communication through social networking tools and media also had a significant effect on the stance and involvement of international governments. In the past it has been identified that often an international government may seek to withdraw involvement or influence public opinion to support an authority in power in order to enhance foreign policy or maintain political stability. Due to the high levels of global information diffusion the public opinion had already been formed prior to a government reaction and therefore forced a subtle shift of support by international governments behind the public consensus and political activists. A statement by the EU Foreign Policy Chief support and recognition to Tunisian people and their democratic aspiration (Ashdon, 2011 cited in BBC, 2011) along with similar stances publically stated by many international governments a significant pressure was imposed upon the Egyptian regime which further swayed power into the hands of activists. In a business context the use of social networking tools allowed a lowering of organizational and communication costs associated with the revolution. This gives opportunity for and allowed the

uprising in both Tunisia and Egypt to be created and progress without the need for outside funding. This factor was perceived positively and attracted huge global public support for the activists as it demonstrated an honest approach to reform against an oppressive government with a genuine goal of democracy when previous occasions have been financed by corporations and governments in an attempt to aid personal motives. Social networking appears to have played a significant role across several areas of political reform, from the initial engagement in political debate to active participation. It has led to rapid information dissemination and increased level of local and global participation allowing transference of power away from the government and towards the general public which has motivated many people to actively involve themselves in a situation which they may have previously avoided.

Social Media Intervention

Through lowering the organizational and communication costs of political revolution compared to more traditional methods an increased trade off with level of security is introduced. Measures to monitor internet activities have been introduced for some timeGovernments and Internet Service Providers censored contend deemed both politically sensitive or critical of governments (Noman, 2011) Many worldwide Governments including those within the Middle East and North Africa have had significant experience in the control and censorship of internet. In many oppressive regimes, most notably in China, Governments have censored internet for some time as it is considered an effective free forum for political debate and its potential as a tool for mass information dissemination is widely recognized. In many highly censored countries Internet Service Provider and websites must obtain a Government operating licenses in which they will have to concede contractual terms to the Government providing access to specific user information and activity. Most of the software used for this task has been identified as western made tools for blocking social and political content (Web, 2011) which has suggested to be blocking over twenty million people across the Middle East. The detrimental factor with the use of social networking tools by political activist leaders to disseminate information was that the relative anonymity that the internet provides could be easily dissolved by the government. Government intervention arose early on in Egypt when almost 40 leaders of the political movement were arrested early on (Papick and Noonan, 2011), although its not possible to monitor all social network activities, by removing several leaders the government felt that they would be able to control the spread of public participation and information diffusion. Although in both cases the government attempted to control the

distribution of information, the wide base of participation and rapid dissemination of information gave a viral characteristic to the revolutions developing upon social networks which could not be contained. Historically the usage of radio, cassettes and political literature has not been able to achieve such an audience and therefore social networking appears to have accelerated and expanded the process and participation of political reform. Through the monitoring of online activity of protest leaders, it allows police to easily identify trouble spots (Legrand, 2011). Online monitoring can create a significant physical impact, particularly upon concentrated protests in which an intervention can easily suppress and overcome activists. In particular it has been common in Tunisia for protests to be quelled due to leaked intelligence of the location being acquired through government monitoring which is soon followed by the deployment of counter protest forces by police to intercept activists (Nguyen, 2011). An active intervention tactic to reduce the effectiveness of social networking tools during times of political unrest could be to spread targeted disinformation online with the aim of reducing participation or gathering activists at a police occupied location. Although as of yet this form of intervention has not been used (Papic and Noonan, 2011) it is evident that approaches to counter the value of social networking tools during times of political unrest will increase, particularly in countries under oppressive regime. The most extreme form of intervention, which became a key point for global discussion after occurring during the Egyptian revolution was the total shut down of the internet. The shutting down of the internet removes any future value from social networking tool in country but as was seen in Egypt, but by the support of international corporations activists were able to exploit social networking tools through alternative methods to maintain global communication and support contributing to the overall success. Conclusions

References

Bhuiyan, S., Social Media and its Effectiveness in the Political Reform Movement in Egypt, Middle East Media Educator, 1 (1), 2011, 14-20. Available at: http://row.uow.edu.au/meme/vol1/iss1/3 Ingram, M., 2011, Malcolm Gladwell, Social Media Still Not a Big Deal, [online] Available at: http://gigaom.com/2011/03/29/Malcolm-Gladwell-Social-Media-Still-Not-a-Big-Deal/ [Accessed 06 November 2011]

Baiasu,K., Social Media: A Force for Political Change in Egypt, [online] Available at: http://new-middle-east.blogspot.com/2011/04/political-change.html, [Accessed 09 November 2011] Fandy, M., 2001. Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent. St Martins Press. Schlozman, K. Verba, S and Brady, H., 2008, Weapon of the Strong? Participatory Inequality and the Internet, [e-journal] 10. Available through: Cambridge Journals [Accessed 06 November 2011] Nguyen, T., 2011, Social Media Revolution ignites Middle East and North Africa, [online] Available at: http://tednguyenusa.com/social-media-ignites-revolutions-in-middle-east-andnorth-africa/, [Accessed 11 November 2011] Sterling, J., 2010, Report: Middle East, North African Countries Censor and Control Media, [online] Available at: http://insidethemiddleeast.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/12/report-mideast-northafrican-countries-censor-control-media/ [Accessed 01 November 2011] Harb, Z., 2011, Arab Revolution and the Social Media Efect, [online] Available at: http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/viewArticle/364 [Accessed 28 October 2011] Boyd, E., 2011, Social Networking as a Tool for Social Change, [online] Available at: http://www.cugg.org/docs/presentations/ssameshima/Social%20Media%20and%20Politics.pdf [Accessed 3 November 2011] BBC., 2011, In Quotes, Reaction to the Tunisian Crisis, [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12197681 [Accessed 28 October 2011] Noman, H., 2009, Middle East and North Africa, [online] Available at: http://opennet.net/research/regions/mena [Accessed 02 November 2011] Web, T., 2011, Western Made Tools for Blocking Social and Political Content [online] Available at:http://www.rferl.org/content/how_western_companies_help_middle_eastern_governments_ce nsor_the_web/3540582.html [Accessed 03 November 2011] Legrand, E., 2011, Why Social Media Should Not Be Banned Throughout Periods of Public Disorder [online] Available at: http://www.sooperarticles.com/internet-articles/socialnetworking-articles/why-social-media-should-not-banned-throughout-periods-public-disorder658547.html [Accessed 06 November 2011] Papic, M. and Noonan, S., Social Media as a Tool for Protest, [online] Available at: http://www.sooperarticles.com/internet-articles/social-networking-articles/why-social-media-

should-not-banned-throughout-periods-public-disorder-658547.html [Accessed 04 November 2011]

You might also like