Social Media and Middle East Revolutions Twitter Youtube Facebook used in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Syria and Jordan
Wikileaks Revolution (IranFederal.org)
What started as the WikiLeaks Revolution has sparked the spread of change across the Middle East; Social media has empowered oppressed people into revolution. Common people with little access to the World Wide Web because of censored internet connections have still found loopholes with smartphones and social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to communicate, mobilize, and force change in long standing governments.
The Internet Black Hole (ThinkBig.com)
In what has become known as the internet black hole the governments of Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam have effectively blocked targeted internet access to information and often shut off access to any internet completely. The government of Iran is actually aggressively planning it’s own Muslum Internet to censor all information accessed within it’s own territory and plans to spread it across the Middle East eventually replacing the World Wide Web. Ali Aghamohammadi, Iran’s head of economic affairs, describes this ”Halal Global Network” this way:
“the new network would at first operate in parallel to the normal Internet — banks, government ministries and large companies would continue to have access to the regular Internet. Eventually, the national network could replace the global Internet in Iran, as well as in other Muslim countries.”
Despite the efforts of these governments to censor information from leaving their borders the people of these countries have paid with their blood to successfully distribute the social media out onto the World Wide Web demanding change. These have been picked up by the major news networks and kept the flame of revolution ignited. By smuggling videos and messages hidden on tiny SIM cards to relatives and news reporters and publishing media via smartphones the people of the Middle East continue to revolt against their oppressive government embracing social networks Twitter, Youtube and Facebook as their weapon of choice. As it turns out it may be the only weapon they have against these repressive regimes.
Google executive Wael Ghonim (itnewsafrica.com)
Egyptian and Google executive Wael Ghonim started a Facebook Fanpage “We are all Khaled Said” in honor of a young man, Khaled Said, who was brutally attacked and eventually killed by policemen. His page, which currently has 125,103 fans, sparked anger not only in Egyptians, but also in people all over the world. Ghonim was able to spread the news of the Egyptian revolution to anyone and everyone and is largely credited with sparking the revolution that toppled the Egyptian government. He also used his Twitter account to tweet up-to-the-minute accounts of what was going on in the streets of Egypt.
By using these social networks people around the world can keep up with exactly what is going on in these countries and they can publically show their support. During the Egyptian revolution, many people on Facebook, worldwide changed their profile picture to the Egyptian flag, showing their support for the people of Egypt. Now we see in Syria the Youtube videos of what the government is doing to it’s own people within it’s borders including the young boy who was brutally tortured and killed by the Syrian Government. With up to the minute information being published on social networks Twitter, Facebook and Youtube by the people themselves many are turning to these social networks to get the news coming out of the Middle East.
While some critics argue that too much credit is being given to social media and not enough is being given to the protesters themselves, I think we can all agree that the revolutions may not have played out the same way if Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube hadn’t been involved.
Social Networks Manager™
Bruce Porter Jr is the Social Networks Manager™
Email Bruce@EmmeGirls.com 001 202 436 6577
Social Media Management by EmmeGirls Modeling
Digital Media and Political Unrest (Social Media Networks Management 202 436 6577)
Social Media Effect in Middle East
Via the Oxford University Press blog (what a great idea!), Philip Howard assesses the link between digital.. specifically, social media and political unrest in the Middle East and north Africa. Although he cautions against running afoul of the common “correlation is not causation” fallacy, Howard does make an illuminating point about the impact of social media and civil society on the potential for a country to experience political unrest:
Digitally enabled protesters in Tunisia and Egypt tossed out their dictator. The protests in Libya have posed the first serious challenge to Gaddafi’s rule in decades and the crisis in that country is not over. Several regimes have had to dismiss their cabinets and offer major concessions to their citizens. Discontent has cascaded over transnational networks of family and friends to Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Ben Ali ruled Tunisia for 20 years, Mubarak reigned in Egypt for 30 years, and Gaddafi has held Libya in a tight grip for 40 years. Yet their bravest challengers are 20- and 30-year-olds without ideological baggage, violent intentions or clear leaders.
The answer, for the most part, is online. And it is not just that digital media provided new tools for organizing protest and inspiring stories of success from Tunisia and Egypt. The important structural change in Mideast political life is not so much about digital ties between the West and the Arab street, but about connections between Arab streets.
But a reasonable foreign policy question remains. If digital media changes the political game in countries run by tough dictators, who will fall next?
Website Post: http://jdasovic.com/2011/03/22/digital-media-and-political-unrest/
Bruce Porter Jr offers Social Media Management by EmmeGirls Modeling
