Twitter Revolutions: How social media and young people can change the world
When throngs of young people took to the streets of Tunis, Tunisia, last month to protest the corrupt, repressive government and its inability to combat rising food prices and high unemployment, they communicated through social means that you and I take for granted.
Using Twitter and Facebook, the protesters managed to organize large groups of Tunisians to come together and express their outrage against a 23-year-old regime that had done little for the people but suppress their rights and fill the pockets of those at the top. When President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali fled the country on Jan. 14, it became clear that the first Twitter Revolution had occurred.
The same could be said for Egypt. Emboldened by the revolution in Tunisia, young Egyptian protesters mobilized using social networking sites to take to the streets. After two days of unrest, the Egyptian government shut down the nation’s Internet and cut off wireless phone service to prevent the protests from gaining momentum. But that hasn’t stopped protesters, despite the tear gas and the threats of prison.
|When states were deciding whether to ratify the Constitution, several of the Founding Fathers used newspapers, the most effective means of communication at the time, to try to win the document’s approval. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay wrote a series of 85 compelling essays, known as The Federalist Papers, which explained how the new government would run and argued in favor of the Constitution. The essays were later published as a book in 1788.
While it appears the Internet blackout has done little to put out the fires of discontent in Cairo, these two revolutions and the unsuccessful 2009 “Green Revolution” in Iran have shown how young people can use social media to try to bring about meaningful change in their countries.
New Internet tools, however, can be a double-edged sword as repressive governments use social networking sites to gather information against dissidents.
But the roles that Facebook and Twitter have played in recent revolts cannot be overlooked. For example, in Tunisia, reporters were prevented from covering the protests that started in the coastal city of Sidi Bouzid and that the state-run media labeled as terrorism or vandalism.
Despite government efforts to cover up protests, Ethan Zuckerman of Foreign Policy magazine reported: “Tunisians got an alternative picture from Facebook, which remained uncensored through the protests, and they communicated events to the rest of the world by posting videos to YouTube and Dailymotion. As unrest spread from Sidi Bouzid to Sfax, from Hammamet and ultimately to Tunis, Tunisians documented events on Facebook. As others followed their updates, it’s likely that news of demonstrations in other parts of the country disseminated online helped others conclude that it was time to take to the streets.”
What do you think?
How are social media such as Twitter and Facebook used to bring about change? How does Facebook offer an alternative view of events? How could you use Facebook or Twitter to implement a positive social change in your community? Join the discussion and let us know what you think!
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