I thought this topic was really interesting because everyone knows about the violence and military ordeals of the Arab Spring, but the social media side is not as obvious. We also have not talked a lot yet of about the role (or lack there of) of the government in development. This article describes the efforts of protesters in utilizing social media like twitter and Facebook and also using ICT in the form of mobile phones. Phones were used by mass broadcast media to talk to protesters on the ground. Mostly, media was used to disseminate information about the protest movement and provide anti-government propaganda, but the article states that once they were in full-swing, the use of social media died down. One thing I found interesting in the article was the governments attempt at destroying the social media efforts. They attempted to hack and delete the main player’s social media profiles and the Egyptian government even shut off the internet and mobile phone services. This proves how effective the social media movement was if the government felt the need to destroy the social media outlets.
24 October 2011
Social Media and the Arab Spring
By ashleynfox
This entry was posted on Monday, October 24th, 2011 at 12:52 am and tagged with Arab Spring, Egypt, Facebook, mobiles, Tunisia, Twitter and posted in Governance, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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November 1st, 2011 at 4:03 pm
For the critics who had previously dismissed platforms like Facebook and Twitter as pointless and vapid, the toppling of regimes in Tunisia and Egypt suggested that these tools were as effective for organizing protests and revolutions as they were for organizing keg parties. Social media provides new opportunities and tools to respond to local conditions. As evidence, there was a correlation between spikes in social media activity and events associated with the Arab Spring. Also, viral videos like those on YouTube became a particularly important tool for spreading news and information of Egypt’s uprising. However, other countries have witnessed virtual congregations of disaffected individuals in blogs, Facebook and Twitter without resultant mass protest movements, and revolutions have certainly occurred without the aid of social media. That central question, of whether social media spurs protest or just mirrors it, remains unanswered.
November 2nd, 2011 at 12:37 am
It truly is incredible the crucial role social media has played in recent governmental protests throughout the world. Citizens are realizing this opportunity to express their opinions, and the government is having a difficult time completely prohibiting it. In the case of Egypt and Tunisia, I think it is interesting that many of the protest signs were in English, proving that their intention was to use social media to gain support from the international community. While the government in Egypt seems to have seized complete control over the internet, it is still impossible to completely stop this massive wave of social media especially since more than one means of communication is being used in the protests. I think social media has a huge role to play in future demonstrations and decisions in these countries.