Social Media Case Reflection #2: Arab Spring
The Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and
armed rebellions that spread across the Middle East in early 2011. The use of
social media platforms played a pivotal role in the organization of many
protests across the Arab Nations. This post will focus on the uses of social
media in how it made much of the protest possible.
It is amazing how only a few decades ago if people wanted to get to get
together to protest it would take months of planning. There would be numerous
phone calls made, people having to write newspaper ads etc. I think we all know
that can take forever to achieve your goal especially when it involves other
countries coming together for a common goal. That is where social media comes
in. Social media bridged the gap in time. Before I continue I want to use a
quote from an Egyptian Activist named Wael Ghonim. This quote will set up everything I talk
about. He said “If you want to liberate a people, give them the Internet.” I
think that quote speaks volumes into the protests for numerous reasons. One
being, having the internet allows for quick assembly and in the case of Arab
Springs the governments could not control the content that was being exposed.
In one of the articles I read, it was discussed the extent to which
people would go to show their defiance against the regime. This is also where I
think the use of social media might have gone too far. The one that caught my
eye was of a citizen of Sidi Bouzid by the name of Mohammed Bouaziz set himself
on fire, and then his desperate act of defiance was posted on Facebook and
YouTube. The problem with such heinous act posted on to social media platforms
is anyone and everyone has the ability to watch it, including children. This is
can also be thought of as a con of the protests because there might have been
followers who were against violent acts. Personally, if I was part of a protest
that was supposed to be non-violent I would lose my interest when I saw someone
setting themselves on fire. To display the power social media has, president
Hosni Mubarak was forced out of his office because of 5.5% of his population,
were able to connect through social media. The 5.5% may seem like a small
number to overthrow a president, but that percentage translates into about 6
million people! There is no way that many people would have been able to band
together without the aid of social media. In this particular case Facebook was
the platform of choice.
There were some big ethical issues that were taking place during this
time. Some governments tried to control local and foreign information and
support for the protestors by creating Internet blackouts. To fight this Google
and Twitter offered a service they called “Speak-2-Tweet.” This is where I feel
some rules of ethics were broken. I think it was unethical for Twitter and
Google to bypass a country’s control on something so that others could know
what is going on. I look at it this way; if there were a problem within my
family that was going on, I would want to keep it within my family as to keep
others from trying to put their two cents in on the matter. I kind of feel that is what happened in this
country. There was a clear issue and the government wanted to keep the problem
within its country and not have outsiders attempting to fight a battle that is
not theirs.
You all have probably heard the phrase “the pen is mightier than the
sword.” Well I would like to introduce you to the new type of pen and its name
is Social Media. It is scary how powerful social media can be when used
properly. It blows my mind to think that such platforms have the ability to overthrow
dictatorships and topple governments. There are definite downsides to using
social media as a weapon of information, and at the same time it is a good
thing to have when trying to bring massive groups of people together.
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