Twitter, Iran and Revolution

The world’s governments are apparently aware of both the threats and benefits created by the internet.  In attempts to control rebellions, Egypt cut off a majority of its citizens from the internet, the U.S. requested Twitter postpone their server maintenance during student protests in Tehran and Tunisia has been accused of logging the password information for activists’ social media accounts.  A lot of importance has been placed on social media’s role in social activism.  However, these actions may have garnered more interest from the media than they signify on behalf of the governments involved.  Many of these stories represent low-risk and low-resource reactions to rebellions.  The internet and social media may have had little real influence on the protests.  Whether social media assisted recent rebellions or not, the media and governments’ reaction to it has made its role important. 

In the Iranian case, Western media posted the loads of Tweets concerning the protests in Tehran as evidence of its use by activists.  As Golnaz Esfandiari stated in Foreign Policy, “Through it all, no one seemed to wonder why people trying to coordinate protests in Iran would be writing in any language other than Farsi.”  Twitter was not instrumental in inspiring or supporting activism in Iran.  I wonder what led to the frenzy that labeled Social Media as a “firestarter.”  It could be wishful thinking, previous advocates trying to validate their theories or lazy journalism.  I mentioned in a previous article that our enthusiasm for technology could stem from commercials.  However, it appears that social media companies, like Twitter and Facebook, rather avoid association with revolution.  Mistrust doesn’t help business.

Source: xkcd.com

Social media, like all other technology, extends the capabilities of its users.  It appears that instead of treating social media as tool to be used, activists have begun to replace traditional activism with its online counterpart.  The “high-risk strategies” of sit-ins and non-violent confrontation left little room for error.  Malcolm Gladwell argues that previously successful revolutions involved incredible amounts of organization and strategy, which he demonstrates well in his books and articles.  Online activism interferes with the creation of these values and hinders the efforts of activists.  In many situations, social media has even been turned against activists by knowledgeable governments.  I see people often posting their location on Facebook and Twitter.  Similarly, locations and networks of activists are public information on social media sites.  The privacy controls that are enabled by some of these sites are weak and can be broken with little effort.

The Occupy movements have shown no form or even any strategy in their quest for change.  All I see is anger and resentment for the status quo, but no real answer to what is wrong and how to change it.  Most students that I have talked too barely understand the reason for the protests.  Perhaps even many protestors do not know what is wrong with the system and only know that something must be.  Ultimately, I think the Occupy movement has had a lot of activity without much clarity.  Given time this may evolve into a more effective protest, but at the moment there efforts are stifled by reliance on technology.  Until social media finds its proper place in activism, it will continue to hinder the efforts of people using it to incite change.