Social Media: An Enemy of the State & Power of the
People
In the 21st century revolution will most likely not be
televised like in the past, but rather it will be tweeted, blogged, texted and
organized on Facebook. Surely it was, through social media sites like Facebook,
Twitter and Blogger that helped many citizens of the Arab countries like
Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya into bringing down the dictators and successfully taking
over the power from the government and giving it back to the hands of the
citizens. If it was not for social media such achievements during the regime
would have not been achieved so quickly. It was the power of social media that
has brought back the citizens of Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya from darkness to
light.
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Supporters
of Islamist Ennahda party hold national flags during a celebration to
commemorate the Tunisian National Day. Tunisia, the Arab Spring's
birthplace, is taking on militants.
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Tunisia is where the Arab Spring all began. After the death
of Mohammed Bouazizi a local vendor set himself alight in front the central
town of Sidi Bouzid on 17 December 2010 (Noueihed and Warren, 64). His action
was in protest over the humiliation and injustices that he suffered at the
hands of the local authorities for not having a permit to sell his food, within
days after the incident; it sparked countrywide protests calling upon President
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his regime to step down. About a month later, Ben
Ali with his family fled (NPR).
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| Mohamed Bouazizi |
Following the death of Mohammed Bouaizizi it is evident
enough that the social media played a major role in the protests that took
place all across Tunisia. “Mobile phones, blogs, YouTube, Facebook pages and
Twitter feeds have become instrumental in mediating the live coverage of
protests and speeches, as well as police brutality in dispersing demonstrations
(Al-Jazeera).” All of this was enough to bring the voices of the angered Tunisian
youth to the attention of the world media and to the international public
opinion (Al-Jazeera). Furthermore, in a country like Tunisia where government
historically has a tight control over media, such significant progress
throughout the protests has changed the rules of the game from taking the power
of media from the hands of government and brining back to the hands of the
citizens (Al-Jazeera).
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| Khalid Said |
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| Wael Ghonim |
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| Khalid Said Facebook Page |
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| Muammar Gaddafi |
By the time the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak resigned
many of the other Arab countries in the Middle East were already in turmoil. By
way of contrast, Tunisia and Egypt, where the cause of the uprising was solely
because of one person who either killed himself because of the authorities’
harassment like Bouazizi or died because of being beaten by the authorities for
not paying them like Khaled. However, in Libya’s case it was a little different
and that was because of Muammar Gaddafi and his 42 years dictatorial rule
(About). In contrast to Tunisia and Egypt, where it was mostly a series of protests
that took place and brought down the dictators, in Libya it was more of a “conventional
war” that brought Gaddafi down. When the forces of Gaddafi met the
demonstrators with live ammunitions, later the rebels as well armed themselves
against the regime by taking over Benghazi on February 20. The rebels used the
eastern city as a base to launch attacks on Gaddafi strongholds in the rest of
the country. Though France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and the UK's David Cameron were
warmly received by rebels, Gaddafi’s statements calling his
opponents "rats" and "gangs of drugged
cockroaches", begged tough questions and were not seen pleasantly by the
Europeans leaders who had embraced him only couple months before (Al-Jazeera).
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| The Libyan Revolution Through Social Media |
As these chaotic events unfolded in bringing down the Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Gaddafi, soon the social media which was once blocked by Gaddafi himself it came back to life in uniting the Libyan citizens together in this revolution. For instance, “There are plenty of examples of people coming together for a common cause. We have witnessed this before in Tunisia and Egypt via Facebook.” Throughout the Libyan revolution we come to see that there were a couple of different Facebook pages that were setup in keeping people updated with the revolution in Libya and Gaddafi. One called the “17 Feb Revolution in Libya” which had 1,400 likes and the other one called “Libya” which had 21,500 likes. Another popular social media network that was used in the revolution was the famous micro-blogging site Twitter. Here again we see two different pages that were created one called the “Feb17Libya” and the other one was a Libyan Youth Movement called “ShababLibya” which currently has 40,000 followers. Additionally, the famous video sharing site and blogging site YouTube and Blogger were also used tremendously throughout the whole revolution in giving people the full perspective of what is occurring and how it all unfolds (Bostlnno). Moreover, these kinds of famous social networking were all put to use in a right manner that helped the Libyan citizens in capturing and putting an end to the 42 years of dictatorship of Col Muammar Gaddafi.
In conclusion, from what we have seen throughout the
uprisings and the Arab countries that were involved, they all had one thing in common
amongst each other and that was social media. Whether it be Tunisia, Egypt, or
Libya they all used social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger
in a rightful and powerful manner that opened not only the eyes of the citizens
within the Arab nations that were involved in the uprisings but also the eyes
of the western leaders as well in bringing them to help the citizens in
achieving their goals. If social media were not available in the hands of the
Arab youths than the revolution would have not succeeded but rather it would
have failed. Furthermore, the dictators would have still run the show to this
day and the citizens would not have any power either.
Work Cited
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