Did
Twitter and Facebook really build a global revolution ?
By
Jina Moore
In
“Did Twitter and Facebook really build a global revolution ?”,
Jina Moore highlights the multiple roles of social medias in global
revolution and how its impact varies geographically. Moore also
emphasizes on many occasions by citing communication experts how
interaction between off-line and online activism propel momentum of
protests. Besides writing about the effectiveness of modern social
medias as organizing tool and broadcasting platforms in many Middle
East countries, Moore also illustrates how technologies predating
Facebook and Twitter was used as a mean of protest. Most importantly,
from her writing, she hints that Facebook and Twitter does not play a
central role in building a global revolution compared to cultures of
online activism.
Moore
with her experience as human rights and post-conflict reporter
enabled her to support her arguments with real life testimonies of
social activists from around the world. This certainly helps to boost
her credibility while drawing the connection between modern
technologies and social activism. Moore's writing style that paves
paragraphs with contrasting accounts is effective in keeping the
readers engaged. In addition, I appreciate the effort to educate the
readers with how predecessors of social medias were used by social
activists in past revolutions. Therefore, the readers are able to
compare and contrast with the roles played by Facebook and Twitter.
She also deploy some scare tactics towards the end of the article by
introducing the willingness of some social media companies to share
your personal data with the authority.
Moore repeatedly mentions the how the symbiosis between off-line and
online activism drives the protests forward by quoting the failure
of protesters in Uganda to gain traction on the streets despite
massive response on Twitter. This reminded of the viral circulation
of “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” on Facebook that prompts the public
to raise awareness of the disease. Though many people responded to
the challenge, the actual number of peoples who seek to understand
ALS and donate to the fund is pale in comparison to its popularity on
Facebook. Furthermore, she adds that social medias may not be able to
transcend the deep social division and reach out to those who are
disconnected, hinting that social media alone is not sufficient to
build a revolution. However, this is not always true as the United
States quest to establish the Stop Online Privacy Act(SOPA) was
thwarted by Aaron Swartz who encouraged implicated websites to alter
their web pages.
In
her article, Moore argues that social media such as Facebook and
Twitter does not play a role to organize uprising, instead, she notes
that cultures of online activism plays a more pivotal role. She
further substantiates her claim by citing the success of protest
against President Bashar al-Assad led by a blogger who has 50,000
readers a month. Although I concur with Moore that the newest
platform is not of utmost importance, but features such as anonymity,
fail-tolerant and ease of use is crucial to build a global revolution
that overcomes borders and continents. We learn from this article
that off-line activism is fundamental and culture of online activism
had been the driving force behind countless revolution. From the
evidences provided in the article, it can be said that Facebook and
Twitter did not build a global revolution but help to broadcast news
of revolution. However, achieving global revolution would require
more sophisticated social media platform than Facebook and Twitter
that could protect social activists from the authorities. It is time
to look ahead of time and think about global revolution in a larger
context such as tackling global warming, health education and energy
crisis which may require a different tool sets.
