Democracy and Technology

Democratic changes have been popular these days. Last year there were numerous protests in the Middle East and one of them was in Egypt. Revolution began before the protests. Lots of arrests of journalists, students and any other rebellions made people became angry. But there is a question why it was not 30, 20 or 10 years ago. Why now? Mubarek’s regime was ruling Egypt more than 30 years and during those years Mubarek did nothing for their nation other than arrests, executions, and punishments. Roughly to say, people of Egypt have been awakened up by Web 2.0 technology as the users of facebook and twitter increase day by day.

Was revolution in Egypt started in Social web pages? I would say yes. The writer Giglio, has noted this in his own article called "The Facebook Freedom Fighter”. As he mentioned in his article “On Jan. 14, protests in Tunisia felled that country's longstanding dictator, and Ghonim was inspired to announce, on Facebook, a revolution of Egypt's own. Each of the page's 350,000-plus fans was cordially invited to a protest on Jan. 25. They could click ‘yes,’ "no," or "maybe" to signal whether they'd like to attend. In the space of three days, more than 50,000 people answered yes”  (2). As you see from this article that revolution was organized on Facebook pages and you can still find those pages online and see the reality.  Also in this article the author argues that, American NGOs were trying to help them. The relationship between social media and democratic changes are obvious. Journal called “Clicks, Cabs, and Coffee Houses” which wrote about relationship of social media to uprising in Egypt early in 2011. It notes that “To deepen our understanding of the relationship between social media and political change during the Egyptian uprising of early 2011, events in Tahrir Square must be situated in a larger context of media use and recent history of online activism”. One of the professors mentioned this “At a time when teen pop star Justin Bieber has cruised to worldwide popularity with the help of social networks, it is refreshing to witness this new communications technology serving a purpose higher than product marketing. I am referring, of course, to the recent revolution in Egypt, during which the demonstrators' use of social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter as organizing tools received as much attention in the news as the actual grievances of the Egyptian people”. Sandra L. Suarez is an associate professor of political science at Temple University, who argued that “Social media can help speed up the process of recruiting members and activists, of disseminating a message and organizing supporters, and mobilizing voters. But there is only so much that can be accomplished, even with the assistance of social media, when the restrictions that have prevented parties from organizing have not even been lifted yet”. The professor greatly explains the way how it looks. I did not now that BBC has already made a documentary film about “How Facebook Changed the World: The Arab Spring. The Arab Spring refers to a wave of revolutionary protests and historic political upheavals that swept through the Arab world starting on December 18, 2010 in Tunisia”.

First of all, I would like to mention factors that have helped rebellions to win. The factor of relationship has helped rebellions to win. As you know, Mubarek had lots of money, and he paid to soldiers and police to defend him and calm down the situation. As the fact rebellions won and they did a revolution it was because of relativity that soldiers and police had faced with their best friend and even family members that is why they could not stop them. The tanks of Mubarek turned back to him rather than to population. Of course, through social media most of superpower countries have announced that if rebellions could not handle the situation the NATO will help rebellions to win as it happened in Libya. Actually, the Libya matter is really difficult to understand. Personally, I was not against of Gaddafi’s regime. It happened after Gaddafi cut the UN constitution book and said that non country fulfills the laws of UN. As the facts, people did not pay for schools, universities, hospital, and so forth. Even any kind of businessman wanted to begin his business career government were paying $20.000 as a gift. Students who wanted to study abroad were getting full scholarship from their government. I think Libya matter is hard to understand.

 There are some questions about Syria that why NATO, USA, Russia, and others are just watching and doing nothing. The answer is clear because there is no any natural resource in that country nobody cares about that country. There is only the military army of Russia and through this Syria is under influence of Russia. Iran also has bought several army guns, tanks, helicopters from Russia and nuclear industry of Iran was built by Russian a scientist that is why Iran is also under the influence of Russia. The “Cold War” that was begun after the World War 2 between Soviet Union and USA still remains its own power. I will explain it in this way. The “Cold War” from 1945 till 1968 was really aggressive but afterwards people bothered from waste of money for showing the nations that we are the best and protests has launched through the world on China, Soviet Union, USA and France. Students at Berkley, Sorbonne, Moscow State University and “Red guards” in china have protested against similar situation that you have seen in Middle East. This argument comes from one of my favorite writer from Jeremi Suri who is working at Wisconsin University as the history professor. He argues that in 1968 “Leaders of superpower countries did the détente which means “calm down”. This “calm down” happened in international and mostly in domestic way. Those times there was not social media as good as today but through newspapers political activists were getting the information. Actually, in 1960s and 1970s most of the news was working for governments but the rebellions were trying to connect news to another and get the average opinion they were analyzing news. Suri mentions in his book that “Events in 1968 precipitated a crisis of political authority for the most powerful national figures” (Suri,4). Through the détente governments recognized each others’ presidency as it was the only way to make “friendship” as Suri writes “As détente alienated citizens, it offered leaders what they craved most: Western recognition of their legitimacy” (Suri,5). Suri at the end of his chapter 6 argues that the cold war did not end it just calmed down. I will be clear to say why I wrote about it.

 In his book chapter 6 he talks about the Moscow Summit. Leaders signed a contract that has divided the world into two parts Communists and Capitalists. Some scholars argue that it has ended in 1991. Yes, the Communist countries turned to “capitalists” but the influence still remains. Eastern Europe and part of Middle East, central Asia is under the influence of Russia, Western Europe, Australia, central and Latin America and part of Middle East are under the influence of US. We cannot deny this as there are lots of facts. So I talked about it because before 2011 spring there weren’t any influence of Western Europe and US over the Middle East but now they “captured” economically some of the Middle East countries as they are the members of OPEC (most important oil trading company that tries to keep the cost of oil stable). So the factor of other countries is also important but the reason that Syria cannot get a freedom is not only the foreign situation.

As you saw in Egypt people got their freedom without any help of other country. The most important reason is social media. The leader of Syria kills journalist and disables the internet in this country. Asad’s father killed more than 30.000 of people and the average per day Asad kills 112 people. Asad is clever person he is fighting first with social media because he knows that if there is no social media then there is no chance of people to win me. Maybe he will get a “success” by killing people but he will repent for his actions in the future for sure.

Social media played a big role in revolution in Egypt. Facebook's importance was much more than symbolic, of course. Prior to the revolution, Facebook was used as early as 2008 to organize support for the April 6 youth movement in support of striking workers in an industrial town called El-Mahalla El-Kubra.  'The "April 6 Youdi Movement" Facebook page now has over 120,000 members. At its height in early 2009, it was the site of robust debate that was, for many younger Egyptians, the first time they became involved in political debate at all. "EoUowing the April 6 strike, a wave of protests swept across Egypt centered mostly on Israel's policies toward Palestine. Many of the organizers of these protests, and one of the administrators of the Facebook page, would go on to be key organizers of the revolution.   

In addition, I would like to mention that some Egyptians call their victory as the “25^th January Tahrir square freedom Facebook” (Giglio,1). Of course as the Mubarek’s regime were controlling the movements on Facebook but he could not do nothing as Giglio notes that "The Mubarak regime was closely monitoring Facebook and they were certainly watching every move made by recognized activists," Naila Hamdy says. "They knew that Jan. 25 was going to take place but they under estimated the numbers and certainly could not predict the momentum that would follow" (Giglio,1). I liked the last passage of his article it makes everything cleat. He mentions that “The lessons we can draw from the Egyptian Revolution clearly show that, as organizers, we should not underestimate that power, either. But neither should we let social media replace any of the organizing work we're already doing on the ground” (Giglio,1). The Author called Hauslohner, Abigail shortly in his article agrees what I am tiring to say. He argues that “Egypt's uprising is similar to the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, which was encouraged by posts on social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter”.

On the other hand, each coin has two sides. There were lots of limitations for rebellions during organization their freedom plan on the internet. In the most of the countries as Iran, Syria and others can still keep their dictatorship regime because government disabled internet for people they cannot enter to Facebook, Twitter and even to YouTube. As the Walt writes “With the media center destroyed, the closest Internet connection to the new hideout was a hazardous 10-minute walk through Bab Amr, which was ringed with government snipers.”(Walt1). Walt also writes that “adding to the limitations on Syrian users were the high costs of purchasing a computer and connecting to the Internet, and the country’s inferior communications infrastructure” (Walt1). So, it means that Syrian and other undemocratic governments just disable the internet or they just increase the rate of the internet that people can’t get access to it because it is expensive. If world is doing nothing then we, humans should take a step forward and fight against Asad and help citizens of Syria. Blanford illustrates this in his article “we are telling the regime that if you shoot and kill people the pictures will be online and on television five minutes later."

Throughout my research I come to conclusion that the most important role in revolution in Egypt has played the social media. As Sandra L. Suarez mentions “the Mubarak regime will be the first of many to be felled with the help of social networks is far from certain.” And as the Ghoim writes “This revolution started online. This revolution started on Facebook.  This revolution started in June 2010 when hundreds of thousands of Egyptians started collaborating content. We would post a video on Facebook that would be shared by 60,000 people on their walls within a few hour s. I've always said that if you want to liberate a society just give them the Internet” (Giglio2). Of course, there are still lots of dictators in the world, but time will come for everyone every nation has its own passion so if the passion is over then dictators has to face with the situation as Gaddafi did. I want peace and prosperous life with the help of Web 2.0 technology!

                                                      

                                                                Work Cited

Giglio, Mike. "The Facebook Freedom Fighter." Newsweek 157.8 (2011): 14-17. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Apr. 2012. 

Lim, Merlyna. "Clicks, Cabs, And Coffee Houses: Social Media And Oppositional Movements In Egypt, 2004-2011." Journal of Communication 62.2 (2012): 231-248. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.

ARYN BAKER, et al. "The Revolutionaries." Time 177.6 (2011): 36-40. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.

Gaworecki, Mike. "Organizing Tool And A "Space of Liberty" In Post-Revolution Egypt?." Social Policy 41.4 (2011): 66-69. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.

Moore, Andrew. "Facebook Therefore Democracy: Understanding The Causality Of Twenty- First-Century Democratic Revolutions."Antigonish Review 167 (2011): 125-134. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.

Hauslohner, Abigail. "On The Arab Street, Rage Is Contagious." Time 177.5 (2011): 36-39. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.

Rushdy, Hatem. 18 days in Tahrir: stories from Egypt's revolution. Hong Kong : Haven Books Egypt -- History - Protests, (2011).

Richard Logan iPolitics : citizens, elections, and governing in the new media era Fox; Ramos, Jennifer. New York : Cambridge University Press (2012).

Seib, Philip M Al Jazeera English : “global news in a changing world” New York : Palgrave Macmillan 2012.

Curran, James. Media and democracy,  Mass media -- Political aspects ; Communication in politics ; Democracy Oxford ; New York : Routledge 2011.

Tapscott, Don. Grown up digital : how the net generation is changing your world. New York : McGraw-Hill c2009.

Bartholet, Jeffrey. "Young, Angry, And Wired." National Geographic 220.1 (2011): 102-107. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.

CHARLTON, JOHN. "INTERNATIONAL REPORT. Tweeting A Revolution." Information Today 28.6 (2011): 12-14. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.

Hafez, Kai Mass media, politics, and society in the Middle East Cresskill, N.J. : Hampton Press c2001.

SUÁREZ, SANDRA L. "Social Media And Regime Change In Egypt." Campaigns & Elections (2010) 32.300 (2011): 30-31. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Apr. 2012.

WALT, VIVIENNE. "Escape From Syria. (Cover Story)." Time 179.11 (2012): 30-37. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Apr. 2012.

Blanford, Nicholas. "On Facebook and Twitter, spreading revolution in Syria." Christian Science Monitor 08 Apr. 2011: N.PAG. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Apr. 2012.

Suri, Jeremi. Power and protest : global revolution and the rise of détente. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press 2003 

                                        

                                                   University of Minnesota