The Arab Spring was a wave of revolutions, demonstrations, protests, and civil wars going on in the Middle East and Northern Africa from late 2010 until 2012. This period of revolution began with the Tunisian Revolution that started on December 18th, 2010, and continued with revolutions in countries such as Egypt, Yemen, Libya, and other countries across the Arab League. Though the Arab Spring technically ended in 2012, many of the conflicts in the Middle East and northern Africa that are currently on going are considered to be an extension of this Arab Spring. While the Arab Spring might seem to be a typical revolution, similar to those that we have seen across the globe since the 1800’s, the extensive use of social media in this revolutionary movement classifies it as unique and different from those in the past.
Social media is certainly become a dominant part of our world; Time magazine even said that “Facebook is now the third largest country on earth and surely has more information about its citizens than any government”. As a result, Facebook and other social media platforms have become the best way to spread information quickly and efficiently, and there is no better example of this than the Arab Spring. We see this specifically through the example of Mohamed Bouazizi, a fruit vendor who publically lit himself on fire in 2011 in an effort to protest the intense corruption being found among the police. This act of defiance was video recorded on the cellphones of countless witnesses, who then chose to take this video and spread it via social media platforms, which in turn really ignited the revolutions of others. In an article featured in The Huffington Post titled “From Arab Spring to Autumn Rage: The Dark Power of Social Media” the author points out that this revolutionary action took the government by surprise, which is one of the beautiful parts of social media. People are allowed to share essentially anything they please, which can be in line with or completely against what their government is promoting. The things they are sharing have the potential to be spread all over the globe, depending on who is interested in their content and makes efforts to share it. The power of social media is incredible, it allowed the revolutionary ideas of people in many countries to spread, thus allowing them to make movements more quickly and accomplish their motives. Social media allows the people to have a voice; it’s not just the government and high up officials who direct history now, small people who have an idea they want to share are given the opportunity too, which is seen clearly throughout the events of the Arab Spring.
An article titled “Explaining the Role and Impact of Social Media in the Arab Spring”, statistics are given showing that there has been a huge increase in social media use and creation of Facebook profiles in recent years; in fact the number Facebook profiles created in the Arab World in 2011 had a 78% growth from 2010. This means that more people are using social media, because it has a reduced communication cost than other forms, another benefit of social media- it is available to so many people at such a low cost.
While there are definitely benefits of social media, there are also its drawbacks. What about when social media allows for destruction and harmful violence or other negative outcomes to occur? Social media allows for a groups to be formed, that don’t always have a leader thus leading to chaos. Many groups of this variety were formed in the midst of the Arab Spring, which created an environment for the criticism of political leaders- both a positive and negative thing. On the one hand, it allowed for people to gather and discuss their feelings towards the government, and then make strides towards the changes they desired to accomplish. On the other hand, violence then ensued and some chaos.
Social media allows for everything to be shared at the click of a button, which has obvious benefits, but isn’t always ethical. In 2012 some video clips were released, by an American, that mocked the prophet Mohammed, which in turn led to much anger from the Arab world toward the United States and further fueled the actions of the Arab Spring. Freedom of speech is a constitutional right, but when it mocks the religion of another group of people (whose rights are also protected by the constitution) should it still be protected? This kind of media falls into the category of defamation, which is not protected by the constitution. The videos produced definitely were not done in good faith, and were intended to mock and harm the reputation and credibility of both the Islamic religion and the prophet Mohammed. This provides the perfect example of one of the negative sides of social media; it’s various platforms allows for defamation to be spread easily, and without the source being easily traceable.
The internet, technology, and social media had a definite and huge impact on the events of the Arab Spring, and this foreshadows the way it will affect all future conflicts in this world.
Sources:
http://www.academia.edu/2370755/Explaining_the_role_and_impact_of_social_media_in_the_Arab_Spring_
