How Social Media is Changing Global Activism

We are now living in a world where it would be very hard to deny that our lives have been changed in some way or form by social media.

From when we wake in the morning to the time when we return to our beds, the chances are that we will have at some point, visited or interacted with some form of social media.

If you work in an office, this invisible grip is almost unstoppable.

As The Atlantic reports that office workers spend roughly a quarter of their day answering emails, statistics show that the average person spends 15 hours and 33 minutes a month on Facebook. That’s over 180 hours a year. On one platform.

If we are that engrossed on an individual basis in social media, how therefore is it changing large scale political actions such as activism?

To answer this question, it is perhaps a good idea to look into the earliest stages of the Arab Spring, a revolutionary wave that has toppled four governments and caused civil uprising in no less than two others so far.

Though many can already conclude - long before the end of the uprising itself - that the revolution was instigated by issues of totalitarianism, human rights violations and corruption; word of the movement in 2010 found new means of traveling.

Philip Howard, author of ‘Democracy’s Fourth Wave: Digital Media and the Arab Spring’ said that digital media was “consistently one of the most important sufficient and necessary conditions” for the movements.

Howard writes that although for many years, democratic movements struggled to form a resolute tactic of support, digital media provided this need and that it “fundamentally changed the way in which people think about their options.”

Despite Howard’s book, many researchers have concluded that new media forms did not appear to play any significant role in any of the uprisings involved in the movement within 2011.

Sean Aday of George Washington University concludes that:

“New media did not appear to play a significant role in either in-country collective action or regional diffusion. This lack of impact does not mean that social media or digital media generally were unimportant.

“But it does mean that in terms of media…(especially Twitter), data does not provide strong support for claims of significant new media impact on Arab Spring political interests.”

In other words, social media did not play any proven role in the revolutions that started on 18 December 2010.

Despite this, we can see just how activism can play a part on social media itself.

In April 2013, hacktivist group, Anonymous, claimed responsibility for attacks on North Korea’s social networks.

As part of their ‘Operation Free North Korea’, the group breached, modified and posted from various social accounts including Flickr and Twitter.

In a statement posted by the group they wrote:

“To the citizens of North Korea we suggest to rise up and bring [this] oppressive government down!

“We are holding your back and your hand, while you take the journey to freedom, democracy and peace.

“You are not alone. Don’t fear us, we are not terrorist, we are the good guys from the internet. AnonKorea and all the other Anons are here to set you free.”

Despite writing to the citizens of North Korea itself, very few people actually have any access to the internet, and although the actions of Anonymous were celebrated by many internet users, not everyone was as impressed.

Adam Taylor of Business Advisor writes:

“On the surface of it, using the Internet to attack and humiliate a belligerent despot like Kim Jong-un seems noble, but on closer inspection it seems pointless and possibly dangerous.

“These attacks do make Kim Jong-un’s regime look silly to the outside world, but given that he looks pretty ridiculous already, that’s an extremely minor victory. Internally, most North Koreans will never know about these attacks as they cannot access the Internet.”

Though social media activism is a relatively new form of action, one that is still learning its trade, we must now reach an understanding that activism through social platforms will not go away and neither shall it dwindle.

The power of digital activism was also a theme in 2012’s Skyfall, where shady hackers and digital terrorists replaced the blonde haired Germans and masculine Soviets of the past.

With a Wikileaks blockbuster film out this year or the next, social activism is already a digital action that has integrated into our society.