The Arab Spring officially began on the 18th of December, 2010 in Tunisia with the Burning Man. It references all demonstrations, protests and revolutions in Northern Africa and the Middle East (Map).What isn’t shown is that many countries had been dealing with oppression and injustice for many years before all this international attention. Most of the countries have been under a group of dictators for many years, waiting for a chance to free themselves. Social media however, created a platform for both communication between participants and could be seen by the outside world. The fact everyone also has cellphones (meaning cameras and access to the internet) the speed at which information can be communicated at is must faster then it was a few years ago.

Protestors used social media such as Facebook and Twitter to mobilize and spread international awareness of the problems they face within their countries and governments. As the movements have progressed, more and more people began moving to these media sites to discuss the state. Twitter even postponed upgrades to allow for the flow of people fighting for democracy. Due to the fact governments monitored the feeds, the bloggers had to change their locations and time zones to try to hide. However, some did in fact go missing, supposedly jailed by their governments for speaking out. These sites were also blocked by the government in Egypt on January 27th to try to stop the movement against the government and rigged election. There is a fantastic timeline of the Arab Springs which goes up until December 2011 and shows the evolution of the revolutions in Egypt, Libya and Syria. The movements that began in the north are now influencing more African and Middle-Eastern countries to try to dislodge oppressive dictatorships or un-democratic policies.

This is one of the first movements that mobilized via the internet against a government. Occupy Wall Street based many of it’s tactics off of those used in the Arab Springs, though with much less success due to lack of organization. Governments were unprepared, though they could sensor their own media, the information being put online was up and being circulated before they even knew it was happening. Police had begun to arrest anyone they caught filming, but the sheer number of people with cameras, including those filming for the roofs made sure that videos were still getting out. People didn’t need weapons to take down their governments anymore, all they needed was to show what was happening – and the world would do the rest. The governments tried to block all access to the sites, but people would just proxy through them, as they’d done with other sites for years.

Governments all over the world have now seen the power social media and the new generations have. Also for any government trying to control the population, the problem is, if the population does move against them, how to prevent it if they can’t stop the internet? These movements have brought many questions to light, such as the way in which revolutions will be fought in the future. They prove that change is possible and can’t just be silenced.

K.A. Zazubovits