The impact social media has on our daily lives is significant, especially during times of turmoil. Many social movements credit social media as it facilitates their movement. The Iran Election Protests in 2009 is nicknamed the “Twitter Revolution”, as Twitter was a platform where civilians shared their stories with the world. In recent years, social movements are increasingly turning to the Internet, relying on social media platforms to spread their messages. Kony 2012 is the latest movement to become viral, with over 84 million views on YouTube. Despite gaining worldwide attention, is social media the key to mobilize social movements? Most importantly, is there truly visible change as a result of Internet activism?
The Iranian election protests started on June 12, 2009 and ended on February 11, 2010. Shortly following Iran’s tenth presidential election, it was announced that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had overwhelmingly won the the election over Mir-Hossein Mousavi in a 62/36 percent split. Civilians were immediately outraged when hearing of the news, with many claiming the polls were rigged. Some people argued that it was impossible for Ahmadinejad the election, as Mousavi had the majority of public support pre-elections. Additionally, it would have been nearly impossible to announce election results two hours after polls closed, as voter participation was high. In addition to Mousavi, two other people running for president brought forward that it is impossible to count 40 million votes by hand in the span of two hours. Outraged citizens took their anger to the streets on June 13. During this time, civilians used Twitter as their main platform as a way of reporting to the world the events in Iran, as foreign media was banned from the streets. Amateur videos were uploaded onto YouTube, showing the world what is not being televised from an insider’s perspective. Despite a ban on various websites, people used proxies to access these websites.
The Twitter Revolution clearly demonstrates the vital role social media plays in important world events. In fact, Twitter delayed its scheduled 90 minute site maintenance, in order for Iranians to report on the chain of events. However, critics argue that the importance of social media during times of urgency has been overblown. More importantly, the assumption that social media results in democracy is very delusional. In this RSA Animate, Evgeny Morozov presents his argument on what he calls “cyber-utopianism”. This is the idea that the Internet plays a large emancipatory role in global politics. In the video, Morozov points out that less than 20,000 Twitter users took part of the “Twitter Revolution”, which is roughly half of UBC’s combined student population of both undergraduates and graduates.
The assumption that the Internet is a good thing when it comes to promoting democracy is an illusion. I’m not denying that social media doesn’t play an important role in world events- it does, and it greatly assists in organizing events. However, people must be realistic about the real impact of events such as the Iranian protests. Just because the word was getting out about the scandal and subsequent protests, it doesn’t necessarily translate into action elsewhere in the world. Similarly, this was one of the biggest controversies of Kony 2012. I believe that everybody should live by Facta non Verba, Latin for “actions not words”. I firmly believe that unless real action is taken, then whatever is being spoken about is irrelevant to the situation.
-Jenny Ho