“Neda Agha-Soltan and a few close friends headed toward the center of Tehran, Iran, in June 2009 to join thousands of others in an anti-government protest following the disputed presidential election. After becoming stuck in traffic, Agha-Soltan and her friends eventually decided to exit the car to cool off. As she stepped out and gazed at the crowd, the sound of a gunshot rang through the air. A single bullet was fired, and she fell to the ground.”
“Bystanders captured her last moments on a cell phone, and within hours the grainy, low-resolution footage was uploaded to the Internet and soon spread virally across the globe. With links to the video posted on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, the amateur clip eventually harnessed the attention of the mainstream media, grabbing headlines on CNN and in the New York Times.”
“Agha-Soltan’s death became a symbol for the Iranian anti-government movement, and online social media amplified that symbol for the rest of the world to see.”(1)
Above: We Are All Khaled Said Facebook page
Above: Movements.org website
Political uprisings are not new, nor are they unique, or a recent global development. For centuries, as long as there have been political despots, tyrannical rulers, military rule or simply un-democratic or corrupt governments; there have been people unjustly suppressed and unhappy with those in charge. Right back to the times of the Roman Empire and its self-proclaimed Emperor Julius Caesar, there were uprisings and rebellions in almost every territory under Roman rule because its people felt that they were unjustly ruled or that those in charge did not have the right to do so.
Of course, in an era of total military rule and suppression, these uprisings were swiftly dealt with by many means to ensure Rome’s political image, as an empire remained intact. Brute force and military suppression meant that dis-satisfied parties were kept scattered and disconnected from each other, so as to avoid cooperation between groups and long-term resistance.
Today, these same techniques have been attempted by ruling governments and leaders, who fail to acknowledge the worldwide and unrestricted cooperation between these same groups. 20th century inventions such as the printing press and the telephone, allowed communication between individuals and groups on a wider scale than before., with newspapers and direct spoken contact allowing news to be spread around the world. These same new communication tools were at the same time, introduced and maintained by those in charge and as such could be filtered and monitored of information at odds with a countries administration.
In recent years, with the introduction and widespread use of the Internet as an everyday tool throughout the world, new tools have become available to groups who wish to make changes to their country at its highest levels. Recent online innovations such as email, blogging and video chat, as well as social networks including Facebook and Twitter, have boosted worldwide communication to astronomical scale. Instant messaging, image and video uploads combined with the connectivity of social networks, allows individuals to get information out to as many people as possible and as far reaching as possible. Had Twitter been available in the time of the Roman Empire, things would have been drastically different.
Essentially, I believe that the recent events of uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya, are not the result of social networking; but instead events, which have drastically benefited from recent innovations and popular social tools such as social networks, blog's and video uploading sites like YouTube, combined together to create a wide network of information, which has made great use of the tools at hand and created and strong, worldwide, public consciousness. As such, in the space of just four months, several governments have either fallen or been deposed and many more are to follow. In contrast to uprisings in years past, the concentration and effectiveness of recent events have shown how the tools of today can shape the world of tomorrow,. For better or for worse, we have yet to see.
“This is the first revolution that has been catapulted onto a global stage and transformed by social media,” (Shirky, C)(2)
(1) Ramtin Amin, Master in Public Policy student at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he concentrates in international and global affairs.
Found at:
(2) Clay Shirky, “Q&A with Clay Shirky on Twitter and Iran”, TED blog.
Found at:
http://blog.ted.com/2009/06/16/qa_with_clay_sh/We Are All Khaled Said Facebook page
