Revolutions & Social Media

Usually I avoid having any political postings on my blog, as i also avoid being trapped into any political conversations in Lebanon, because of the complexity of the issue, in a country said to be democratic where politics are automatically turned into sectarian fights.

But this post is about something i was reading a lot about lately and it is called “Social Media Revolution”, I am not the right person to analyze politics but in my opinion, I strongly believe that there is nothing as such.

It all started in Iran in 2009 during the election, where Twitter was used heavily by the supporters of opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. But social media did not change the global view of the situation, Twitter was just a communication tool, nothing more than having up to the minute news with a special hashtag dedicated to the occasion.

Social media tools are free, fast to use, can spread the word in real time and much faster than classical media and hard for the local authorities to block it easily. But also the vast body of information that circulates on social media websites is chaotic, subjective and totally unverifiable and it makes almost impossible to authenticate the sources.

Definitely the opposition in Iran made their point, but it was over before they even realized that social media did not help much and the political scene went back to what it used to be and the regime is still the same.

Then 2 weeks ago came the Tunisia story called the Jasmine Revolution which definitely spread fear in the hearts of other Arab dictators and Tunisian president Zein El Abidine Ben Ali left the country.
Many thought that this is another Twitter revolution taking place, I am really sorry to say whomever is thinking so, that you are wrong. Those who do not believe that the Tunisian president left the country based on a prepared plan are all wrong, people who think that demonstrations pushed Ben Ali to run away are unfortunately heavily wrong.

Again Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools, where just there to help people know what is going on and what to do, but these tools were never part of the real plan of Ben Ali.

And 2 days ago, Egypt arrived to the list of revolutions, where Egyptians are trying hard to change their economical situation and have a better life, but again their are fighting against a totalitarian regime where change needs a big determination and time but surely not social media.

For the last 2 days, no one could make sure if Twitter was blocked or not, until Twitter itself declared the news from their servers, some said it is blocked, others said it is accessible from Blackberry phones, some had access from proxy breaking sites and so on, it was a chaos because of the “no” control of the information flow.

Unfortunately, such regimes cannot be broken with social media tools, these regimes are so afraid of their people that they spend millions and billions of dollars not to help their citizens but to protect their dictatorships.

There is a funny story about the Egyptian president but it is almost impossible to make sure if it really happened or not, but knowing those regime, i don’t doubt.
So one of his advisers tells him: Mr. President, people are hungry. And the answer comes: if they are sated, they will start thinking.