Mia Krysa

Social media is used by billions of people every day. When it comes to social media’s role in major social justice movements, there’s definitely something to talk about. In the same way we’ve seen social media play a role in #BlackLivesMatter and in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (which, has resurged this month to raise awareness for mental health), social media has helped empower people to speak their minds and influence or even topple governments.

The Arab Spring

In 2010, a produce vendor in Tunisia stood in front of a government building and lit himself on fire in response to how he’d been treated by local officials. This horrible event, which is now known as The Arab Spring, sparked protests and brought attention to many countries in the Middle East and their corrupt governments. After these events, social media played a role in sharing information and bringing people together to protest and suggest changes of power in their governments. Unfortunately, many of these protests weren’t friendly, and resulted in civilian casualties and bloodshed.

The Arab Spring was one of the first events where social media and political activism worked together to force change. An article by Lipum Kumar on Geostrata writes: “Protests were organized using such platforms as Facebook or Twitter while real time information was given out through YouTube among others. An example of how the Egyptian revolt became a case in point of the manner in which the techie young group made use of social networks to oust a regime that had been in power for the long term. The parameters of digital activism expanded and became more sophisticated ahead from then.”

People began realizing the powers that social media had, and that they could actually, overthrow their governments. While it’s great that social media can give voices to those who would otherwise be oppressed, there are also some dangers to using it to organize protests. “In Bangladesh, social media has evolved into a platform through which protests are organized, and at the same time, turned into a target for government crackdowns.”

The Good vs. the Bad

As with many things in this world, there are pros and cons to using social media to topple corrupt governments. Social media will undoubtedly continue to be intertwined in all parts of our day-to-day lives as humans, so it’s important that we remember it’s strengths and weaknesses. Social media is a powerful tool that can be used to spread information, but ideas should move beyond social media to create lasting political change.