Could Online Political Activism Ignite the US like it did Egypt?
Digital-political activism, organized around Facebook and Twitter, has gotten a lot of credit for driving the revolution in Egypt and continuing unrest in other Arab nations.
In the US and other Western countries, social networking tools have already changed the ways that most of us live our lives.
So why haven’t they driven the same kind of social protests they’re credited for spurring in the Middle East? After all, the US and the EU are more wired than Egypt and Tunisia, and many Western democracies have high levels of unemployment. The US and UK are also facing dramatic cuts in social services. Is it just a matter of time before “clicktivism” moves to the streets of London or D.C. as it did in Tunis and Cairo?
A group of digital activists calling themselves “UK Uncut” have been using Twitter and Facebook to organize protesters for sit-in demonstrations at UK banks and financial institutions that received bail-out money during the 2008 financial crisis. These “bail-ins” have been called in protest of dramatic social service cuts to public institutions like libraries, health care and higher education subsidies. UK Uncut can claim more than 18,000 followers on Twitter and nearly as many “likes” of its Facebook page.
An American spinoff, “US Uncut” is planning similar protests at banks and corporate headquarters on February 26th, including the Amazon.com headquarters in Seattle.
These activists seem to be very conscious of the wired nature of these events, but they also seem to understand that the tools don’t necessarily get people out into the streets. Commenting on UK Uncut’s efforts, one sympathetic blogger writes:
This is where we as digital activists need to work, bridging the gap between online activity and the real world, between the politically committed and the undecided many. We need to spend time offline talking to people who would never have considered marching before. (http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/blog/beyond-clicktivism-a-call-to-arms)
Flip the Media readers have been vocal about issues of digital activism recently–the Wikileaks events and the Egyptian revolution have drawn a lot of comments. Many of you have professional expertise with the tools in question like Twitter, Facebook, Google APIs etc.
Do you think these tools have the potential to drive or inspire boots-on-the-street protest movements? Do they really deserve credit for toppling the Mubarak government in Egypt? What do you think? Please answer the short survey below and then weigh in with your comments. We will update the survey results in a post soon.
(5 votes, average: 3.40 out of 5)
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17 Comments, Comment or Ping
Ken Rufo
The setup for this post strikes me as somewhat odd: it seems to suggest that other people have credited social media for its influence on the revolution, then moves into asking why the same pressure social media produced in other countries hasn’t driven social protests here in the U.S., but without actually taking a clear position about whether or not there has been influence.
But the answer to the question depends largely on whether or not one believes the initial assumption. It’s not that the question isn’t interesting (and obviously there are economic, political, and social norms endemic to one context that are different than another), but given that the only variable under consideration here is the degree of influence between social media and organized protest, why be so tepid about endorsing the link?
Feb 17th, 2011
Daniel Thornton
I could go either way on this. I think you could look at the intense rapidity of events in Egypt and Tunisia as one aspect of this. While the circumstances facing the US and the UK are very different than Egypt, Tunisia and the rest of the region, the unexpectedness of the protests should give us pause in thinking that it couldn’t also happen here. The situation in the UK is only going to get worse as the budget cuts really start to kick in. The riots we saw in December might only be a precursor.
Feb 17th, 2011
Daniel Thornton
Ken,
I believe that the post is intended to raise one possible scenario and have the community weigh in on that possibility or suggest others. The poll is just one way that FtM can get readers to engage. Hopefully that will raise the commitment level so that people will comment as well.
Feb 17th, 2011
Ken Rufo
To be clear, I like the polls and think this an interesting topic. I just don’t understand stylistically why the author(s) shy away from asserting the link and instead use the passive voice “they are credited for”, since if one disagrees with the assertion of a link between social media and organzied protest, then the answer to the question of “why hasn’t it happened here/will it happen here” – which, again, I think is valuable – is just “because there is no link.”
Feb 17th, 2011
Alex Stonehill
Wait, couldn’t there be a less of a link in Middle East than there is in the West?
My two cents say that facebook and twitter are getting a little too much credit for the Mid-East protests. They’re good organizing tools if people are already ready to hit the streets, but they don’t necessarily inspire them to do so.
In the West, they’re great tools for inspiring and organizing civil society — the likes of which don’t exist as much in places like Egypt.
Generally speaking, I don’t think mainstream Western populations are going to break out into huge street protests regardless of how they get their information.
That said, the visceral content we get through digital media can certainly get us more engaged. Example — I’ve been hearing about the trial of the police officer who shot the whittler in Pioneer Square for weeks. But it wasn’t until I saw the video from the police cruiser’s surveillance tape (posted on facebook) that I was really effected by it and considered joining the street protests last night.
Feb 17th, 2011
Brook Ellingwood
I started to write a comment starting from my uncertainty about whether the terms “drive” and “spur” are precise enough for a polling question, but it became so long I turned it into a post on my own blog:
http://rocketscience.brookellingwood.com/2011/02/17/whos-in-the-drivers-seat-social-media-or-people/
Feb 17th, 2011
Betsy Hauenstein
I agree with Alex that Facebook and Twitter might be getting too much credit for spurring a revolution, but they did make their contributions.
As far as digitally-spurred revolutions in the EU and US, I’m not so sure we will see much beyond sit-ins. Facebook and Twitter have worked great to get people to move offline for things like flash mobs, but, at least in the US, we can’t even get people to come out to vote (or mail a ballot) with or without Facebook.
Also, one major thing missing about potential revolutions in the US and EU vs. what has happened in Tunisia and Egypt – we don’t have the same rallying points. Would there be a series of protests to get Obama out of office when a vote to re-elect him is so quickly coming up? I don’t think we have the same need, the same pull, to get people offline and in the streets.
Feb 18th, 2011
Coco Tsai
I agree with Alex and Betsy. I also believe that social media tools make people be more engaged with the society activities. However, the engagement has different degrees and also influenced by various social environments. There is no exactly the same country in the world, each place has its unique political and economic situation. Hence, it’s hard to compare Egypt and US or EU for the same mechanism. Also, I always think the original cause of the protest should be something very important and urgent enough to push people to go on the street. Therefore, social media are more like catalysts in the process but may not be the main driver.
Feb 18th, 2011
Daniel Thornton
Brooke,
Why don’t you do a little rewrite and submit to FtM? We could use another solid contributor.
Feb 19th, 2011
Daniel Thornton
Wisconsin?
Feb 19th, 2011
Brook Ellingwood
Dan, rather than go through the reasons I’ve chosen to no longer post on FTM in the comments, I’ve replied in email.
Feb 19th, 2011
Jeff Hora
I agree with the assessments that the North African Middle Eastern countries in upheaval have little in common with social protests in the US. If you look at the Wisconsin imbroglio, what has brought the people out has been a proposed law by a publically elected official that they are opposed to. This governor may or may not make it through another election, but our system is such that (a) people can make these level of protests without the fear that the army will intervene and kill some of them, and (b) this governor could either be out of work at the next election or even impeached sooner than that. Neither of these options is/was available in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Libya, etc.
As to social media spurring or driving, I feel that they serve as coordination and communications tools, when appropriate and available. If you remember, the Egyptian government “turned off the Internet” for a time, but that did not stop the demonstrations. They enable, to a degree, but they do not cause.
The challenge for any social media campaign, whether political or marketing, is to turn following into doing. This is touched upon a bit earlier, but again the differences between country’s circumstances and the available/effective levers of change demonstrate the flexibility and effectiveness of social media, per scenario. Activist groups in the US and the UK don’t require Facebook or Twitter to coordinate protests, as they need not be as clandestine about it.
And of course, there’s the media amplification of the usage of these tools that can imply greater impact and importance than is actually there.
Sorry, I know that there are several lines of thought here, but summing up, drawing a social media line from North Africa, et al. to the US and the UK is a little tenuous.
Feb 20th, 2011
Corey Murata
The thing to keep in mind about the US and UK is that we have extremely stable political structures and, in the US, we have two political parties that have effectively quashed any attempt from a third party from gaining any kind of real power. Sure we have a few Libertarians and ‘independents’ but the closest thing to a third party is the formation of the Tea Party. So, in this environment any kind of political activism usually gets absorbed by one of the two major parties. And, change comes from voting the other guys out and voting your guys in.
In 2008 Obama raised more money from smaller contributions than any other Presidential campaign in history. They did make good use of social tools, but they also had a solid ground game. I think 2012 will be a good test to see how much impact social tools will have on fundraising and messaging in political campaigns. Both sides will need to be on their ‘A’ game and they’re going to need to raise A LOT of money. I may just take a quarter off and stretch out my classes just so I can take Digital Democracy with Kathy in Fall 2012.
Mar 2nd, 2011
John Solit
I shy away from comparing activism in Western nations to those in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The relative gravity of our problems (both those worth protesting and those barely warranting a letter to our congressperson) are incomparable to the problems facing multi-decade, violent oppressive regimes.
Part of me says, “Sure – we can put boots in the street using social media. Why not?” but another part says, “We can’t – not because we’re unable use social media and technology, but because our problems aren’t big enough”
The UK, the US, and other prosperous Western nations have their problems. We have corruption and extremism. What we lack is the kind of severe oppression experienced in the countries currently protesting their governments. For the most part, we’re free to do as we please and if we can’t stand it anymore, we’re free to leave and never return. This fact alone makes major political activist movements in the US few and far between. Americans who are willing to risk their lives to protest for change in government do so in the face of another option: expatriate.
Mar 3rd, 2011
Daniel Thornton
@JOHN SOLIT
While I totally agree with your assertion that the UK and the US are imperfect analogs to Tunisia and Egypt in regards to severe oppression, I respectfully disagree with two other points:
“…our problems aren’t big enough.”
For the victims of the economic downturn, a lack of economic opportunity coupled with a reduction in state sponsored support services are very big problems and are getting worse.
One of the often cited reasons for the massive disaffection with the authoritarian regimes in the Middle East was the combination of endemic poverty and high unemployment. Unemployment in the US hasn’t fallen significantly since the economic collapse of 2008 which means that there are people who have been out of work going on three or more years. A reduction in state services in every state means that many of those hardest hit by the recession have less of a safety net to ameliorate the problems associated with poverty and unemployment.
“we’re free to leave and never return.”
I think it is a little simplistic to just expect people to leave the country for a number of reasons:
–It is actually difficult to emigrate to another country and expect to be employable as a citizen or a resident alien,
–Leaving friends, families, schools and communities is emotionally difficult,
–Relocating is expensive. For a family with an upside-down mortgage and depleted savings, where are they supposed to secure the money necessary to do a major relocation?
Are these economic problems widespread enough to warrant mass protests? Maybe not, but the troubles in the US and the UK are really just beginning. Witness the labor/budget battles in Wisconsin and Ohio. The protests against the Walker budget have been unprecedented and largely unexpected. In the UK, The drastic cuts to social services are just beginning and groups like UK Uncut are only just forming now around these struggles.
Will it happen here? Hard to say.
Could it happen here? Egypt and Tunisia proved that anything is possible.
Mar 3rd, 2011
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