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Ben Reichert
Freedom, Privacy, Technology SINQ
12/3/13
What role does Social Media play in modern social movements?
Introduction:
In the Spring of 2011, after dealing with oppressive regimes for too long, hundreds of
thousands of Egyptian citizens flocked to the streets to protest the corrupt government. At the
same time, similar protests were erupting across other countries such as Tunisia, Libya, Iraq, and
Syria. These protests throughout the Arab countries are known collectively as the Arab Spring.
These movements were aided by Social Media tools such as Facebook and Twitter that were
used to mobilize individuals onto the streets and coordinate large scale protests.
There are many tools available for social activism online. This paper will focus on social
media’s impact on social movements, particularly through Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. We
will explore the role of social media in social movements, specifically in their relation to the
recent Arab Spring movements.
Social media plays a crucial role in social movements by empowering individuals,
organizing events, allowing constant communication, and amplifying movements. On the other
hand, social media can enact laziness for individuals in social movements, enable weak
participation through weak ties, and without a hierarchical organization can lead to
weakly­enacted movements without long lasting effects.
Background of Social Media Tools:
Facebook is a social media site where individuals add ‘friends’ to keep in contact with

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and can ‘like’ pages to keep up with events. A key note is that when something is posted to
Facebook, it is typically only shared between friends, and not with the general public. Twitter on
the other hand is public by default, and allows users to share 140 character messages called
‘tweets’ with their followers and the general public. Twitter is a real­time tool where people can
post from a live event with mobile devices. Twitter has a feature called hashtags, and users can
include them in their tweets. When other users search for that hashtag, such as #egypt, their
tweet would be displayed along with the other thousands of similar tweets about the Egypt
Revolution. YouTube is a video streaming service where users can upload videos and have them
published from their computers, or even phones. This is important as it allows people to record
videos with their mobile phones, and upload them to YouTube or similar video sharing websites
for others to see what is going on in protests, raw and live. YouTube also serves as a media
backup when devices are confiscated in attempts to censor individuals, as their videos will still
have been uploaded.
Empowering Individuals:
Social media has given individuals an opportunity that they may not have had before ­­
empowerment through freedom of speech. This is especially evident in the uprising events in the
Arab region where young women were utilizing social media to have a voice like never before.
Women created blogs, Twitter accounts, and Facebook pages. Throughout the Arab Spring
events they were able to share their perspective from within the social movement. Social media
empowered women by giving them a voice in a society where they typically did not have one.
For many of the young activists “posting on Facebook or blogging was the first time they had

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ever expressed their personal feelings publicly” (Radsch & Khamis, 2013, p. 883). This is
especially important in the Arab Spring events as “women have historically been
underrepresented in the public sphere, where male voices and perspectives have dominated.”
(Radsch & Khamis, 2013, p. 881). Although most of the women remained anonymous online,
their writing was a valuable source of news (Radsch & Khamis, 2013, p. 882). Their journaling
was often picked up on by reporting agencies outside the countries where movements were
taking place (Radsch & Khamis, 2013, p. 882).
In the conservative Middle­Eastern countries it would be unusual for a woman to
participate in a protest out in the streets, however social media has empowered women to
participate in the movement through the Internet. Ayat al­Gomezi spoke publicly through her
anti­regime poem in Bahrain’s Pearl Square, and was recognized as a role model for women and
men in the Arab region (Radsch & Khamis, 2013, p. 885). Her poem of protest was widely
shared via social media following her arrest (Radsch & Khamis, 2013, p. 885). Women were not
the only ones who were empowered by social media, as many individuals benefited from the
freedom of speech through social media. Just as the Internet gave arab women a voice, it also
allows people to amplify their voice, and the subsequent movements that arose were amplified
through the social media tools.
Amplifying movements and voices:
Social media tools in conjunction with the Internet allow users to spread information
about social movements within local communities, as well as around the world. Social media
tools give users an online voice that can be “heard” throughout the local community, essentially

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equal to other users due to the freedom of the Internet. Everyone on the Internet has the same
opportunity to represent their thoughts. Social media tools allow users to instantly spread their
knowledge and thoughts to friends and family, as well as the general public with ease. When
26­year­old Neda Agha­Soltan was shot while protesting in Tehran in 2009, recordings of her
death were published online and were viewed across the globe (Jones, 2013, p. 4). During the
day of her death, Twitter erupted with the hashtag #Neda, and was the most used hashtag on
Twitter that day (Jones, 2013, p. 4).
When a user tweets or publishes content to blogs, their content is accessible across the
globe. This provides news information directly from the people who are participating in a
movement to social media users, and brings attention to the movement (Aman & Jayroe, 2013, p.
319). This is a refreshing perspective compared to outside news sources, as well as corrupted
government news sources from within the country.
Before modern Internet tools, knowledge was spread via word of mouth, published print
media, group gatherings, and telephones. These methods of transportation of media are effective
in their own rights, but much slower than the Internet enabled spread of media.
Organizing Events:
Organizing events has never been easier than with Social Media tools. Tools such as
Twitter, and Facebook allow information to flow from a small group of people (such as the main
tweeters, or page owners) to their followers. This allows for a very efficient method of
information spreading, which is particularly advantageous when trying to organize events with
groups of people. Organizing this way is usually done with the help of a group or organization

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that is “in charge” of spreading word and organizing events. Hundreds of thousands of
participants protested in unison, all through network communication without a governing body to
organize the events in the Egyptian Arab Spring.
Constant Communication:
Internet Enabled Communication in a movement is crucial as it allows people to stay in
contact with others, find out when demonstrations are going to take place, and share their current
events in real time and on a massive scale. The telephone would be a good example of a way to
fulfil most of all of these parameters of communication, as it allows people to call others to stay
in contact, find out when events are going on, and share their stories. However, this is usually
done on a small one­to­one basis where one person is calling another, which is inefficient when
there are hundreds of thousands of participating individuals.
Better solutions for this situation are Social Media tools such as Twitter or Facebook. If
the owner of a Facebook page wanted to get word out that an event would be taking place to all
of their followers whether that is one hundred, or a hundred­thousand, they would make a post
on their page and everyone subscribed to that page would see it. Similarly with Twitter, when a
user tweets information, all of their followers can see that message in real time.
This is also very useful to keep large groups of people participating in an event in
constant contact. Twitter has useful features where a poster can include their geo­location data
along with their tweet to show where they are at the time of the posting. Geolocation data can be
used to show the location of Police, or where an event is happening. This does have privacy
implications through, as oppressive regimes have been known to use this information to hunt

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down the poster and imprison them (Aman & Jayroe, 2013, p. 332).
Slacktivism:
The term “slacktivism” is a negative connotation for activism that is lazy and will not
have a lasting change. Slacktivism is associated with social media activism online. Facebook
slacktivism motivates people to do the bare minimum, and that does not create any real change
(Gladwell, 2012, p. 6). These types of activism usually make the participants feel good about
themselves more than it creates political change (Christensen, 2011, p. 3).
Online slacktivism may even hurt authentic activism as “people who would otherwise get
involved through traditional means may instead opt for digital opportunities, believing that these
activities are a sufficient replacement.” (Christensen, 2011, p. 4). Christensen, a researcher for
the Department of Political Science at Abo Akademi University in Finland, notes social change
takes more than “wearing badges” or “changing your profile picture of your Facebook account
for a day, week, or a month” but requires activists to actually act to see the changes they want.
Weak participation to weak ties:
Malcolm Gladwell, a best selling author and journalist, points out through his example of
the Greensboro lunch counter sit­ins during the civil rights movement in 1960 that social media
movements are not as serious as movements such as this. Civil rights activism was considered
high­risk activism ­­ where there was a significant risk involved with bringing about a social
change. To describe the risk, “...black churches were set on fire and dozens of safe houses were
bombed; volunteers were beaten, shot at, arrested, and trailed by pickup trucks full of armed

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men.” (Gladwell, 2011, p. 4). Compared to recent movements, there isn’t a high risk in
participating in online movements. Today, social change is perceived as low­risk and “easy”;
such as signing an e­petition, or clicking ‘like’ on a Facebook page, or donating money does not
pose a significant risk to the individual. Modern social media movements are widespread and
have many participants due to the low risk, and that the campaigns do not ask too much of the
participants (Gladwell, 2011, p. 6). Gladwell explains that social media is built around a lack of
social connections known as “weak­ties”. In talking about high­risk activism Gladwell points out
that friends were a crucial part of getting people to participate in a movement. In the greensboro
lunch counter, the first four people to sit in were all friends who lived in the same dorm building
at A. & T. college (Gladwell, 2011, p. 5). Gladwell states that while the Internet is great at
communicating with large volumes of people efficiently, the lack of human connection is what
limits the potential to inspire high­risk activism. Also, a lack of a formal hierarchy leaves
networks of individuals with a difficulty of reaching a consensus and setting goals, which leads
to conflict and error (Gladwell, 2011, p. 8). Social media allows users to have ‘friends’ they can
communicate with, but as Gladwell explains “you can have a thousand friends on Facebook, [and
never meet] in real life” (Gladwell, 2011, p. 5). This leads to weak networking through social
media and results in movements that are not as connected, and impersonal. In conclusion,
Gladwell states that social media “...makes it easier for activists to express themselves, and
harder for that expression to have any impact.” (Gladwell, 2011, p. 10). Ultimately, these
movements tend to have a less organized and focused goal, and lead to short­term movements.
Short­term activism:

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Movements aided through modern Internet technology can spread across the globe in
mere hours. This was such the case in the Kony 2012 movement, a 30 minute documentary
designed to improve awareness about Joseph Kony, a leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army
(LRA) in Uganda and the atrocities he and his people have committed. The Kony 2012
movement was the most viral video on YouTube to ever hit the Internet with over 100 million
views in the first six days of its publishing (Jones, 2013, p. 6). This led to millions of people
being informed about the problems faced in Northern Uganda. People were called to action to
donate to Invisible Children, the company behind the Kony 2012 campaign to help arrest Joseph
Kony. Invisible children also sold “Action Kits” that had t­shirts, wristbands, and stickers to help
activists in various areas promote the Kony campaign locally. A campaign known as “Cover the
Night”, whose purpose was to cover cities in posters informing others about Joseph Kony, was
largely unsuccessful. Internet users who supported the actions did not mobilize on the ground as
a physical movement enough to have a lasting effect. Months later, the movement’s Internet
fame largely faded out of society (Caroll, 2012, p. 1). Kony is a good example of movements
who gained popularity across social media, but did not have lasting movements or effects. This is
a problem with social media where individuals are not motivated enough to bring forth the
change they want, due to the lack of personal connections to others participating in the
movement, as well as an organizational structure to let people know what the next steps are in
the movement.
My perspective:
In respect to social movements, Social Media tools enhance a movement’s potential. If a

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movement already has goals, a structure, and motivated individuals, then Social Media tools
enhance the current movement by more effectively spreading news, amplifying voices, Social
media alone does not start social movements, there must be an existing movement for it to
enhance. If a movement is started and run through Social Media, then it is more likely to have a
weaker movement that does not last as long as a solid, authentic movement.
I believe that Social Media largely enables people to bring about the change that they
want to see in the world. My experiences with Social Media have been for the most part positive.
These tools let me stay in contact with friends and family while I am away from them. Facebook
in particular has allowed me to still stay in contact with high school friends across Oregon.
Group messaging has been very useful when organizing events through Facebook as it allowed
me to ask when people were available and what they wanted to do when we all got together.
When I want to keep up on breaking news and information, I follow organizations or people on
Twitter to be in constant contact. As a kid I used to make magic videos for YouTube and through
the statistics pages found out that I had a global audience. This was surprising to me, and showed
that everybody can have a global reach.
My experiences with social media have been far from the uses in the Middle East, but do
show on a small scale the benefits of these tools.
Conclusion:
As seen from the first argument, Social Media enables individuals through
empowerment, aids in organizing events, and allows individuals to stay in constant
communication. Social Media tools empowers individuals through giving them a voice on the

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Internet in local and global audiences alike. Organizing events has been made easier due to the
ease to reach people through Facebook pages and Twitter followers. Social Media tools also
allow thousands of individuals to stay in contact before, during an event in real time, or after.
On the opposing argument side, Social Media is seen as a tool that enables slacktivism,
creates weak­ties in social movements, and leads to short term movements. Slacktivism
motivates people to only do the bare minimum, which likely does not bring about authentic
social change. Movements are tied together through weak digital social networks that make
organization scattered. Short term movements are born from weakly organized social media
movements without adequate participation.
I feel that it is important to see social media as a tool, as it does not create movements on
it’s own, but when utilized properly can have a beneficial outcome on a social movement. I
believe that social media can aid modern movements and empower individuals to create the
change they want to see in the world.
Internet enabled Social Media tools can be extremely useful for enhancing existing
movements, when used properly. When an entire movement is based on them, movements tend
to fall apart, or are short lasted. It is up to the user as to what they get out of Social Media; if they
are using it on top of an existing movement it is beneficial, and if they use it to start a movement
it can create a weak movement that does not last long. Social Media is truly what the individual
makes of it.

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References:
Aman, M., & Jayroe, T. (2013). Ict, social media, and the arab transition to democracy: From
venting to acting. ​Digest of Middle East Studies​, ​22​(2), 317­347.
Carroll, R. (2012, April 21). ​Kony 2012 cover the night fails to move from the internet to the
streets​. Retrieved from
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/21/kony­2012­campaign­uganda­warlord
Christensen, H. (​2011, January 30). ​Political activities on the inter​net: Slacktivism or political
participation by other means?​. Retrieved from
http://uncommonculture.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3336
Gladwell, M. (2010, October 04). ​Twitter, facebook, and social activism​. Retrieved from
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell
Jones, C. (2013, March 03). ​Activism or slacktivism? the role of social media in effecting social
change​. Retrieved from
http://chris­m­jones.com/wp­content/uploads/2013/04/activism_slacktivism_report.pdf
Joseph, S. (2012). Social media, political change, and human rights. ​Boston College
International & Comparative Law Review​, ​35​(145), 145­188.
Radsch, C., & Khamis, S. (2013). Technologically mediated empowerment and transformation
among young arab women. ​Feminist Media Studies​, ​13​(5), 881­890.