Not so long ago, I had the honor to attend my best friend’s wedding. The wedding destination was Verona, Italy. Leading me to take a couple of flights to make it to the famous city of Romeo and Juliet. The wedding was beautiful and we had a blast at the party after. Amid all the busyness around me, I felt grateful to be around people again, to be able to shake hands and have close communication. For two years and throughout the pandemic I was used to only meeting people through screens. Still, I remembered that without these screens & telecom means, our life during the pandemic would have been very lonely & isolated. The global pandemic caused major shifts in the ways people around the world live and share their lives. We used the internet long before the pandemic. However, the pandemic has reshaped our views on many topics. It intrigued people to reconsider the impacts of social media concerning many topics such as activism. Mahsa Amini – Law and order – Women’s rights – Tiktok age
Lifeline for social platforms
In the past two years, responses to social movements brought a revival of social media activism. Think about how the internet responded to the murders of George Floyd and Tony McDade. But actually, for the past decade, activists used social media to bring attention to movements all over the world. We have had the Black Lives Matter movement, the Me Too movement, and the Arab Spring.
During the revolution in Egypt, videos of protests and speeches received millions of views. In the week before the resignation of Egyptian president Mubarak, daily tweets referencing the movement grew from 2.300 to 230.000. A great example of activism that uses online platforms to work toward to goals of social or political movements.
What does “correctly” mean?
Every time I open my TikTok, I scroll through videos capturing the horrific murder of the Iranian girl Mahsa Amini. Mahsa was beaten to death by the Iranian moral police claiming that she was not wearing her hijab “correctly”. A claim that is very vague and relative, weak, and opens the door for many questions. More on that in my next post.
Time loop
11 years ago, the Egyptian government applied the exact same form of resistance to social media and the internet. Under the rule of Hosni Mubarak, Internet censorship and surveillance were severe. This resulted in a total shutdown of the Internet in Egypt during the 2011 Revolution. That resistance from the governing regime back then only concluded more anger and we all know how that story “ended”.
Yet here we are again, the Iranian regime found salvation in the exact same solution Mubarak’s regime did. They must have recognized the threat the internet could form. Not long after the day Mahsa died, the Iranian state shut down the internet, paralyzing the country. All in the hopes that by doing that, people might just move on and forget what happened. Mahsa Amini – Law and order – Women’s rights – Tiktok age
The cover has fallen
Ironically, they came to realize the power of the word, and the authority a message could have. Apparently, the internet and social platforms are more powerful and much stronger than all their sticks and bullets. That regime is not under attack just for the killing of Mahsa. It is under attack for its treatment of women. Eventually, social media has been playing a big role in bringing this message to the world.
Women’s right
Feminism is of course not a new topic. It has been for years. However, the developments we see now in Irian show that feminism through social media encourages a bigger playing field. Allowing women’s voices from a wider array of backgrounds and countries, with or without traditional power, to be heard. This may show that unlike how governments handle women’s rights in an offline world. Still, often inhibited by cultural norms, legal restrictions, and more. Using online platforms may be easier to equalize or at least call for these rights. Mahsa Amini – Law and order – Women’s rights – Tiktok age
