More people are turning to social media to encourage and organise physical protests (photo: Unsplash).
From politicians encouraging protests to nationwide internet shutdowns. What can be said about the way states react to social media activism?
As we mentioned in the introduction post on this blog; digital activism is well established and here to stay. While my colleagues will focus on user trends, I will dwell deeper into how states are reacting to this form of activism.
Do politicians see digital activism as a tool to engage their followers and to make them feel strongly about certain subjects? Or is it seen as a threat – as something to be curbed at any cost? This is what this post will explore in greater detail.
The embrace
“Make yourself visible and heard” the Ukrainian president Zelensky said in a video spread across social media. Essentially, the goal was for people to take to the streets to engage with and denounce the Russian invasion. One could argue that this is a good example of a politician embracing the power of social media to make people engage with a cause.
A study from Pew Research Center stated that “eight-in-ten Americans say social media platforms are very (31%) or somewhat (49%) effective for raising public awareness about political or social issues”, which highlights the importance of social media within the sphere of activism.
What can we see is that certain politicians have understood the power of organising movements on social media and how it can act as a tool to reach their followers.
One does not need to look far to find examples of politicians or political parties engaging in what could be seen as social media activism, or at least calling people to engage for causes through means such as protests.
In April of this year, we could see that former president Donald Trump attempted to push his followers to go out and “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”. A similar trend can be seen in Sweden, as just this past week with the Swedish Pirate Party, a political party that focuses on issues regarding the internet and privacy among others. The Pirate Party had called for their followers to protest outside the Swedish parliament regarding a proposed regulation on a surveillance proposal.
People gathered in the cold to protest the Russian invasion of Ukraine (photo: Unsplash).
The attempts to silence social media activism
When looking at how governments react to the growing usage of digital activism, it is impossible to avoid the topic of “internet shutdowns”.
In recent years, the practice of limiting the access to certain sites such as social media or restricting internet access completely has been used as a malicious tool to quell protests, critical voices or attempts to spread awareness.
AccessNow stated that “the world witnessed governments implement blackouts throughout protests, civil unrest, wars, and crises” and that in 2021, 182 internet shutdowns in countries such as Russia, Senegal, and Cuba, amongst others. The report from 2022 stated similar numbers.
Recently, the French president Macron proposed that the state should investigate the option of imposing a social media shutdown in the backdrop of the riots following the death of Nahel M. (a 17-year-old who was killed by French police).
The proposal was much to the critique of other French politicians who thought the proposal was “in very bad taste”.
Some politicians fear the usage of social media activism as they claim it could lead to civil unrest that spirals out of control. But how does an internet crackdown affect the usage of social media as a platform to organise activism?
It is worth exploring whether these drastic measures have the intended effect, or whether it leads to increased frustration amongst the population.
Perhaps one could see these tools meant to hinder the social media activist trends as a temporary solution to a bigger problem and that limiting a society’s access to the outside world does more harm than good.
There is a growing fear that both digital and physical protests will lead to civil unrest (photo: Unsplash).
Concluding remarks.
The avid social media user might be used to seeing posts from politicians or their parties calling for action or for their followers to engage in for a certain cause. Whilst at the same time, some states will do anything in their power to stop such actions from ever taking place.
In which direction are we going? Will we see more internet shutdowns and states pulling the plug on social media in times of unrest, or are we heading towards a society where politics and social media activism are intertwined?
What’s to come?
In the coming weeks, I will dwell deeper into the topic of how social media activism is treated in different countries by their governments on this blog. My goal is to analyse the research that has been done on these topics and explore the findings together with you. The next post will explore the effect of internet shutdowns on activist movements and to what extent such measures can act as a double-edged sword… stay tuned!
Join the discussion.
One of our objectives for this student project is to generate conversation and debate around the topics we are covering. As such, we invite you to join the discussion in the comment section below. As with any public forum, we ask that you please keep the conversation respectful and avoid the use of inappropriate or harmful language.
Our las post
- A big thank you from our team
- No Laughing Matter: Is Gen Z’s use of humour in digital activism helpful or harmful to their causes?
- Echo Chambers of Dissent: The Digital Nexus of Right-Wing Populism and Algorithmic Amplification in Digital Activism
- Tech regulations: are they enough to sustain a democratic development supporting humanitarian development needs and digital activism?
- How governments fight online activism