Role of Social Media in Arab Spring

The importance of social media

     Social media is important for many different reasons. Social media lets people stay in touch with each other easily. People can organize events quickly and easily and on very short notice. The 2011 events across the Arab world have brought ‘social media’ to the forefront, with many crediting Facebook, Twitter and blogs with facilitating the revolutions that have taken place. Yet we have not fully understood the role of social media during the recent events and the convergence of social media with not only main media but also with actual street demonstrations. Moreover, the role and significance of social media during recent events across the Arab world  has varied greatly. This article aims to investigate the role of social media activism in the 2011 egyptian uprisings.

     Information is great of importance in the political arena because of that vefocity of the knowledge has the same value as the information itself. Control of the information and communication supply throughout history seem to support these determinations to be. In terms of authoritarian systems, it is true that information to be shared by citizens in the long term damage to the regime. Social media networks are very important especially for the opposition groups, in terms of their abilities social media becomes more attractive.

     Firstly, social networks ''From the masses to the masses'' facilitates communication and a new arresting news, demonstration dates and place, such as the location of the security forces with a large number of people are allowed to share. These findings, especially the ''mobile web'' has become more true to the period. The second, social media networks make difficult the regime's authority to control the spread of news and events.

     We should understand/know what is online communication to learn how effective social media in social change. In Arab countries, many activists who played crucial roles in the Arab Spring used social networking as a key tool in expressing their thoughts concerning unjust acts committed by the government. Online commonication is different from television, radio and newspapers because these are one side of the traditional media, online communication is not like that. New media tools are not only for getting a message, at the same time you can write a comments and share in real time with thousands of people. Online groups are much lower cost than other traditional methods to organize and mobilize. Being member of social media is free. Power of information passes from authorithy to people with free using social media.

     A dictator toppled by Twitter or ousted through the efforts of a Facebook group? It's an enticing idea, particularly for those who are in the business of social media and have a personal stake of sorts in tallying each instance of social media's global value making headlines. Twitter punditry this week has been peppered with speculation about whether upheaval in Tunisia or the subsequent anti-government protests in Egypt might amount to the "first" true revolution spawned by social media. But this just isn't the right way to measure things: the occurrence of a "social media revolution," at this point, should be neither noteworthy nor remarkable. If a dictator is overthrown or a government ousted, it would be notable if Facebook or Twitter weren't used.[1]

     That's because social media is a part of the world we live in and has become such a important form of communication that it will factor into any political movement nearly anywhere in the world. In other words, the use of Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube should not be what's worth talking about. At this point, it takes away from the substance of the revolution (or lack thereof) itself.

     First Tunisia, then Egypt... Crackling ot authoritarian regimes in the Arab world was reviewed as a Facebook revolution. When we look at the numbers indeed of social networks like Facebook and Twitter played a major role in these countries, we can see that easily. And maybe that is why Turkish government did ban the twitter, youtube before the local election. Internet usage has spread in the last 5 years. At the begining of 2000 the number of internet users was not half million but this number increased by 369 % has exceeded 17 million. Tunisia's internet population was 100 thousands, today more than 3.5 million surpassed. Tunisia internet usage 34%, the internet is one of the most common country when we compared with the general population on the African continent in countries.

     Number of Facebook users in Egypt 5 million 200 thousands 780. In other words percent of the population 6.46 % using facebook. Totl number of users with ranks 23rd in Egypt. Another noteworthy development in Egypt, increased of the interest of facebook last 6 months, about 1 million users become member of Facebook. Population of Tunisia is about 10 million. Users of Facebook more than 2 million in Tunisia. 19.53 % of population uses Facevook. Ranked 4th in the number of Facebook users, in Turkey this number is 32.71 %.

What was the reason social media interested in?

     Large young population plays the most important role for social media. 24 % of Tunisians are under the age of 14. With an annual population growth of 1.9 percent in Egypt, the rate exceeds 30 percent.

     Young people not only use social media in personal computers, they also often use social media with their mobile devices. With this application you sent the text, photo and video documentation, you can reach out to millions in a short time.

     How much of this way of communication is effective rulers had already spotted it.  China's management is one of the country for internet censorship and control over the world almost perfectly. Also Egypt management tried to control media while protest. Despite of Internet and mobile communications switch off protests already reached a certain maturity, it did not make much sense. On the contrary, the country's economy was damaged by it.

Facebook and revolution

     The historical use of information as power was primarily limited to nation-states. Today a blogger can impact an election, an Internet posting can recruit a terrorist, and an audiotape can incite fear in the strongest of nation-states, all with little capital investment and certainly without the baggage of bureaucratic rules, national values (truthful messaging), or oversight.[2]

     When there is no possibility of using radio newspaper and leaflet, ideas news  occurances spread from mouth to mouth '' grapevine'' is activated. Thus qualifying the revolution, which is surronding arab states, as a Facebook revolution is exaggeration of the role and function of social media.

     While the Tahrir Square occupation was made possible by Facebook, how many users liked the page or indicated they would be there and then did not show up? Such data may not be possible to calculate, but the gaps between weak ties and high-risk activism and the level of participation in a social movement do exist, and they are a weakness to social media’s application in support of an insurgency.

     Although trends seem to indicate that more and more individuals will use social media as time passes, there is still the question of exactly how many people utilize social media now. In the Middle East, the images of youthful protesters “taking to the streets” with cell phones in hand and terms such as “the Twitter Revolution” tend to mask the facts that indicate that the Middle East is, in fact, not really using social media. According to the White Canvas Group, who presented to us at Fort Campbell a series of statistics on social media usage, Kuwait has the highest usage rate for Twitter in the Middle East – at 8.13%.[3]

     Muhammed Buazizi was selling greenstuff without permission and he argued with police because of that and M. Buazizi burned himself, uprising was started to support him. People used social media to organize for protest. While people do not have connection, spread of issues took a little bit long time. Developments has spread worldwide in Tunisia and Egypt simultaneously. Intelligence organizations, tanks, and all kinds of weapons could not stop rebels. Arabs spread their ideas easily in the North Africa because they use same language.

     It experts found this quiestion end of the revolution; What would you do if internet switch off? Entrepreneur Shervin Pishev also as known game producer looking for solutions  ''OpenMesh'' for continuiy of internet.

Facebook

     Traffic to Facebook increased steadily after 2009. More people visited Facebook than Google for the week ending March 13, 2010.[4] Harvard did not have a student "Facebook" (a directory with photos and basic information) at the time, although individual houses had been issuing their own paper facebooks since the mid-1980s. Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online.[5] According to Alexa statistics Facebook is the 2nd most visited websites in the world. In addition, The most visited web site in Egypt. In USA, Turkey, Panama, Norway 2th the most visited web site. In Canada, South Afrika, England and Sweden's 3rd most visited web site.[6]

Twitter

     In 2013 Twitter was one of the ten most-visited websites, and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet.[7] Twitter is ranked as one of the ten-most-visited websites worldwide by Alexa's web traffic analysis.[8] Daily user estimates vary as the company does not publish statistics on active accounts. A February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranked Twitter as the third most used social network based on their count of 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits.[9] In March 2009, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing website in the Member Communities category for February 2009. Twitter had annual growth of 1,382 percent, increasing from 475,000 unique visitors in February 2008 to 7 million in February 2009.[10]

     Information can take many weaponized forms, but for the revolutionary simply spreading the incident of true events may be advantageous. In both Tunisia and Egypt, government forces activities directed at population and resources control measures played into revolutionary hands and legitimized the narrative and ideology of the partisans, insurgents, opposition and revolts of those nations. The modern, globalized world is also information-starved, and social media has adapted to this reality. In 2009, Twitter changed its prompt from “what are you doing?” to “what’s happening?” and, as Blake Hounshell says, onne of the fastest ways to tell whether someone's not worth following is if they're still answering that first question. In addition, Twitter is also increasingly used for making TV more interactive and social.

     During the Arab Spring in early 2011, the number of hashtags mentioning the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt increased. The U.S. government, seeing social media's role in the 2010 Arab Spring revolts, covertly developed a Cuban alternative to Twitter called ZunZuneo as part of a long-term strategy to "stir unrest". The service was active from 2010 to 2012.[11]

Conclusion

     Arab Spring brought in a new age in revolutionary movements, as it was the first attempt of such movements to incorporate social media in achieving its goals. Insurgencies require development through phases to be successful, and by plan/create social media offers more benefits to insurgencies during the initial phases via facilitation of recruiting, mobilization and informational fight. Enriched content, like Youtube, it is likely to be the most important form of social media to the insurgent in the future, and such content may aid insurgents in generating the international support necessary for their cause to succeed. In societies where social media usage is higher than in the Middle East, different benefits of user-generated content and social networking tools may present themselves.

     Unfortunatelly, the world continues to globalize and social media usage continues to increase, insurgencies may find new uses for it throughout each of the phases. But global(dark) powers try to control social media with some agrements like ACTA and SOPA. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), is a multinational treaty for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement. The agreement aims to establish an international legal framework for targeting counterfeit goods, generic medicines and copyright infringement on the Internet, and would create a new governing body outside existing forums, such as the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, or the United Nations. The agreement was signed in October 2011 by Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States. [12] Of course it is not true, this is just what they tell us about ACTA, their main purpose is to control social media officially.

     SOPA is another agreement like ACTA, what they say about SOPA is just camouflage, the main point is to control social media.

Resources;

Hall, Emma. “Year After Arab Spring, Digital, Social Media Shape Region's Rebirth.” Advertising Age, Vol. 83, No. 24 (2012), 10

U.S. secretly created ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest". The Washington Post. 2014

Jason Walsh (11 February 2012). "Europe's Internet revolt: Protesters see threats in antipiracy treaty". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 9 April 2012.

Arap Baharı Sürecinde İnternet ve Sosyal Medyanın Rolü - Ali Korkmaz

Aydan,Levent Cem (2011). Gelecekteki Devrimler Sosyal Medyayla Öngörülebilir mi ? 12/29/2011, http://1sosyalmedya.com

Szajkowski, B. (2011). Sosyal Medya Araçları ve Arap Baharı, Alternatif Politika, Cilt.3,Sayı. 3, 420–432, Kasım 2011.

Tekek, M. (2011). Sosyal Medya ve Arap Baharı,http://www.orsam.org.tr/tr/yazigoster.aspx?ID=2964, ORSAM 07 Aralık 2011.

"Twitter.com&nbsp – Traffic Details from Alexa". Alexa Internet. August 26, 2010. Retrieved August 26, 2010.

Caroline McCarthy, ―There‘s no such thing as ‗social media revolution‘‖, CNET, 26 January 2011, erişim tarihi 11.01.2012, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20029519-36.html.

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[1] Caroline McCarthy, ―There‘s no such thing as ‗social media revolution‘‖, CNET, 26 January 2011,

erişim tarihi 11.01.2012, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20029519-36.html.

[2] Murphy, Dennis M. and James F. White. “Propaganda: Can a Word Decide a War?” Parameters, Autumn (2007), 23.

[3] White Canvas Group, “Strategic Seminar in Social Media.” June 11, 2013, Fort Campbell, KY.

[4] Dougherty, Heather (March 15, 2010). "Facebook Reaches Top Ranking in US". Experian Hitwise

[5] Locke, Laura (July 17, 2007). "The Future of Facebook". Time (New York). Retrieved November 13, 2009.

[6] http://www.alexa.com/topsites

[7] Twitter.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.

[8] "Twitter.com&nbsp – Traffic Details from Alexa". Alexa Internet. August 26, 2010. Retrieved August 26, 2010.

[9] Kazeniac, Andy (February 9, 2009). "Social Networks: Facebook Takes Over Top Spot, Twitter Climbs". Compete.com. Retrieved February 17, 2009.

[10] McGiboney, Michelle (March 18, 2009). "Twitter's Tweet Smell of Success". Nielsen. Retrieved April 5, 2009.

[11] "U.S. secretly created ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest". The Washington Post. 2014

[12] Jason Walsh (11 February 2012). "Europe's Internet revolt: Protesters see threats in antipiracy treaty". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 9 April 2012.