It is no surprise anymore how much of an impact social media has on our daily lives. Social media addiction, new founded careers based entirely on platforms – i.e. “influencers”, marketing companies with a whole department dedicated to social media and for our younger generations – a primary and sole source of news gathering.
Social media has also served as a major player in social justice movements. These platforms have been instrumental in uniting users into communities to fight and address oppression in the forms of racism, sexism, police brutality, sexual harassment, gun violence and so, so much more.
But perhaps, a less discussed and acknowledged aspect of social media in the mainstream is its role in war and oppression. This phenomenon – the weaponization of social media, is one that I fear will be soon lost.
Social media has been fruitful in uniting people to rally and fight back in oppressed regimes. Starting with the Arab Spring back in 2010, social media was the driving force of this revolution and served as a platform to ignite the uprisings of anti-government backlash in many countries primarily; Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain.
Facebook was key to citizens posting and sharing uncensored videos of abuse and protests. At the time, Facebook wasn’t seen as a challenge to the dictators and was left uncensored. Videos went viral bringing awareness to other parts of the world and allowed a forum for people to rise up, creating and organizing protests and actions plans.
In the crisis in Venezuela, social media again, was the driving force in uniting the oppressed with an outlet to plan and assemble protests against a dictatorship regime. The virality of student protests launched an entire movement in just a few short months and served as the foundation of what’s morphed into a civil war.
Social Media and the Uprising in Venezuela
However, the cat’s out of the bag and no longer are governments viewing social media as negligible. In Venezuela Maduro’s regime is calling on Facebook to follow censorship laws and block back channels for access and they’ve succeeded. In the ongoing battle in the Arab world, blocks have also been prohibiting certain access to news and forums for citizens to unite and arrange protests.
We’re continuing to be shocked at the power of social media as more evidence surfaces in the Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Evidence is showing that the Kremlin manipulated Facebook and Twitter with an online army of trolls and bots.
How Russia used Social Media to Divide Americans
Artificial intelligence is a serious concern for many countries as the power of social media is becoming blatantly obvious. The Chinese government is now demanding seats on boards of social media, a move that can only be assumed as to maintain power over citizens.
As the “watch dog” government invests a vast amount of money in developing big data monitoring software to help implement its Orwellian strategy of a “social-reliability” rating it seems obvious that the aim of current dictatorships will be to limit citizens access to social media and freedom within it.
As many people who are writing and considering this growing challenge, they believe that those power view democracy itself as the enemy and social media is the enemy’s tool. As Daniil Andreev calls this, “psychological operations” he further believes that these “same tactics during Brexit, Crimea, the 2016 U.S. election and the divisiveness after Charlottesville.”
The time has come to discuss what happens when social media – once used as a means to unite the oppressed against its oppressor is hijacked from us. And worse, once stolen will be turned to targeting citizens and forcing them into isolation and complacency.
World War III is already here and it’s gone viral. It’s crucial we start discussing how we will fight back.
For more information read: War Goes Viral
Desiree Lindsay 