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REMARKABLERESEARCH TECHNOLOGY
SOCIAL MEDIA PLAYED CRUCIAL ROLE IN THE OCCURRENCE OF THE ARAB SPRING
The researchers, led by associate professor in communication Philip Howard, analyzed over 3 million tweets, blog posts, YouTube material and posts on Facebook. The focus was mainly on Tunisia and Egypt. Social media spread the word about democracy and freedom and helped people to believe in their chances of success. An example is the story of Mohammed Bouazizi, a young vegetable merchant who set himself on fire in front of a municipal building in Tunisia to protest against the government in December 2010. The story of Mohammed Bouazizi was told and re-told on social media and inspired others to join the protest and join forces. Ideas about democracy and freedom were shared mainly by young, urban, relatively well educated individuals, many of whom were women. Besides sharing their ideas, they also used social media to broadcast embarrassing videos about their government. An example is a video of President Ben Ali’s wife using a government jet to make expensive shopping trips to Europe. Furthermore, information from western news sites such as CNN and BBC was often used as opposed to more local news sites. A second interesting finding is that a spike in online conversations about the revolution often preceded major events on the ground, such as mass protest. 36
This finding suggests a direct link between social media and the Arab Spring. Government o f f i c i a l s recognized the amazing powers of social media and tried to block them. For instance, in Tunisia bloggers were arrested and attempts were made to block Facebook. However, with the help of talented computer programmers, some bloggers were able to keep their blogs online or, as was the case for the Muslim Brotherhood, their servers were located in London and could not be shut down. The dissidents also connected with people outside their countries to share ideas about democracy and freedom. In that way, they helped to inform Western news agencies about the events taking place. Furthermore, by connecting with others outside their own countries, they inspired more people to take on their government, fighting for freedom. Download the full report here.