Libyan Revolution: the role of Social Media and Cell Phones - Research Paper Example

The paper analyzes the role of social media and cell phones in the Libyan revolution which led to the ouster of the Libyan dictator Gaddafi. The circumstances which lead to the overthrowing of the Libyan government are discussed and the role of social media is traced side by side. The special situation which was created due to the immense international involvement is also taken into consideration and the role played by cell phones and internet in this regard is identified. Social media played the role of leadership in the revolution by helping in organizing and directing protests. Cell phones provided substantial evidence to the international community to believe that the situation in Libya requires international intervention. Libyan Revolution: the role of Social Media and Cell Phones Arab Spring Arab Spring is the name given to the series of protests and demonstrations which took place during the last two years in various Middle Eastern and North African countries for over throwing the oppressive governments. The first revolution sparked up in Tunisia when on 18 December 2010 Tunisian people started to protest against the government following the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi. The minor protests gained immense popularity through the activists’ updates on social media sites, within hours the Tunisian capital was crowded with protestors; amid demonstrations and violence the government was overthrown. The success stories of the Tunisian revolution were not only covered by news agencies and reporters, those were also projected immensely on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and through blogging in other Arab countries. These stories motivated the oppressed people in these countries to protest against the dictatorial regimes of their governments. As a result the governments in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia were overthrown and the demands of the protestors were fulfilled by the government in other Arab countries (Manhire, 2012). Social Media in Arab Spring A very important role was played by digital social media in bringing the political agendas of the Arab people to light which ultimately paved the way for Arab Spring. Messages conveyed through social media sites were the source of inspiration and motivation which kept the protestors in direct communication ensuring unity in protests and demonstrations. The stories of success of revolution in one country were also conveyed through social media to other countries which triggered the expansion of the wave of protest to whole Arab world. Surprisingly no leaders emerged out of these revolutions, this is merely due to the fact that there were no leaders in the revolutions; the motivational and guiding role of the leaders was played by social media sites which turned out to be a vital tool for connecting activists and disseminating information. Social media helped in turning the random protests into organized ones as more than 3 million tweets, 5 million Facebook comments and thousands of blogs were written and published on internet during the protests in the Arab countries. The people of the Arab world had been against these dictators and oppressors for years but their protests and political activities were fragmented. Social media sites brought the public sentiment of shared grievance into light and acted as a source of change in the mindset of people making them politically active from being politically aware. It is true that political awareness cannot be created overnight; it is a long process which had already been initiated in the Arab world years ago, also through internet but not through social media. However, the driving force for pulling people into streets was provided by the activities on social media sites (Lynch, 2011). This modern methodolgy of protest and political activity was a new challenge for the dictatorial regimes of the Arab world and they did not have a strategy to face this challenge. As a result, the governments also took some decisions against these social media sites which worked in favor of the resolutions; for instance, when the fear of social media sites prompted the Egyptian government to shut down internet, it actually converted a large number of commentators on the internet to protestors in the streets because when people could no longer monitor events through social media, they became part of the events. Internet has contributed in creating political awareness among the Arab youth and they are much more educated and globalized today than they were in the past. The popularity of social media among the Arab youth was the reason that this medium of information sharing ultimately resulted in bringing about the revolution. The unity provided by social media gave this belief to the youth of Arab world that their passion and rage could be the energy for change in future. Social Media Aided War in Libya The conflict between the rebels and the forces of Moammer Gaddafi in Libya also received strong backing of the nation through the social media. The conflict in Libya was more of a civil war then a revolution and actually involved armed intervention from international peace keeping elements coupled with the armed struggle by democratic activists. The activists were able to capture Tripoli in August 2011 and established their rule in September which was internationally recognized by the United Nations and almost all the countries of the world. Strictly analyzing, the activists who later formed the National Transitional Council were rebels against an established government. Although Gaddafi administration was involved in gross human rights violations and opressions against the people of Libya, but bringing down the government through armed struggle by going against the law of the country is generally unacceptable to the international community unless the world is aware about the oppressions committed by the government of the country. Social media was used by the democratic activists and the people of Libya for making the world aware of the scenario in the country. The world came to know about the human rights violations and deplorable living conditions in Libya and in this way the protestors and the armed activists drew international support (Bomberowitz, 2011). Social Media in Libya also helped in organizing the web-assisted support and had a number of roles to play in the liberation movement of the Libyans. The protestors were well aware of the power of social media in bringing about the revolution having seen the impact it made in other Arab countries. Not only the protestors, Gaddafi administration was also well aware of the power of Facebook and other social media sites in the contemporary political scenario of the world. The government made arrangements for bringing down the role of Facebook against the government by arresting the activists who were calling for Gaddafi’s resignation and revolution on Facebook, government also injected positive propaganda in the favor of Gaddafi administration into Facebook. Gaddafi was a very strong leader and had many international allies. He was also much shrewder than other victims of the Arab Spring that is why he adopted the strategy of positive opinion forming in the favor of government through Facebook, and for this reason he utilized his international support; many articles were written by international bloggers and writers in Gaddafi’s favor. The propaganda team appointed by Gaddafi administration also created a false impression on internet that the talks of protests roaming about on Facebook are nothing but exaggerated versions of small protesting groups. The government’s social media team projected that the so-called revolution is nothing but a series of political discussions between enthusiastic young Libyans. Within a hours, the government also came up with constitutional and administrative reforms in the country which were very highly projected on Facebook. The reforms proposed by the Gaddafi administration in the government structure and the affairs of the state were received positively by the people and during the early days of the revolution, it was on a verge of dying out as people turned up into streets chanting slogans in favor of Gaddafi. Thus, Facebook and other social media sites had a significant and dramatic role to play in the political scenario of Libya during the days of revolution (Thomson-Smith, 2012). However, the continuous updates on Facebook and hundreds of tweets from the people of Libya protesting in the capital were enough to deny the false impression created by the government propaganda team that all was well. Some of the tweets explained the situation of the protests and the oppressions committed by the government: The Day of Rage has resulted in anarchy in Libya, Qaddafi is at war with Libya and as we speak helicopters, troops, thugs, security and foreign mercenaries all are against the unarmed protestors. There are reports of injured and murdered protestors at the hands of Libyan security forces claiming lives of as much as 19 Libyans. Such tweets from common Libyans greatly increased the rage against the government and the protests gained popularity and support throughout the country. Social media was frequently used by the activists for gathering protestors and organizing the protests. Schedules of the protests and instructions were issued through the social networking sites. These messages and updates had a significant impact, and this was repeatedly proved by the fact that the government continued to take all measures to keep the Libyans away from all sources of information technology. Updates from protests kept coming out of Libya and the international community was kept informed about the happenings in the country (Mekay, 2011). The Gaddafi administration did not go for an all out blocking of communication technology because of the fear that it can result in similar situation as in Egypt where the governments banning of internet resulted in people coming out into streets as they were barred from getting updates. However this strategy was not helpful and protests continued to gain popularity as updates on social media continued to be released. Social Media: the driving force The revolutionary sentiments have existed in Libyan people for years but they were able to overthrow the dictatorial regime of Gaddafi in 2011, with the power of social media. The voices against Gaddafi’s administration were present in a scattered manner and the effort also lacked leadership, social media sites served as the best tools to fill up this gap. Modern revolutions are to be brought about through internet, social media and advanced communication technologies. With life becoming more and more competitive and chaotic, people are so busy in earning their daily bread that they do not even care about raising voice for their own rights and protesting against oppressions. In such a scenario, social media is one of the best tools for bringing together otherwise remote and distant groups with the same political sentiments. The second good thing about social media is the fact that they can easily cross the censorship and control barriers imposed by the government on information technology and the happenings in the most remote regions of the world can easily be communicated and broadcasted to the whole world. International support is one of the most important aspects of bringing about revolution in a country and advanced information technology ensures this. The ability to communicate information internationally not only brings support to the protestors, it can also spread the impact of revolution on other countries by motivating people. Has there been no social media, the revolution in Tunisia would not have any impact on the people of other countries and motivational stories could never have acted as accounts of inspiration for others (New Internationalist). The role of social media was also successful because of the fact that today the government cannot do much about putting limitations on information technology as it can backfire in some of the cases.The tweets in the Arab Spring were directed at the whole world this is depicted by the fact that 80 percent tweets were in English language. Social media in Libya was also used on the same pattern as in other Arab countries. All these revolutions have one astonishing thing in common, there was not any notable leader and the role of leadership was played by social media sites. Libyans utilized Facebook and Twitter to spread maps showing locations for protest meetings and for spreading information about defensive measures against the police and army. Thus, the protests were much more arranged with trained protestors. Cell Phones Apart from sites like Facebook and Twitter, cell phones were also the revolutionary tools in the Libyan revolution. Photographs and videos were recorded by rebels as well as the government soldiers and were communicated through cell phones for motivating supporters and for updating the international community. The protestors, fighters and the soldiers are not supposed to carry laptops with them thus they used cellphones for rapid communication and updates. Some of these videos also provided substantial evidence for the postwar crime violence cases. Social media would have organized the protestors in the country; however it was through the cell phones that the international community came to know about the human rights violations and crimes being committed against the people of Libya. These images and video evidences from the cell phones made the international community to take the matter up with the United Nations. Hundreds of gigabytes of videos were uploaded on YouTube and other internet sites recorded by cell phones which not only gathered support of the Libyans but also convinced the international community to side with the democratic activists. Cell phones provide a rapid way of recording and sending information and thus played a significant role in scenarios where there were no identified leaders of the protests (Carey, 2011). Conclusion Libyan revolution certainly was one of the modern revolutions with the social media playing the most significant role. Social media cannot create political awareness but it certainly converted the awareness into activism. Of all the Arab Spring revolutions, Social media was perhaps most extensively used in Libya because the Gaddafi government also tried to use it for turning the general opinion of the public in its favor. Cell phones also had a much greater role to play as the international community needed evidences against Gaddafi and those were provided through the cell phones. Therefore, it is judicious to comment that Gaddafi could never have been overthrown without the help of social media and advanced information technology in the form of cell phones. References Bomberowitz, J. (2011, August 22). The Libyan Revolution Through Social Media. In BostInno. Retrieved June 1, 2012, from http://bostinno.com/2011/08/22/the libyan-revolution-through-social-media/ Carey, N. (2011, August 23). Special report: In Libya, the cellphone as weapon. In Reuters. Retrieved June 1, 2012, from http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/23/us-libya-misrata-idUSTRE77M38520110823 Lynch, B. (2011). The Arab Spring: Its Origins, Implications and Outlook. New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. Manhire, T. (2012). Arab Spring: Rebellion, Revolution, and a New World Order. Random House. Mekay, E. (2011, February 23). One Libyan Battle Is Fought in Social and News Media. In The New York Times. Retrieved June 1, 2012, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/world/middleeast/24iht-m24libya.html Thomson-Smith, L. (2012). The Arab Spring: Revolutions and Unrest in the Arab World. Fastbook Publishing. World Development book case study: the role of social networking in the Arab Spring. (n.d.). In New Internationalist. Retrieved May 31, 2012, from http://www.newint.org/books/reference/world-development/case-studies/social networking-in-the-arab-spring/ Read More