“We use Facebook to schedule protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world.”_
By Lawrence Mayanja
In the last years, there have been many mass mobilizations that attracted considerable public attention internationally. The mass protests that started the uprisings against the regimes in the Arab world, the demonstrations of the Indignados movement in Spain, the Occupy Wall Street movement or the Hong Kong’s Umbrella revolution are the most prominent examples.

A distinguishing feature of these events was the omnipresence of social media (especially, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube). Many scholars wonder how these new information technologies affect social movements. Do they help to overthrow autocratic regimes more easily than the former technology?
Social media affect the evolution of protests in various ways. First, social media provide access to alternative information about the true state of the economy and the government’s performance. This information may be limited under mass media, especially when the government controls it. Social media help to inform audiences around the world about the unfolding of the events, attracting international attention and provoking diplomatic pressure.
Finally, social media offer an easy, quick and inexpensive means of communication that facilitates the spread of information among the participants. This, in turn, may help to foster coordination, a key factor to achieve the goals of any movement.
One interesting insight along these lines is one by Daron Acemoglu. When asked about overthrowing dictators he pointed out the following: “It is a question of coordinating people’s beliefs, I need to know if other people agree with me and are willing to act. What really stops people who are oppressed by a regime from protesting is the fear that they will be part of an unsuccessful protest. When you are living in these regimes, you have to be extremely afraid of what happens if you participate and the regime doesn’t change.”
Descriptions of the recent revolutions seem to highlight the importance of social media in efficient mobilization. Individuals fear that not enough people will go to the protests, so uncertainty about the turnout is a major obstacle. When mass media (e.g., TV or radio) report about attendance, then the audience does not know the reasons why individuals did not go. In social media these reasons can be revealed. For instance, the existence of opinion polls online to find out why people decided (not) to go to the protest.
The comments on Facebook help also to get insight into the decision-making of others and serve to raise spirits. All this together helps to “break the barrier of fear” and allows individuals know that they are enough and together they can bring down the dictator.
For God and my Country
The author is a Politician and Investigative Journalist