Given the
recent events in Hong Kong, I would like to dedicate this post to the role that
social media have been increasingly playing in protests and in politics in
general.
Only four
years ago, I had the chance to watch from close the power of social media when in
Tunisia and Egypt protests started online ignited what later became known as the
“Arab Spring”: a series of mass protests in North Africa and the Middle East that
shook the political systems of several countries in the region. Today, the same
is happening in Hong Kong.
From
September 26 to 30, more than 1.3 million tweets were posted about the
protests. The government, of course, understands this power and filters
communications from Hong Kong to the mainland. It cannot do much, however, to
stop the protesters communicating within the special region. In one day,
100,000 people downloaded the app Firechat,
which does not require cell connection to send messages.
In 1989, the
image of a lone man standing in front of tanks in Tienanmen square was
broadcasted on hundreds of World televisions during the following day. Today, the
image of a protester shielding from tear gas with an umbrella was shared on Twitter
thousands of times in the next hour.
Social
networks have become more and more prominent as a digital marketing tool, in business
as well as to politics, and the current events are just a new evidence of this
trends, Events that I encourage everybody to follow with interest.
To know more, see http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/09/29/hong-kong-protests-social-media/16444213/
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