Abstract:
In America, many have credited Facebook for Obama’s victories, both against Hillary Clinton and John McCain to his campaign’s deft use of Facebook. In the Arab world, “Social networking sites now give voices to those most marginalized in the Middle East today—young people and women.” Online social networks (OSNs) present advantages to emerging movements: they avoid government control, are hard to ban, and most governments only have a vague grasp of how they work. OSNs also allow rapid and diverse communication among acquaintances and allow a viral spread of information that would be impossible in the real world. This has led some to predict OSNs such as Facebook as a panacea for change in the Arab world. But in their analyses, most have failed to recognize the pernicious effects that social networks have on opposition movements who fail to use OSNs well. This was shown by the May 4th follow-up to the April 6th Egyptian strike, a milestone failure for Egypt’s internet based opposition. In the same way OSNs can foster momentum, their members can sap focus, foster internal divisions, and even increase apathy among disaffected populations. For the Arab World, opposition movements in the 21st century will be defined by their ability to navigate the ever-changing environment of online social networks. By properly leveraging them, these movements can succeed. By misusing or ignoring them, these movements will rapidly become obsolete.
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I wrote this paper in November 2008 for my undergraduate Senior thesis.