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Can Web-Based Protests Be a Force for Change?
Lucas123 writes: "Several high profile protests have circulated across the Web in the past few weeks, garnering social and news media attention — and even forcing the resignation of one high-level executive. There are two components driving the trend in Internet protests: They tend to be effective against Web services, and online networks allow people to mobilize quickly. According to a study released last month by Georgetown University's Center for Social Impact Communication, active Web useres are likely to do far more for a cause than simply 'like' it on a website. And, because a few clicks can cancel a service, their actions carry weight. But there may be a coming backlash as people can grow tired of online activism; and corporations may also take a more proactive stance in response to them."
Look at how Occupy Wall Street fizzled out.
Answer: No. At least not for anything of consequence. Just look at how many successful petitions came out of change.org.
Anyone that thinks a web based protest would be effective should read "The Revolution will not be Tweeted" by by Malcolm Gladwell, published in New Yorker magazine, to understand why.
http://www.newyorker.com/repor...
Well, here's the tl;dr of TFA: Social media is the starting point. Hence the Arab Spring—you use Facebook or Twitter or whatever to spread your message and/or propaganda, and then accrue those with personal willingness to march and coordinate action through the net. Five dictators have been overthrown in the Middle East since December 2010 (as well as uprisings and protests in more than a dozen other countries) following social media germination, so clearly it's viable for that. Unfortunately this means it's also a single point of failure, as shown in Egypt when they depeered from the rest of the network in early 2011, easy to infiltrate and possible to manipulate.
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I think I spy an oxymoron.
That's what they're saying in Tunisia, Egypt and Ukraine now.
Activists harness oxymorons for plowing the fields before planting the seeds of our discontent.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Yeah, that Mozilla guy stepped down, but there aren't a lot of real consequences to that (save for him being out an easy paycheck ).
Take a look at Occupy Wall Street. That was a real movement with real impact. It was also systematically (and very effectively) shut down before it accomplished anything :(.
Occupy Wall Street was a protest by a bunch of unorganized 18 to 20 somethings with no leader, agenda, or coherent message. It had no impact whatsoever, other than on the local police overtime budget. Nothing real came out of it simply because there was no real foundation to build on.
If you want to talk about a movement that was systematically destroyed, take a look at the Tea Party. It was originally started by a coalition of conservatives and democrats for the express purposes of promoting of fiscal responsibility within government. It was systematically taken over by the conservative far right and bears no resemblance to what it originally stood for.
it was only a force for delay, not change. There is an approximately 100% likelihood that SOPA, in virtually it's entirety, will be enacted in NA and the EU, probably via trade deal. Likely, it will be sold to both sides as "the other side demanded it".
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Basically they're only worth the effort it takes to ignore or dismantle.
In the case of online protests, they can be safely ignored.
In the case of physical protests, if there's no rioting, they're ignored.
If there's rioting, they're suppressed.
And not just in the US.
Look at the Kirchner kleptocracy in Argentina. They had tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people rioting in the street.
Kirchner's response? What riot? Ooh! Prada shoes! I'll nationalize something else, and squeeze a bit more money out of my citizens and I can buy all I want!
We're pretty much at the point where the government has stopped giving a fuck. They have more and bigger guns than we do, and that's the end of it.
The only way to effect real change nowadays is if lots and lots of people are willing to kill, bleed and die for their principles.
Unfortunately, things are too damn cushy for most people to want to go that far.
So, in the gilded cage we sit.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Dude, a delay IS change. Not the change you may have wanted but change nonetheless.
And just because your political system has been so derailed by corporate interests it did not work long term does NOT mean that the process could not have been 100% successful in a more sensible ecosystem also - please try to remember that not every country is as corporate captured as yours.
And what this shows more than anything is that they can raise awareness of the livestock to the point where politicians start to give a fuck what they think again. Considering how infrequently this occurs this IS important.
One thing that definitely plays a role in this discussion is that in big street protests, a lot of people have to come out of their house and basically waste their day for this one cause. This in itself shows how strongly they feel about certain issues.
This is much more difficult in the case of internet protests: we all know how little facebook likes mean.
If you want to make web-based protests work, you will somehow have to incorporate an element of effort, which - since the only tissue we have online is that of information - is going to have to have some intellectual ingredient. Indeed, the many discussions we are having on this very website can be seen as minor protests.