The Role of Social Media in Peoples Revolution

The Role of Social Media in Peoples Revolution, Fall of Repressive Political Regimes and Global Terrorism

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Introduction

Social media plays a significant role in the contemporary societies today. This is because of the kind of environment that it provides which gives members of the society an opportunity to share information freely and exchange ideas easily irrespective of their geographical location (Jurgenson 88). A significant impact of the social media has been seen in revolutionary movements of people, austering of oppressive political leaders from power and also in enhancing global terrorism menace.

Social Media and Peoples Revolution

Social media is a powerful tool that can bring people together and spread revolutionary messages among a population to an extent of creating a bigger change in the society. The trends that happen on social media platforms such as twitter and facebook are significant in making people change their thinking about policies amidst them and even their ways of life. These changes in their thoughts and the general access to vital information regarding the political, religious and economic atmospheres and wellbeing of their countries enable them to undergo a shift in their lifestyle and even in their trust and support for certain leaders in the society (Bhuiyan 18). For this reason, the people are able to come up with movements and groups aimed at changing their lives and hence revolution of the people.

Social Media and the fall of Oppressive Political Regimes

Social media is one of the powerful tools that people can use today to do away with the radical and oppressive political regimes. Many times, the dictatorial regimes are always very strict and oppressive to those who try to oppose them. They capture opposition leaders and torture them so much to scare the others and discourage them from opposing the government of the day (Shirky 32). For this reason, the people have turned to social media where information can be posted anonymously making it difficult for the dictatorial regimes to apprehend their opposition. The social media has therefore played an important role in making people to have the courage to organize themselves and demonstrate against oppressive political regimes without their leaders being known by the dictatorial regimes (Shirky 36). This has therefore in some cases helped to bring such regimes to an end. A good example is what happened in Chad where the president and his leadership were austere from power

Social Media and Acceleration of Global Terrorism

Even though social media has many positive roles in the society, there are other negative impacts that it brings to our society. One of the negative impacts is helping global terrorism to thrive. The terrorists are capable of discussing their planned attacks using social media anonymously by creating endless user accounts which are very difficult to trace down (Seib & Dana 21). This makes it very difficult for security agents to get hold of the perpetrators of terrorist activities and therefore puts the lives of many innocent members of the society at stake. The terrorists and their leaders have switched to social media because they have realized that phone calls and physical meetings are very dangerous to their plans because they can be traced down and caught. Global terrorism is therefore on the rise because the social media has enabled people to exchange ideas anonymously.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the social media has a myriad of roles in todays society. However, not all the impacts that social media has in the society are beneficial. This is due to the fact that people with ill motives are also using social media to perpetuate and perpetrate crime through terrorism. However, the positive roles out way the negative ones for the social media has enabled people to get rid of oppressive political regimes and engage in revolution.

Works Cited

Bhuiyan, Serajul I. "Social media and its effectiveness in the political reform movement in Egypt." Middle East Media Educator 1.1 (2011): 14-20.

Jurgenson, Nathan. "When atoms meet bits: Social media, the mobile web and augmented revolution". Future Internet 4.1 (2012): 83-91.

Seib, Philip, and Dana M. Janbek. Global terrorism and new media: The post-Al Qaeda generation. Routledge, 2010.

Shirky, Clay. "The political power of social media." Foreign affairs 90.1 (2011): 28-41.