Alex Comninos
Doctoral candidate, Department of Geography, Justus Liebig University Giessen
www.comninos.org, www.uni-giessen.de/cms/faculties/f07/07/geography/depart-geo
Introduction
The recent protests and uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt have both been called “Twitter revolutions” and “Facebook revolutions” due to the widespread use of user-generated content (UGC) disseminated over social networks like Facebook and Twitter by protesters, activists and supporters of the protests, as well as by those following the events around the globe. This report investigates the usage and role of UGC and social networking websites in the recent protests and uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), as well as other cases outside of the region.
In addition to being effective tools for communication and coordination by protesters, UGC and social networking have also been used by governments in response to these protests, often to crack down on protesters. Content and social networking platforms are areas of contestation between protesters and governments not necessarily balanced in favour of protesters.
UGC refers to internet content (text, images, videos and sound clips) that is created and uploaded to the internet by users, usually for no explicit financial gain, but rather for enjoyment or passion. UGC is created usually by amateurs, rather than professionals. It includes blogs, video clips, audio clips (podcasts), as well as comments on internet forums or “status updates” on social networks like Facebook or micro-blogging platforms like Twitter. In MENA, UGC created on mobile phones enabled protesters or witnesses to report on events live and to communicate with others and spread their message. Social networks like Facebook and the micro-blogging platform Twitter were used to disseminate this content.
Twitter and Facebook revolutions?
Can the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, as well as others in the MENA region, be called Twitter or Facebook revolutions? Was social networking unique to these protests? Has similar usage been seen before elsewhere? Was UGC, created on mobile phones and distributed over platforms like Facebook or Twitter, among the causes of these uprisings?
The usage of mobile phones, social networking websites and UGC in protests in MENA is not unprecedented. Twitter was used in protests in Moldova and Iran in 2009 and both cases were referred to by some as Twitter revolutions.107 The popular ousting of President Joseph Estrada in the Philippines in 2001 was referred to as an “SMS revolution” due to the use of text messages to mobilise protests. It was described as “arguably the world’s first ‘e.revolution’ – a change of government brought about by new forms of ICTs.”108
Many feel that the role of UGC and social networking should not be overstated,109 that these were not the cause of protests and uprisings in any MENA country. The causes involve a combination of decades of repression, political and economic marginalisation, the long-term structural decay of effectiveness and legitimacy in some state institutions, and soaring food prices, along with a desire by citizens for political representation and participation and the recognition of their human rights. On the ground, popular sentiments, grassroots organising and allegiance of the state security forces are important factors.
Table 1.
ICT access in MENA
Country
Mobile
cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants
Fixed internet subscriptions per 100 inhabitants
Estimated
internet users
per 100 inhabitants
Fixed
broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants
Facebook
users
Facebook users per 100 inhabitants
Algeria
93.8
…
13.5
2.3
1,138,240
3.00
Azerbaijan
87.8
5.9
27.4
1.1
184,660
2.00
Bahrain
177.1
10.0
53.0
9.6
232,960
29.00
Egypt
2.8
24.3
1.3
5,651,080
7.00
Iran
70.8
…
11.1
0.5
no data
no data*
Iraq
64.1
…
1.1
0.1
254,840
less than 1
Israel
125.8
…
63.1
25.8
308,760
40.00
Jordan
95.2
3.9
26.0
3.2
954,580
15.00
Kuwait
129.9
…
36.9
1.5
525,000
17.00
Lebanon
56.6
…
23.7
5.3
969,240
23.00
Libya
148.5
12.0
5.5
1.0
191,120
3.00
Mali
34.2
0.2
1.9
0.0
44,360
less than 1
Mauritania
66.3
…
2.3
0.3
33,700
1.00
Morocco
79.1
1.5
41.3
1.5
2,158,680
7.00
Oman
139.5
2.8
51.5
1.4
156,200
5.00
Palestine
28.6
…
32.2
5.0
no data
no data
Qatar
175.4
10.4
10.4
405,100
24.00
Saudi Arabia
174.4
7.3
38.0
5.2
2,489,320
9.00
Sudan
36.3
…
…
0.4
no data
no data*
Syria
45.6
3.6
20.4
0.2
no data
no data*
Tunisia
95.4
4.0
34.1
3.6
1,708,700
16.00
UAE
232.1
30.5
75.0
15.0
1,689,300
36.00
Yemen
35.3
1.9
10.0
0.2
107,520
less than 1