Recently, the English Prime Minister had made a statement partially blaming Social Media for its riots and suggesting it be limited in cases by the police (see link below). Around the world countries are upended as people demand new change through Social Media. I’d written a post during the Egypt uprising called: The New Weapon of Government Revolution is Social Media and a Mobile Phone.
Its not Social Media that is the issue, its the glaring problems of poor, wasteful government and a society fed up that has found new ways to organize. The people are acting out against the government and being poor. Billions are spent to enrich corporations who send their jobs and taxes overseas and the poor are told to eat cake. Its pretty obvious there has been a steady decline of the middle and lower class. Its a matter as old as the French Revolution. Social Media is just a device for organization, like the press, etc. If a newspaper runs ads promoting a day of protest, no politician would dare say newspapers should be closed. The same should be true of Social Media and peoples rights to connect to the internet.
Governments and politicians need to wake up to the new fact of Social Media helping people organize and demand higher standards of government. The back door, quiet dealings are coming to an end. Expecting the public to let you do whatever without being held accountable are over. TRANSPARENCY is the new norm whether you like it or not.
Beginning with the Magna Carta and documents that followed it declared that human beings have certain inalienable rights to be expected in their existence. The new era we live in, the inalienable right should be that humans have a right to access the internet and communicate. Otherwise it is a violation of our free speech and rights.
The awesome power of Social Media is that it helps educate and spread information quickly. It brings demands of accountability almost immediately to people and organizations. Its important for every politician to realize that the lazy games are up. President Obama recently called on the power of Social Media to demand accountability. Politicians have sometimes banked on the laziness or complexity of voting to retain control. Imagine the immense power if in the future you would cast your votes for politicians privately through the use of a social media platform on a mobile phone.
Its important as citizens that we ensure that the development and regulation of this technology is not impeded by Governments who wish to use it against the free speech of people. We need to see this as our right and defend it vigorously. Politicians need to get the point that its time to clean up the waste and be accountable to the PEOPLE. Quit blaming Social Media and do your job.
I agree with you 100% that the freedom to access all forms of communication should be a basic human right. But we humans have had to fight governments for every right we enjoy, and governments continue to try to take them back any way they can. Western governments have been getting more controlling and less representative of their people. By favoring a minority consisting of the wealthy and powerful to the detriment of everyone else, the people have become rightfully angry, but disorganized! The collusion of governments and corporations comprised of the favored few, who own all the media, has caused the media to stop serving the people! Back when the media did their job, a sense of outrage was instantly transmitted to the populace when the powerful got out of line; The sleeping giant would rise and show their grandiose leaders that the real power rests with the people! With the mainstream media now safely co-opted to serve the rulers, the people have come to realize that only by organizing can they hope to wield their power and exercise their rights to stop the abuse. Enter the “new” media, Social Media connected to all through the internet! De-centralized but so far not co-opted by the establishment. The people will use any media to organize, to express self-determination; this has been very effective! Now the power elite have noticed, and they have realized that Social Media has become a threat to their abuse of power, their propaganda, their ability to keep the sheep disorganized. You will see more attacks by Governments on Social Media, as their people become more oppressed and more desperate! And it’s not just happening in the UK, well known as becoming a “Big Brother” with their thousands of cameras with face-recognition all over London, and their willingness to use anti-terrorism laws to support the status-quo. It’s also happening in that supposedly liberal bastion of San Francisco, Where B.A.R.T. shut off all cell phone traffic in the subways to thwart a planned protest! How ironic that lawless hackers like Anonymous are now cast as the only organized defenders of democracy! To conclude, we the people must fight for our last hope to save our way of life, which is the access to communicate and organize with each other! Don’t expect governments to give us anything; by now they see us as the enemy.
Very interesting read indeed.