Sandro Suzart, SUZART, GOOGLE INC and United States on relationship among Demonstrations, 2013. IMPEACHMENTS of 22 governments, Relation, Sandro Suzart, SUZART, GOOGLE INC, United States, Demonstrations countries IMPEACHMENT, GOOGLE INC, the torture suffered by Sandro Suzart, Genocide in Egypt and Lybia.
Digital exclusion as a hindrance to the emergence of the information society:...Przegląd Politologiczny
There is no doubt, that digital transformation (knowledge-based transformation) has
emerged as the crucial megatrend in modern civilization. Artificial intelligence (AI), machines and
autonomous vehicles, the Internet of Things (IoT), financial technology (Fin/Tech), smart investing
and the analysis and processing of big data are the most recent manifestations of this trend, but not
the only ones. All of these phenomena have led to the emergence and continuing development of the
so-called ‘Information Society’ (IS), which refers to a new type of social organization that is clearly
distinct from the earlier forms of society. In this new society, information and knowledge play an
essential role in facilitating the Knowledge-Based Economy (KBE), where information is collected,
transmitted and processed in a faster and more effective manner, and can subsequently be used to
foster accelerated economic growth. Unfortunately, the problem of digital exclusion still occurs, also
in Poland. The author in the conclusion comes to opinion that people who are digitally excluded find
it much more difficult to overcome psychological rather than technical barriers to having access to
the Internet and learning basic computer skills. This situation calls for urgent improvement. In the
modern information society, a lack of basic knowledge about computers translates into partial or total
digital illiteracy and makes it difficult to perform a range of everyday tasks. It is therefore essential
in Poland to prevent digital exclusion. People who do not use the Internet are socially and professionally limited, or virtually handicapped, which results in quantifiable economic losses. This translates to lower creativity and innovativeness and reduced revenue of state budget, and impedes the
competitiveness of the economy and the development of a post-modern, post-industrial social model.
The main research goal is to show the causes of the phenomenon of digital exclusion in Poland and
ways to counteract it. In the course of the research, the most frequently used method was causal and
effect analysis as well as institutional and legal analysis. Elements of the decision-making, historical,
comparative and statistical methods were also used.
Mobile phones and social media played an important role in enabling revolutions during the Arab Spring uprisings. In countries like Egypt and Tunisia where the revolutions succeeded, social media and mobile phones allowed protesters to organize, coordinate actions, and share information in order to overcome government restrictions. Mobile phones in particular allowed citizens to broadcast events directly and share their perspectives with the wider world. However, while new technologies spread the revolutions, they were not solely responsible for the outcomes, as countries like Libya and Syria saw similar technology use but unsuccessful revolutions due to other factors like government repression. Overall, mobile phones and social networking gave people new ways to engage civically and have their voices heard on a large scale.
Research Inventy : International Journal of Engineering and Scienceresearchinventy
Research Inventy : International Journal of Engineering and Science is published by the group of young academic and industrial researchers with 12 Issues per year. It is an online as well as print version open access journal that provides rapid publication (monthly) of articles in all areas of the subject such as: civil, mechanical, chemical, electronic and computer engineering as well as production and information technology. The Journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the general criteria of significance and scientific excellence. Papers will be published by rapid process within 20 days after acceptance and peer review process takes only 7 days. All articles published in Research Inventy will be peer-reviewed.
This document discusses the effects of new media technologies on political communication. It begins by noting how new media has changed political communication patterns around the world. It then discusses key differences in political communication between developed and developing nations, noting issues like election violence are more common in developing states. A major section analyzes former US President Barack Obama's highly successful use of new media like websites and social media in his 2008 election campaign. The document concludes by examining two African elections in Ghana and Zimbabwe and how new media was used, with more success in Ghana's election.
163 317-1-sm Relation Sandro Suzart SUZART GOOGLE INC United States on Demons...Sandro Suzart
relationship between Sandro Suzart SUZART GOOGLE INC and United States on Demonstrations 2013 and Impeachments of 22 governments Relation Sandro Suzart SUZART GOOGLE INC United States on Demonstrations countries IMPEACHMENT GOOGLE INC
The Pessimistic Investor Sentiments Indicator in Social NetworksTELKOMNIKA JOURNAL
This document proposes a method to calculate a pessimistic investor sentiments indicator using social network data. It defines pessimistic investor sentiment as consisting of depression, disappointment, fear, anxiety, panic, dread and despair. The frequency of these sentiments is counted from social media posts. An entropy-based formula is used to calculate the indicator, taking into account expert-assigned weights. Applying this method to Chinese stock market data from March 2016 generated time-series values of the indicator that discriminated sentiment changes more clearly when incorporating the weights. The proposed indicator provides a quantitative measure of pessimistic investor sentiment from social networks.
Surveillance and Monitoring in the Social Media Era: Threats and Opportunitie...ijtsrd
Social media platforms are viewed as all progressive in opening up democratic spaces the world over. In the Middle East and North Africa region, social media platforms are regarded as key to the Jasmine Revolution that resulted in the fall of some regimes widely regarded as repressive by the international community. In Southern Africa, the hashtag movements saw youth shrugging off political apathy to challenge the establishment. Information Communication Technologies are refreshingly enticing the youth to participate and revitalize politics in the sub region. However, regimes in the sub region, traditionally comfortable with the hegemonic stringent hold on mainstream media, are becoming uncomfortable with these new developments and have resorted to legislation that threaten freedom of expression by citizens on social media as well as surveillance of citizens. This study is therefore going to establish societal views on state surveillance and monitoring of citizens' activities on social media. This is going to be executed through in depth interviews with media practitioners, scholars, political analysts, policy makers and ordinary users of social media platforms. Findings will be presented and analysed qualitatively and thematically. Tawanda Mukurunge | Neo Tlali | Takura Bhila "Surveillance and Monitoring in the Social Media Era: Threats and Opportunities to Democratic Processes in Southern Africa" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-1 , December 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd29546.pdfPaper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/other-scientific-research-area/other/29546/surveillance-and-monitoring-in-the-social-media-era-threats-and-opportunities-to-democratic-processes-in-southern-africa/tawanda-mukurunge
Presentation at COMPACT Project event in Riga - Disinformation, Media literac...Oles Kulchytskyy
The symposium was organized by the University of Latvia Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) on the 10th of December. Latvian researchers and opinion leaders, together with European partners,
presented the latest findings in the disinformation and media literacy field as well as discussed the futur challenges that the digital media landscape presents for scientists, decision-makers as well as every media user.
Digital exclusion as a hindrance to the emergence of the information society:...Przegląd Politologiczny
There is no doubt, that digital transformation (knowledge-based transformation) has
emerged as the crucial megatrend in modern civilization. Artificial intelligence (AI), machines and
autonomous vehicles, the Internet of Things (IoT), financial technology (Fin/Tech), smart investing
and the analysis and processing of big data are the most recent manifestations of this trend, but not
the only ones. All of these phenomena have led to the emergence and continuing development of the
so-called ‘Information Society’ (IS), which refers to a new type of social organization that is clearly
distinct from the earlier forms of society. In this new society, information and knowledge play an
essential role in facilitating the Knowledge-Based Economy (KBE), where information is collected,
transmitted and processed in a faster and more effective manner, and can subsequently be used to
foster accelerated economic growth. Unfortunately, the problem of digital exclusion still occurs, also
in Poland. The author in the conclusion comes to opinion that people who are digitally excluded find
it much more difficult to overcome psychological rather than technical barriers to having access to
the Internet and learning basic computer skills. This situation calls for urgent improvement. In the
modern information society, a lack of basic knowledge about computers translates into partial or total
digital illiteracy and makes it difficult to perform a range of everyday tasks. It is therefore essential
in Poland to prevent digital exclusion. People who do not use the Internet are socially and professionally limited, or virtually handicapped, which results in quantifiable economic losses. This translates to lower creativity and innovativeness and reduced revenue of state budget, and impedes the
competitiveness of the economy and the development of a post-modern, post-industrial social model.
The main research goal is to show the causes of the phenomenon of digital exclusion in Poland and
ways to counteract it. In the course of the research, the most frequently used method was causal and
effect analysis as well as institutional and legal analysis. Elements of the decision-making, historical,
comparative and statistical methods were also used.
Mobile phones and social media played an important role in enabling revolutions during the Arab Spring uprisings. In countries like Egypt and Tunisia where the revolutions succeeded, social media and mobile phones allowed protesters to organize, coordinate actions, and share information in order to overcome government restrictions. Mobile phones in particular allowed citizens to broadcast events directly and share their perspectives with the wider world. However, while new technologies spread the revolutions, they were not solely responsible for the outcomes, as countries like Libya and Syria saw similar technology use but unsuccessful revolutions due to other factors like government repression. Overall, mobile phones and social networking gave people new ways to engage civically and have their voices heard on a large scale.
Research Inventy : International Journal of Engineering and Scienceresearchinventy
Research Inventy : International Journal of Engineering and Science is published by the group of young academic and industrial researchers with 12 Issues per year. It is an online as well as print version open access journal that provides rapid publication (monthly) of articles in all areas of the subject such as: civil, mechanical, chemical, electronic and computer engineering as well as production and information technology. The Journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the general criteria of significance and scientific excellence. Papers will be published by rapid process within 20 days after acceptance and peer review process takes only 7 days. All articles published in Research Inventy will be peer-reviewed.
This document discusses the effects of new media technologies on political communication. It begins by noting how new media has changed political communication patterns around the world. It then discusses key differences in political communication between developed and developing nations, noting issues like election violence are more common in developing states. A major section analyzes former US President Barack Obama's highly successful use of new media like websites and social media in his 2008 election campaign. The document concludes by examining two African elections in Ghana and Zimbabwe and how new media was used, with more success in Ghana's election.
163 317-1-sm Relation Sandro Suzart SUZART GOOGLE INC United States on Demons...Sandro Suzart
relationship between Sandro Suzart SUZART GOOGLE INC and United States on Demonstrations 2013 and Impeachments of 22 governments Relation Sandro Suzart SUZART GOOGLE INC United States on Demonstrations countries IMPEACHMENT GOOGLE INC
The Pessimistic Investor Sentiments Indicator in Social NetworksTELKOMNIKA JOURNAL
This document proposes a method to calculate a pessimistic investor sentiments indicator using social network data. It defines pessimistic investor sentiment as consisting of depression, disappointment, fear, anxiety, panic, dread and despair. The frequency of these sentiments is counted from social media posts. An entropy-based formula is used to calculate the indicator, taking into account expert-assigned weights. Applying this method to Chinese stock market data from March 2016 generated time-series values of the indicator that discriminated sentiment changes more clearly when incorporating the weights. The proposed indicator provides a quantitative measure of pessimistic investor sentiment from social networks.
Surveillance and Monitoring in the Social Media Era: Threats and Opportunitie...ijtsrd
Social media platforms are viewed as all progressive in opening up democratic spaces the world over. In the Middle East and North Africa region, social media platforms are regarded as key to the Jasmine Revolution that resulted in the fall of some regimes widely regarded as repressive by the international community. In Southern Africa, the hashtag movements saw youth shrugging off political apathy to challenge the establishment. Information Communication Technologies are refreshingly enticing the youth to participate and revitalize politics in the sub region. However, regimes in the sub region, traditionally comfortable with the hegemonic stringent hold on mainstream media, are becoming uncomfortable with these new developments and have resorted to legislation that threaten freedom of expression by citizens on social media as well as surveillance of citizens. This study is therefore going to establish societal views on state surveillance and monitoring of citizens' activities on social media. This is going to be executed through in depth interviews with media practitioners, scholars, political analysts, policy makers and ordinary users of social media platforms. Findings will be presented and analysed qualitatively and thematically. Tawanda Mukurunge | Neo Tlali | Takura Bhila "Surveillance and Monitoring in the Social Media Era: Threats and Opportunities to Democratic Processes in Southern Africa" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-1 , December 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd29546.pdfPaper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/other-scientific-research-area/other/29546/surveillance-and-monitoring-in-the-social-media-era-threats-and-opportunities-to-democratic-processes-in-southern-africa/tawanda-mukurunge
Presentation at COMPACT Project event in Riga - Disinformation, Media literac...Oles Kulchytskyy
The symposium was organized by the University of Latvia Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) on the 10th of December. Latvian researchers and opinion leaders, together with European partners,
presented the latest findings in the disinformation and media literacy field as well as discussed the futur challenges that the digital media landscape presents for scientists, decision-makers as well as every media user.
R@D 3 - Mobile Phones as a Tool for Civil Resistance - Case Studies from Serb...DigiActive
This document summarizes interviews with civil activists in Serbia and Belarus about their use of mobile phones for resistance activities. In Serbia in 2000, mobile phones were a critical tactical tool for coordinating large protests against Milosevic. However, in Belarus in 2008, activists were more limited in mobile phone use due to increased government surveillance of communications. While mobile phones remain important, activists must take precautions like using coded language to avoid arrest. New technologies like Twitter and social media now provide alternatives to mobile communication that are harder for authoritarian governments to censor and control.
The document summarizes a study on the impact of social media platforms Twitter and Facebook on the 2015 UK General Election. It utilized a mixed-methods approach including an online survey of 52 participants and interviews. The survey found that most respondents were female, between 16-18 years old, and lived in urban areas of England. Qualitative interviews explored how and why social media may have influenced peoples' votes. The study aimed to understand if social media was a major factor in political campaigns and if any voting patterns emerged in relation to these platforms.
Technology plays an important role in modern politics in several ways:
1) More information is readily available to voters through political party websites and social media, allowing parties to disseminate information and keep voters updated.
2) Targeted digital campaigns allow parties to target specific audiences through personalized emails, ads, and content to attract supporters and convince undecided voters.
3) New technology issues arise constantly that politicians must address to maintain security and public trust.
4) Social media and direct online engagement allows politicians to directly communicate with and influence voters.
The Spread of Information and its Influence On State Security And DevelopmentDigital Society
The document discusses the spread of information and its influence on state security. It notes that information has become an important source of power as states can now influence each other through information rather than just military capabilities. It examines theories on how information impacts international relations and creates a more complex interdependent world. The document then analyzes Uzbekistan's information space, internet development, and risks of negative information influence from other actors manipulating information to damage Uzbekistan's interests. It evaluates measures Uzbekistan has taken to develop its information sphere and deal with such threats.
From Revolution to Reform: Recommendations for Spectrum Policy in Transitiona...Moez Chakchouk
The papers were the product of a conference hosted by the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) in 2012. The day-long event, “Spectrum for Democracy: Securing the Gains from the Arab Spring,” was co-sponsored by OTI, Free Press, and Access, with two main goals: to explain how spectrum can be used to better support democracy, and to bring together policymakers and thinkers from transitional MENA states with U.S. experts to discuss specific strategies for reforming spectrum policy in the region as part of the overall transition. All three papers are available as part of a special issue of the JIP, which is a peer-reviewed, open access journal.
Monitoring of electoral campaigning on social media - TunisiaJamaity
With 7.4 million users, Facebook is by far the social network most used by Tunisians.
It is also their main source of information on electoral matters. Because of the platforms it offers to political actors, DRI and ATIDE decided to monitor how electoral campaigning took place on Facebook for the presidential and legislative elections of 2019.
This document discusses the advantages and history of using computer-mediated communication (CMC) for political purposes. It outlines how CMC allows for easy and wide-ranging political communication, as well as new forms of civic engagement like online petitions and activism. However, it also notes challenges like the digital divide and risks of hacktivism and how terrorists use the Internet to spread propaganda.
iSentia_Whitepaper_which media sets the news agendajohnnychalmers
1. The document discusses whether mass media or social media primarily sets the news agenda today. It notes that while mass media was dominant for the past century, the rise of social media is changing how news and information spreads.
2. Key findings from research included that the line between mass and social media is blurred, with many obtaining news from both sources, and that while most news still comes from mass media, social media is becoming increasingly important, especially for younger demographics.
3. Examples are given showing how social media has broken major news stories and had significant impact on public communication and events. However, mass media remains the primary source for most, though reliance on it is declining as people increasingly use online and mobile sources
The document discusses internet freedom in Ukraine from 2013 to 2014. It notes that while internet access increased during this period, online freedoms faced growing pressures during the Euromaidan protests against the Yanukovych government. Journalists and activists experienced physical attacks and censorship attempts. After Yanukovych's ouster, tensions continued in Crimea and from Russian propaganda, while social media still played an important role for civic activism.
This document summarizes a study on the use of websites by candidates in municipal elections in Israel between 2007-2009. The study explored how over 500 candidates across 143 municipalities used websites during their campaigns. While websites were used by about half of candidates, they tended to be static and include few interactive features. The characteristics of the constituencies and competitiveness of the races predicted levels of website usage, with candidates in larger, more educated and affluent districts and competitive races more likely to have websites. However, most sites focused on one-way information sharing rather than interactivity. This was the first nationwide study of how candidates in low-visibility local races used the internet.
This document is a research paper examining the role of social media in democracy and governance in Nigeria. It contains an abstract, keywords, research question, and 5 chapters that discuss the introduction/literature review on the topic, methodology, findings and observations from interviews and a questionnaire, and a conclusion. The paper finds that social media has increased political awareness and participation among Nigerians, particularly youth. Interviews found that people feel more informed in real-time and can gain followers expressing political views online. However, some manipulation of social media for political purposes was also observed.
Analysing Large-Scale News Media Content for Early Warning of Conflict - Proj...UN Global Pulse
A feasibility study conducted by Global Pulse with UNDP explored how data mining of large-scale online news data could complement existing tools for conflict analysis and early warning. Analyzing news media archives from before and after Tunisia's 2011 revolution showed that tracking changes in tone and sentiment over time offered insights into emerging conflicts. Mining digital content was found to have considerable potential for conflict prevention if further explored.
This document summarizes an article from the journal Globalizations that examines the role of new media in the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa region. It argues that while new media was one factor among others, it played a critical role given the lack of open media and civil society in the region. The global spread of new media through technologies like the internet and mobile phones presented an opportunity for horizontal social mobilization and intersection between new media and traditional media. However, governments often facilitated new media for economic reasons, unintentionally facing social and political consequences from its use in civic activism.
Internet usage in Turkey rose from 2009 to 2010, with the proportion of households with internet access increasing from 30% to 41.6%. The most common internet connection type was ADSL at 73.3%. Computer and internet use grew among both males and females from 2009 to 2010. Three out of five internet users accessed the internet every day or almost every day. The most frequent activities on the internet were sending/receiving email and using social media, while the most popular purchases online were clothes and sports goods.
Politics, Social Media and E campaigning in Africa South Africa Nigeria Famil...ijtsrd
Social media in today’s world of electioneering in Africa has gained popularity not mainly as an efficient medium of articulating and propagating manifestos but more for political grandstanding. This study sought to theorize about the utilitarian value of social media use in Africa’s e campaigning by examining its application in the 2019 Presidential Elections in South Africa and Nigeria. The study’s theoretical framework is based on key research works on e electioneering and perception of social media e campaign messaging. It employed the narrative technique to describe interview data and also presenting the same in quantitative content analysis format. Data were gathered from interviews with post graduate candidates in politics departments in the understudied countries to gauge the perception of the functional value of social media campaign sloganeering. The study finds that social media served a more optimal value from a moralistic perspective in the 2019 electioneering in South Africa than Nigeria. It notes that this finding derives from a more prevalent political culture of civility and a better functional public order to punish misuse of social media which prevailed in South Africa than Nigeria. Ikemefuna Taire Paul Okudolo "Politics, Social Media and E-campaigning in Africa: South Africa-Nigeria Familiarities during Their 2019 Presidential Elections" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-6 , October 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd33695.pdf Paper Url: https://www.ijtsrd.com/management/marketing/33695/politics-social-media-and-ecampaigning-in-africa-south-africanigeria-familiarities-during-their-2019-presidential-elections/ikemefuna-taire-paul-okudolo
US Army: The Revolution Will Be TweetedOpenMatters
This is a presentation of the ebook - The Revolution will Be Tweeted - and was given to the Lichtenstein Royal Family, HBS, Suffolk University, Princeton University, US Army and at a number of public events.
1. The document discusses four "information revolutions" in American history and their impact on political engagement and organizations.
2. The first revolution in the 1820s-1830s enabled mass political information flows and centralized party organizations. The second in the 1880s-1910s made information more specialized and decentralized, empowering interest groups.
3. The third revolution in the 1950s-1970s allowed mass audiences and market-driven organizations influenced policymaking. The fourth from the 1990s enabled information abundance and possibilities for post-bureaucratic engagement.
This presentation was presented during international seminar "Youth for Arab Baltic Cooperation" that was held in Vilnius, Lithuania on 19th-25th of November.
The document discusses how the proliferation of digital technologies and the internet has contributed to the emergence of a nonpolar international system characterized by numerous centers of power beyond just states. It notes how globalization and new communication forms have empowered non-state actors and weakened states. The US still maintains military dominance but has lost economic dominance. The document also provides examples of how social movements and political campaigns have leveraged digital tools and social media to organize and spread information.
Manipulating Social Media to Undermine Democracy 2017 Final Alireza Ghahrood
his report was made possible by the generous support of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), Google, the German Federal Foreign Office, the Internet Society, Yahoo, and Golden Frog. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of Freedom House and does not necessarily represent the views of its donors.This booklet is a summary of findings for the 2017 edition of Freedom on the Net. A full volume with 65 country reports assessed in this year’s study can be found on our website at www.freedomonthenet.org.
Manipulating Social Media to Undermine Democracy Online content manipulation contributed to a seventh consecutive year of overall decline in internet freedom, along with a rise in disruptions to mobile internet ser-vice and increases in physical and technical attacks on human rights defenders and independent media.Nearly half of the 65 countries assessed in Freedom on the Net 2017 experienced declines during the coverage period, while just 13 made gains, most of them minor. Less than one-quarter of users reside in countries where the internet is designated Free, meaning there are no major obstacles to access, onerous restrictions on content, or serious violations of user rights in the form of unchecked surveillance or unjust repercussions for legitimate speech.The use of “fake news,” automated “bot” accounts, and other manipulation methods gained particular atten-tion in the United States. While the country’s online environment remained generally free, it was troubled by a proliferation of fabricated news articles, divisive partisan vitriol, and aggressive harassment of many journalists, both during and after the presidential election campaign. Russia’s online efforts to influence the American election have been well documented, but the United States was hardly alone in this respect. Manipulation and disinformation tactics played an important role in elections in at least 17 other countries over the past year, damaging citizens’ ability to choose their leaders based on factual news and authentic debate. Although some governments sought to support their interests and expand their influence abroad—as with Russia’s disinformation campaigns in the United States and Europe—in most cases they used these methods inside their own borders to maintain their hold on power
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Kavanaugh et al. Between a Rock and a Cell Phone
Proceedings of the 9th International ISCRAM Conference – Vancouver, Canada, April 2012
L. Rothkrantz, J. Ristvej and Z. Franco, eds.
1
Between a Rock and a Cell Phone:
Communication and Information Technology Use
during the 2011 Egyptian Uprising
Andrea Kavanaugh1 Steven D. Sheetz1
Riham Hassan2 Seungwon Yang1
Hicham G. Elmongui3 Edward A. Fox1
Mohamed Magdy1 Donald J. Shoemaker1
1 Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, +1 (540) 231-1806
2 Arab Academy for Science and Technology, Cairo, Egypt
3 Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
kavan, sheetz, seungwon, fox, mmagdy, [email protected][email protected][email protected]
ABSTRACT
Many observers heralded the use of social media during recent political uprisings in the Middle East even
dubbing Iran’s post election protests a “Twitter Revolution”. We seek to put into perspective the use of social
media in Egypt during the mass political demonstrations in 2011. We draw on innovation diffusion theory to
argue that these media could have had an impact beyond their low adoption rates due to other factors related to
demographics and social networks. We supplement our social media data analysis with survey data we collected
in June 2011 from an opportunity sample of Egyptian youth. We conclude that in addition to the contextual
factors noted above, the individuals within Egypt who used Twitter during the uprising have the characteristics
of opinion leaders. These findings contribute to knowledge regarding the role of opinion leaders and social
media, especially Twitter, during violent political demonstrations.
Keywords
social media, mobile phones, Middle East, social networks, innovation diffusion.
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN POLITICAL CRISES
Protesters took to the streets with "a rock in one hand, a cell phone in the other," according to Rochdi Horchani
– a relative of Mohamed Bouazizi, the 26-year-old Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire in December
2010 to protest police harassment and corruption (Ryan, 2011). Bouazizi’s death in early January 2011 as a
result of his burns triggered riots leading to the downfall in mid-January of the 23-year reign of Tunisia’s
President Ben Ali. A wave of protests against Middle East authoritarian governments followed in Egypt, Libya,
Bahrain, Algeria, and Syria, and came to be dubbed the ‘Arab Spring’. Starting in July 2010, prior to the
uprising, WikiLeaks began to release confidential State Department cables indicating that the US did not much
admire the authoritarian leaders in many of these countries – a development played out via a set of online
documents that certainly may have contributed to Arabs’ confidence in protesting. In addition, much credit has
been given to the role played by social media used by citizens to share with each other and with intern ...
R@D 3 - Mobile Phones as a Tool for Civil Resistance - Case Studies from Serb...DigiActive
This document summarizes interviews with civil activists in Serbia and Belarus about their use of mobile phones for resistance activities. In Serbia in 2000, mobile phones were a critical tactical tool for coordinating large protests against Milosevic. However, in Belarus in 2008, activists were more limited in mobile phone use due to increased government surveillance of communications. While mobile phones remain important, activists must take precautions like using coded language to avoid arrest. New technologies like Twitter and social media now provide alternatives to mobile communication that are harder for authoritarian governments to censor and control.
The document summarizes a study on the impact of social media platforms Twitter and Facebook on the 2015 UK General Election. It utilized a mixed-methods approach including an online survey of 52 participants and interviews. The survey found that most respondents were female, between 16-18 years old, and lived in urban areas of England. Qualitative interviews explored how and why social media may have influenced peoples' votes. The study aimed to understand if social media was a major factor in political campaigns and if any voting patterns emerged in relation to these platforms.
Technology plays an important role in modern politics in several ways:
1) More information is readily available to voters through political party websites and social media, allowing parties to disseminate information and keep voters updated.
2) Targeted digital campaigns allow parties to target specific audiences through personalized emails, ads, and content to attract supporters and convince undecided voters.
3) New technology issues arise constantly that politicians must address to maintain security and public trust.
4) Social media and direct online engagement allows politicians to directly communicate with and influence voters.
The Spread of Information and its Influence On State Security And DevelopmentDigital Society
The document discusses the spread of information and its influence on state security. It notes that information has become an important source of power as states can now influence each other through information rather than just military capabilities. It examines theories on how information impacts international relations and creates a more complex interdependent world. The document then analyzes Uzbekistan's information space, internet development, and risks of negative information influence from other actors manipulating information to damage Uzbekistan's interests. It evaluates measures Uzbekistan has taken to develop its information sphere and deal with such threats.
From Revolution to Reform: Recommendations for Spectrum Policy in Transitiona...Moez Chakchouk
The papers were the product of a conference hosted by the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) in 2012. The day-long event, “Spectrum for Democracy: Securing the Gains from the Arab Spring,” was co-sponsored by OTI, Free Press, and Access, with two main goals: to explain how spectrum can be used to better support democracy, and to bring together policymakers and thinkers from transitional MENA states with U.S. experts to discuss specific strategies for reforming spectrum policy in the region as part of the overall transition. All three papers are available as part of a special issue of the JIP, which is a peer-reviewed, open access journal.
Monitoring of electoral campaigning on social media - TunisiaJamaity
With 7.4 million users, Facebook is by far the social network most used by Tunisians.
It is also their main source of information on electoral matters. Because of the platforms it offers to political actors, DRI and ATIDE decided to monitor how electoral campaigning took place on Facebook for the presidential and legislative elections of 2019.
This document discusses the advantages and history of using computer-mediated communication (CMC) for political purposes. It outlines how CMC allows for easy and wide-ranging political communication, as well as new forms of civic engagement like online petitions and activism. However, it also notes challenges like the digital divide and risks of hacktivism and how terrorists use the Internet to spread propaganda.
iSentia_Whitepaper_which media sets the news agendajohnnychalmers
1. The document discusses whether mass media or social media primarily sets the news agenda today. It notes that while mass media was dominant for the past century, the rise of social media is changing how news and information spreads.
2. Key findings from research included that the line between mass and social media is blurred, with many obtaining news from both sources, and that while most news still comes from mass media, social media is becoming increasingly important, especially for younger demographics.
3. Examples are given showing how social media has broken major news stories and had significant impact on public communication and events. However, mass media remains the primary source for most, though reliance on it is declining as people increasingly use online and mobile sources
The document discusses internet freedom in Ukraine from 2013 to 2014. It notes that while internet access increased during this period, online freedoms faced growing pressures during the Euromaidan protests against the Yanukovych government. Journalists and activists experienced physical attacks and censorship attempts. After Yanukovych's ouster, tensions continued in Crimea and from Russian propaganda, while social media still played an important role for civic activism.
This document summarizes a study on the use of websites by candidates in municipal elections in Israel between 2007-2009. The study explored how over 500 candidates across 143 municipalities used websites during their campaigns. While websites were used by about half of candidates, they tended to be static and include few interactive features. The characteristics of the constituencies and competitiveness of the races predicted levels of website usage, with candidates in larger, more educated and affluent districts and competitive races more likely to have websites. However, most sites focused on one-way information sharing rather than interactivity. This was the first nationwide study of how candidates in low-visibility local races used the internet.
This document is a research paper examining the role of social media in democracy and governance in Nigeria. It contains an abstract, keywords, research question, and 5 chapters that discuss the introduction/literature review on the topic, methodology, findings and observations from interviews and a questionnaire, and a conclusion. The paper finds that social media has increased political awareness and participation among Nigerians, particularly youth. Interviews found that people feel more informed in real-time and can gain followers expressing political views online. However, some manipulation of social media for political purposes was also observed.
Analysing Large-Scale News Media Content for Early Warning of Conflict - Proj...UN Global Pulse
A feasibility study conducted by Global Pulse with UNDP explored how data mining of large-scale online news data could complement existing tools for conflict analysis and early warning. Analyzing news media archives from before and after Tunisia's 2011 revolution showed that tracking changes in tone and sentiment over time offered insights into emerging conflicts. Mining digital content was found to have considerable potential for conflict prevention if further explored.
This document summarizes an article from the journal Globalizations that examines the role of new media in the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa region. It argues that while new media was one factor among others, it played a critical role given the lack of open media and civil society in the region. The global spread of new media through technologies like the internet and mobile phones presented an opportunity for horizontal social mobilization and intersection between new media and traditional media. However, governments often facilitated new media for economic reasons, unintentionally facing social and political consequences from its use in civic activism.
Internet usage in Turkey rose from 2009 to 2010, with the proportion of households with internet access increasing from 30% to 41.6%. The most common internet connection type was ADSL at 73.3%. Computer and internet use grew among both males and females from 2009 to 2010. Three out of five internet users accessed the internet every day or almost every day. The most frequent activities on the internet were sending/receiving email and using social media, while the most popular purchases online were clothes and sports goods.
Politics, Social Media and E campaigning in Africa South Africa Nigeria Famil...ijtsrd
Social media in today’s world of electioneering in Africa has gained popularity not mainly as an efficient medium of articulating and propagating manifestos but more for political grandstanding. This study sought to theorize about the utilitarian value of social media use in Africa’s e campaigning by examining its application in the 2019 Presidential Elections in South Africa and Nigeria. The study’s theoretical framework is based on key research works on e electioneering and perception of social media e campaign messaging. It employed the narrative technique to describe interview data and also presenting the same in quantitative content analysis format. Data were gathered from interviews with post graduate candidates in politics departments in the understudied countries to gauge the perception of the functional value of social media campaign sloganeering. The study finds that social media served a more optimal value from a moralistic perspective in the 2019 electioneering in South Africa than Nigeria. It notes that this finding derives from a more prevalent political culture of civility and a better functional public order to punish misuse of social media which prevailed in South Africa than Nigeria. Ikemefuna Taire Paul Okudolo "Politics, Social Media and E-campaigning in Africa: South Africa-Nigeria Familiarities during Their 2019 Presidential Elections" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-6 , October 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd33695.pdf Paper Url: https://www.ijtsrd.com/management/marketing/33695/politics-social-media-and-ecampaigning-in-africa-south-africanigeria-familiarities-during-their-2019-presidential-elections/ikemefuna-taire-paul-okudolo
US Army: The Revolution Will Be TweetedOpenMatters
This is a presentation of the ebook - The Revolution will Be Tweeted - and was given to the Lichtenstein Royal Family, HBS, Suffolk University, Princeton University, US Army and at a number of public events.
1. The document discusses four "information revolutions" in American history and their impact on political engagement and organizations.
2. The first revolution in the 1820s-1830s enabled mass political information flows and centralized party organizations. The second in the 1880s-1910s made information more specialized and decentralized, empowering interest groups.
3. The third revolution in the 1950s-1970s allowed mass audiences and market-driven organizations influenced policymaking. The fourth from the 1990s enabled information abundance and possibilities for post-bureaucratic engagement.
This presentation was presented during international seminar "Youth for Arab Baltic Cooperation" that was held in Vilnius, Lithuania on 19th-25th of November.
The document discusses how the proliferation of digital technologies and the internet has contributed to the emergence of a nonpolar international system characterized by numerous centers of power beyond just states. It notes how globalization and new communication forms have empowered non-state actors and weakened states. The US still maintains military dominance but has lost economic dominance. The document also provides examples of how social movements and political campaigns have leveraged digital tools and social media to organize and spread information.
Manipulating Social Media to Undermine Democracy 2017 Final Alireza Ghahrood
his report was made possible by the generous support of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), Google, the German Federal Foreign Office, the Internet Society, Yahoo, and Golden Frog. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of Freedom House and does not necessarily represent the views of its donors.This booklet is a summary of findings for the 2017 edition of Freedom on the Net. A full volume with 65 country reports assessed in this year’s study can be found on our website at www.freedomonthenet.org.
Manipulating Social Media to Undermine Democracy Online content manipulation contributed to a seventh consecutive year of overall decline in internet freedom, along with a rise in disruptions to mobile internet ser-vice and increases in physical and technical attacks on human rights defenders and independent media.Nearly half of the 65 countries assessed in Freedom on the Net 2017 experienced declines during the coverage period, while just 13 made gains, most of them minor. Less than one-quarter of users reside in countries where the internet is designated Free, meaning there are no major obstacles to access, onerous restrictions on content, or serious violations of user rights in the form of unchecked surveillance or unjust repercussions for legitimate speech.The use of “fake news,” automated “bot” accounts, and other manipulation methods gained particular atten-tion in the United States. While the country’s online environment remained generally free, it was troubled by a proliferation of fabricated news articles, divisive partisan vitriol, and aggressive harassment of many journalists, both during and after the presidential election campaign. Russia’s online efforts to influence the American election have been well documented, but the United States was hardly alone in this respect. Manipulation and disinformation tactics played an important role in elections in at least 17 other countries over the past year, damaging citizens’ ability to choose their leaders based on factual news and authentic debate. Although some governments sought to support their interests and expand their influence abroad—as with Russia’s disinformation campaigns in the United States and Europe—in most cases they used these methods inside their own borders to maintain their hold on power
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Kavanaugh et al. Between a Rock and a Cell Phone
Proceedings of the 9th International ISCRAM Conference – Vancouver, Canada, April 2012
L. Rothkrantz, J. Ristvej and Z. Franco, eds.
1
Between a Rock and a Cell Phone:
Communication and Information Technology Use
during the 2011 Egyptian Uprising
Andrea Kavanaugh1 Steven D. Sheetz1
Riham Hassan2 Seungwon Yang1
Hicham G. Elmongui3 Edward A. Fox1
Mohamed Magdy1 Donald J. Shoemaker1
1 Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, +1 (540) 231-1806
2 Arab Academy for Science and Technology, Cairo, Egypt
3 Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
kavan, sheetz, seungwon, fox, mmagdy, [email protected][email protected][email protected]
ABSTRACT
Many observers heralded the use of social media during recent political uprisings in the Middle East even
dubbing Iran’s post election protests a “Twitter Revolution”. We seek to put into perspective the use of social
media in Egypt during the mass political demonstrations in 2011. We draw on innovation diffusion theory to
argue that these media could have had an impact beyond their low adoption rates due to other factors related to
demographics and social networks. We supplement our social media data analysis with survey data we collected
in June 2011 from an opportunity sample of Egyptian youth. We conclude that in addition to the contextual
factors noted above, the individuals within Egypt who used Twitter during the uprising have the characteristics
of opinion leaders. These findings contribute to knowledge regarding the role of opinion leaders and social
media, especially Twitter, during violent political demonstrations.
Keywords
social media, mobile phones, Middle East, social networks, innovation diffusion.
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN POLITICAL CRISES
Protesters took to the streets with "a rock in one hand, a cell phone in the other," according to Rochdi Horchani
– a relative of Mohamed Bouazizi, the 26-year-old Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire in December
2010 to protest police harassment and corruption (Ryan, 2011). Bouazizi’s death in early January 2011 as a
result of his burns triggered riots leading to the downfall in mid-January of the 23-year reign of Tunisia’s
President Ben Ali. A wave of protests against Middle East authoritarian governments followed in Egypt, Libya,
Bahrain, Algeria, and Syria, and came to be dubbed the ‘Arab Spring’. Starting in July 2010, prior to the
uprising, WikiLeaks began to release confidential State Department cables indicating that the US did not much
admire the authoritarian leaders in many of these countries – a development played out via a set of online
documents that certainly may have contributed to Arabs’ confidence in protesting. In addition, much credit has
been given to the role played by social media used by citizens to share with each other and with intern ...
163 317-1-sm Relation between Sandro Suzart, SUZART, GOOGLE INC, United...Sandro Santana
Sandro Suzart, SUZART, GOOGLE INC and United States on relationship among Demonstrations, 2013. IMPEACHMENTS of 22 governments, Relation, Sandro Suzart, SUZART, GOOGLE INC, United States, Demonstrations countries IMPEACHMENT, GOOGLE INC, the torture suffered by Sandro Suzart, Genocide in Egypt and Lybia.
37 role of social media in political and regime change the college studyMary Smith
It is an educational blog and intended to serve as complete and self-contained work on essays, paragraph, speeches, articles, letters, stories, quotes.
https://www.thecollegestudy.net/
The document discusses the global digital divide and factors that influence countries' access to and use of the internet. It presents four hypotheses: 1) Nations with larger urban populations will see faster internet growth. 2) Higher fertility rates will slow internet development while more young adults will promote it. 3) Economic development reduces the positive impact of democratization on internet access. 4) Political conflict undermines internet growth. The conclusion finds that reducing fertility, preventing violence, and embracing the internet even in authoritarian states can help countries increase participation in the global digital network. However, the study has limitations like not examining usage demographics or intensity within countries.
The Political Power of Social Media Technology, the Publ.docxAASTHA76
This document summarizes Clay Shirky's article "The Political Power of Social Media" which examines how social media has enabled political change by facilitating coordination and collective action. The article discusses examples where social media helped topple governments, such as in the Philippines in 2001, but also cases where it failed to spark change, such as in Belarus in 2006. Overall, the article argues that social media strengthens civil society and public spheres over the long run, rather than immediately enabling political change. It cautions against US policy that aims to directly influence other countries' politics through social media.
Can Social Media, As A Communication Tool, Bring The End Of The Spiral Of Sil...inventionjournals
In the 20th century with the invention of computer technology and the internet, communication revolution gained momentum and it is continuing to accelerate further in the 21st century. These rapid technological developments are forcing a change in society at the same rate. Especially in recent years, as one of the important changes of the communication field, social media has become one of the most effective tools of the internet. Without taking into consideration whether their ideas are the prevailing ones or the minority ones, people have begun to share every idea, so they can create their own public in a very short time and as a result they have the opportunity to announce their ideas to whole world. Social media is an important place in the lives of many people, for some it may even be at the addiction levels. With steadily growth of this created communication area of social networks, it has been questioned whether the spiral of silence as introduced by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann is still there today. In this study, the facilities offered to individuals by social media as a communication tool, social media as a communication strategy, the spiral of silence in terms of social communication and the impact of social media on spiral of silence will be discussed.
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Impact Of Journalism On Society
Journalism has evolved over time. During the eighteenth century, newspapers and magazines were the primary medium of delivering information. The late twentieth and early twenty first centuries have seen the rise of new digital and and networking communication technologies that have propelled journalism to another level. The invention of the radio, television, cameras, and the internet has resulted in the rapid sharing of information with the public. Nevertheless, there is a significant number of people who still rely on newspapers and magazines today. That said, could journalism have a significant political impact in our societies? To a great extent, the media serves as a witness of the events happening within our societies and then...show more content...Without the media, how would the citizens be able to hold the government to account of their actions? A fair and just society is built by transparency and accountability of the leaders. The media serves to promote this, by acting as a witness of government actions. Politicians make decisions and take action on behalf of the public. Journalists analyse those decisions and give reports of the consequences to the public.
In this generation, the public s time and attention has been channeled towards social media. Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are being used to evaluate the relationship between the use of social media and public engagement. The 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns and the 2011 Arab Spring sparked interest in the relation between social media and politics. The best known inquiry into this issue was the 61 million person experiment in social influence and political mobilization (Bo
64The Empire Strikes Back Social Media Uprisings and .docxevonnehoggarth79783
64
The Empire Strikes Back:
Social Media Uprisings and
the Future of Cyber Activism
by Ramtin Amin
ramtin amin is a Master in Public Policy
student at the John f. Kennedy school of
Government at Harvard University where he
concentrates in international and global
affairs. He has conducted extensive
research at the nexus of technology and
democracy and plans to pursue doctoral
work in this field upon graduating.
Neda Agha-Soltan and a few close friends
headed toward the center of Tehran, Iran,
in June 2009 to join thousands of others
in an anti-government protest following
the disputed presidential election. After
becoming stuck in traffic, Agha-Soltan
and her friends eventually decided to exit
the car to cool off. As she stepped out and
gazed at the crowd, the sound of a
gunshot rang through the air. A single
bullet was fired, and she fell to
the ground.
Bystanders captured her last moments
on a cell phone, and within hours the
grainy, low-resolution footage was
uploaded to the Internet and soon spread
virally across the globe. With links to
the video posted on YouTube, Facebook,
and Twitter, the amateur clip eventually
harnessed the attention of the mainstream
media, grabbing headlines on CNN and
in the New York Times.
Agha-Soltan’s death became a symbol for
the Iranian anti-government movement,
and online social media amplified that
symbol for the rest of the world to see.
TRADITIONAL POWER CIRCUMVENTED
The image of Agha-Soltan’s death was not
one that Iran’s government wanted the
world to see. In a country notorious for
its media censorship, the emergence of
online social networking sites and cell
phone cameras now allows citizens to
bypass state-censored media instantly and
transmit a message or video clip to
countless others at little or no cost. Digital
media has enabled average citizens,
including the two bystanders at the scene
of Agha-Soltan’s death, to provoke
outrage and motivate millions of people
to their feet at the touch of a button. Such
a level of power was previously limited to
just a small number of people within a
governing regime or those leading an
opposition group.
But this phenomenon is not unique
to Iran. Around the world, social
networking sites like YouTube and
Facebook are becoming unlikely leaders
of political power, as citizens circumvent
single political or religious leaders to
become champions of their
own campaigns.
DIGITAL ACTIVISM IN ACTION
Digital activism, also known as cyber
activism or e-activism, describes how
citizens can use digital tools to effect
social and political change. These digital
tools range from mobile phones and
digital cameras to Web 2.0 social
networking sites like YouTube, Facebook,
and Twitter.
65harvard kennedy school review | volume 10 | 2009–2010
unlikely leaders
activism became recognized as a source of
political power.
NOT WITHOUT LIMITATIONS
The Burmese and Moldovan cases also
demonstrate tha.
Social Media and the Internet of Things (Arab Social Media Report 2017) 7th E...Ahmed Al-Shams
The power and influence of social media has continued to grow globally over the past decade. During this period, the scope and scale of usage have changed dramatically, from the early days when social media was primarily fulfilling social needs of connectivity, communication, socialization and entertainment, to the current era, where social media applications are seen as important tools of governing, development, diplomacy and business. More recently, informational flows taking place through social media have been informing—and misinforming—public opinion and influencing policy development and political communication. For example, in 2015 and 2016, social media played a critical role in shaping public opinion internationally and on national levels, during numerous major events with global implications. During the past few years, as applications of “big data” and artificial intelligence continued to mature, the level of sophistication and influence of social media expanded further. As societal penetration rates increased, these data-driven applications started to provide deep insights into public views, sentiments, needs, behaviors and activities in numerous countries at unprecedented granular levels. The newfound insights harnessed through social media created new opportunities, as well as new risks.
The Impact of Social Media (Facebook/YouTube) on the Politically Interest of ...journal ijrtem
Abstract : This work which is entitled “The Impact of Social Media (Facebook/YouTube) on the Political Opinions of Syrians” aimed to report on survey research conducted, which identify the roles that played by the social electronic communication tools as Facebook and YouTube among the Syrian students at the Girne American University (GAU) politically. Moreover, this study aims to answer the following three questions: What impact do Facebook and YouTube have on the Syrian students at the Girne American University (GAU) politically, and what shape does this impact take. Also, dependence of Syrian students on these networks in reading the news. Also, this work has interviewed most of the Syrian students through the survey. This study, demonstrates the appeal that social media can have both positive and negative points in the Syrian students at the University. Keywords: Syria, Facebook, YouTube, Politics, Electronic Communication
The slides tell how technology and politics complement and contradict each other, as well as how technology is used as a tool to serve particular political interest. The slides also show how technology can be perceived in a different context of a country's culture and priority.
This article examines the role of new media in the Arab Spring uprisings. It argues that while new media like Facebook and Twitter played a critical role in mobilizing protests by spreading information, other factors were also important. Conventional media like Al Jazeera also helped spread protest news more widely. Ultimately, revolutionary conditions within countries due to issues like poverty and repression were the most important underlying factors driving social uprisings, and new media provided an important but not sufficient tool for organization. The role of new media was contingent on real-world street movements and protests.
The document discusses issues facing youth populations globally, including that nearly half of the world's population is under 25 and 40% of those aged 12-24 live on less than $2 per day. It also notes that youth employment is in crisis, with 75 million unemployed as of 2012, accounting for 41% of global unemployment. The document advocates for greater attention on policies and strategies to address the problems faced by young people, including lack of access to information and communications technologies (ICT).
This paper investigates the relationship between social media and social conflict in Africa using statistical analysis. It analyzes how internet and mobile phone penetration rates affect the number of social conflict events in African countries from 2005-2010. The results show that higher internet and mobile phone rates are correlated with increased social conflicts. The paper provides context through a literature review on risk factors for conflict and theoretical frameworks explaining how social media could lower barriers to organizing protests.
This document examines obstacles to internet development in developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. It finds that infrastructure like telecommunications, roads, and electricity is lacking. Geographic obstacles also pose challenges. While a few emerging countries have invested heavily in ICT infrastructure and seen internet growth, most of Sub-Saharan Africa has seen internet remain undeveloped or used only for entertainment. New web services and mobile technologies have been slow to reach the region. The document aims to analyze bottlenecks and examine strategies to improve African countries' participation in the digital world.
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Presentation by Rebecca Sachs and Joshua Varcie, analysts in CBO’s Health Analysis Division, at the 13th Annual Conference of the American Society of Health Economists.
FT author
Amanda Chu
US Energy Reporter
PREMIUM
June 20 2024
Good morning and welcome back to Energy Source, coming to you from New York, where the city swelters in its first heatwave of the season.
Nearly 80 million people were under alerts in the US north-east and midwest yesterday as temperatures in some municipalities reached record highs in a test to the country’s rickety power grid.
In other news, the Financial Times has a new Big Read this morning on Russia’s grip on nuclear power. Despite sanctions on its economy, the Kremlin continues to be an unrivalled exporter of nuclear power plants, building more than half of all reactors under construction globally. Read how Moscow is using these projects to wield global influence.
Today’s Energy Source dives into the latest Statistical Review of World Energy, the industry’s annual stocktake of global energy consumption. The report was published for more than 70 years by BP before it was passed over to the Energy Institute last year. The oil major remains a contributor.
Data Drill looks at a new analysis from the World Bank showing gas flaring is at a four-year high.
Thanks for reading,
Amanda
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New report offers sobering view of the energy transition
Every year the Statistical Review of World Energy offers a behemoth of data on the state of the global energy market. This year’s findings highlight the world’s insatiable demand for energy and the need to speed up the pace of decarbonisation.
Here are our four main takeaways from this year’s report:
Fossil fuel consumption — and emissions — are at record highs
Countries burnt record amounts of oil and coal last year, sending global fossil fuel consumption and emissions to all-time highs, the Energy Institute reported. Oil demand grew 2.6 per cent, surpassing 100mn barrels per day for the first time.
Meanwhile, the share of fossil fuels in the energy mix declined slightly by half a percentage point, but still made up more than 81 per cent of consumption.
Presentation by Julie Topoleski, CBO’s Director of Labor, Income Security, and Long-Term Analysis, at the 16th Annual Meeting of the OECD Working Party of Parliamentary Budget Officials and Independent Fiscal Institutions.
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Causes Supporting Charity for Elderly PeopleSERUDS INDIA
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P2594 2 Relation between Sandro Suzart, SUZART, GOOGLE INC, United States on Demonstrations, countries IMPEACHMENT, GOOGLE INC
1. 1
The Role of Information Communication Technologies in
the “Arab Spring”
IMPLICATIONS BEYOND THE REGION
PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 159
May 2011
Ekaterina Stepanova
Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO),
Russian Academy of Sciences
The tide of mass protests that swept through the Middle East in early 2011 highlighted
the distinct role of modern information-communication technologies (ICT) and digital
social media tools and networks. The impact of these technologies was felt globally,
affecting both developed and developing nations, if not in the same way. While the
“Arab Spring” may point to a phenomenon of new mass forms of sociopolitical protest
facilitated by social media networks, particularly in regard to their organizational and
communication aspects, it should also produce some major reservations about the
applicability of any ”direct lessons” to other regional and sociopolitical contexts.
The Middle Eastern Context
In the 2011 “Arab Spring” protests, social media networks played an important role in
the rapid disintegration of at least two regimes, Tunisia and Egypt, while also
contributing to sociopolitical mobilization in Bahrain and Syria. ICT and social media
had little to do with the underlying sociopolitical and socioeconomic factors behind the
protest movement. In Egypt, the sociopolitical gap between the small ruling elite and
the bulk of the population had long reached critical levels, prompting most experts on
the region to expect a major upheaval at some point. However, the fact that the crisis
occurred sooner rather than later, in direct follow-up to protests in Tunisia, was largely
due to the initial mobilizing effects of ICT and social media networks. The protests were
kickstarted by a Facebook campaign run by the opposition “April 6 Youth Movement,”
which generated tens of thousands of positive responses to the call to rally against
government policies.Over the past decade, fast scalable real-time Internet-based
information and communication tools have become relatively accessible in Egypt (with
broadband access starting at $8/month). According to the Egyptian Ministry of
2. 2
Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), the country has over 17 million
Internet users (as of February 2010), a stark 3,691 percent increase from 450,000 users in
December 2000, and 4 million Facebook users. This total includes over 160,000 bloggers,
with 30 percent of blogs focusing on politics.
The profile of the most active users—young, urban, and relatively educated—
fully correspond to the core of the first anti-government protesters in January that later
led to a larger and more mass-based campaign. Overall, the input of the social media
networks was critical in performing two overlapping functions: (a) organizing the
protests and (b) disseminating information about them, including publicizing
protesters’ demands internationally (Facebook reportedly outmatched Al Jazeera in at
least the speed of news dissemination).
As for government reactions, the counter-use of social media for tracking ,
repressive, and propaganda purposes has been minimal throughout the ”Arab Spring,”
compared to Iran in 2009 and 2010. In contrast, however, attempts to limit or block
Internet access have far exceeded Iran’s move to slow down Internet connectivity
during its 2009 protests. While the Tunisian government blocked certain routes and
singled out specific sites that coordinated protest actions, the response from Egypt’s
government was qualitatively harsher, even unprecedented in Internet history. Having
first blocked Twitter and Facebook, the Egyptian authorities moved directly to ordering
all major telecommunications providers to block Internet access; Telecom Egypt,
Vodafone/Raya, Link Egypt, Etisalat Misr, and Internet Egypt all complied. As a result,
93 percent of Egypt’s Internet addresses and networks were shut down. However, even
this unprecedented Internet blackout was not total: both European-Asian fiber-optic
routes through Egypt and the Noor Group/Telecom Italia routes used, among others,
by the Egyptian stock exchange were left undisturbed, perhaps in the hope of re-
opening the stock exchange as the protests were quelled. Nonetheless, the Internet
shutdown and cell-phone service disruptions were major hindrances to Egypt's
economy and debt rating.
Thus, on the one hand, Internet-crackdown campaigns in the Maghreb in early
2011 proved that it is possible for a determined regime to temporarily stop Internet
access countrywide. On the other hand, they also showed that this strategy does not
ultimately work in today's world of abundant ICT networks. Moreover, the economic
and reputational costs of the crackdown far exceeded the perceived benefits of
regaining information control. The crackdowns also spurred new technology solutions,
such as utilizing router/path diversity methods, IP proxy servers, and Google’s voice-
to-Twitter applications.
Beyond the Middle East: General Implications and Reservations
The 2011 events in the Middle East defied skeptics like journalist and author Malcolm
Gladwell* and writer and blogger Evgeny Morozov† by proving that information and
communication networks can serve as powerful accelerators of social transformation.
*
Malcolm Gladwell, "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not be Tweeted,” The New Yorker, October 2010
†
Evgeny Morozov, “The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom,” Public Affairs, January 2011
3. 3
No region, state, or form of government can remain immune to the impact of new
information and communication technologies on social and political movements. While
the political contexts of mass unrest in large parts of the Middle East have important
country and macro-regional specifics, the impact of net-based technologies and social
tools goes beyond that region and will continue to affect developing and developed
countries alike.
At the same time, their impact is not universal or unconditional. As enthusiasts
seek to project the latest developments in the Middle East into the future and to other
regional contexts where ruling regimes face pressures of economic and political
modernization, forecasts and parallels are to be made with great caution. The
mobilizing effect of new information and social media networks as catalysts of broad
sociopolitical protest will vary significantly from region to region and from one political
context to another. The presence of multiple underlying causes for sociopolitical protest
will not suffice for new information and communication networks to become a major
catalyst.
For one, Internet access must be available to significant segments of the
population. In the foreseeable future, this condition will exclude a number of
underdeveloped countries with minimal Internet penetration. For instance, much of the
Near East, with the exception of Iran, cannot be exposed to social media activism by
default owing to underdevelopment and the lack of Internet access (Internet users made
up just 1.1 percent of Iraqis and 3.4 percent of Afghans in 2010, for example, as
compared to over 21 percent in Egypt, 34 percent in Tunisia, and 88 percent in
Bahrain).‡ Outside the broader Middle East, this is also true for a host of countries from
Myanmar to Somalia.
At the same time, developments in the Middle East in 2011 raise doubts about
decisively linking mass social protest with a proliferation of net-based networks and
social media, whether today or in the short- to mid-term. Across and beyond the region,
no direct regional correlation can be traced between, on the one hand, levels of Internet
penetration and other IT indicators (such as the spread of social media networks) and,
on the other, proclivity for and intensity of social protest. States with some of the
highest levels of internet usage (such as Bahrain with 88 percent of its population
online, a level higher than that of the United States) and states with some of the lowest
levels of Internet exposure (like Yemen and Libya) both experienced mass protests. For
the latter, however, the limited or absent role of major ICT and social media networks
as direct facilitators in organizing protests did not diminish the role of mainstream
electronic media devices—cell phones, tweets, emails, and video clips—capable of
quickly capturing and broadly transmitting eyewitness accounts of domestic
developments to the rest of the world. Another example is Iran, the regional leader in
terms of combined indicators of ICT development and a country that has shown one of
the highest growth rates in Internet usage over the past decade (with 43.2 percent of
Iranians using the Internet in 2010, compared to just 42.8 percent in Russia and 31.6
‡
Internet World Stats, “Internet World Stats: Usage and Population Statistics,” 2010 <http://www.internetworldstats.com>
4. 4
percent in China). If anti-government net-based social media activism does not become
a qualitative accelerator in the context of present or future protests in Iran, this will be
for reasons unrelated to the overall level of the country’s technological development.
Third, not all types of ICT and related information and social networks have had
the same impact. Nor have they outmatched other means of information and
communication, from satellite television to cell phones, in playing a mobilization or
public information role. While the media utilized the term “Twitter revolutions” for the
developments in the Middle East, identifiable Twitter users in Egypt and Tunisia
numbered just a few thousand, and the mobilization role of micro-blogging as a driver
of protests has been somewhat overemphasized, as compared to other ICTs, including
cell phones, video clip messaging (such as YouTube), and satellite television.
Fourth, a critical constraint on the catalyzing effect of net-based mobilization
tools is likely not the ability of governments to master social media or to limit or block
Internet access but rather a country’s particular system of governance, especially in
terms of its representativeness and its linkages to the mass public (which could be in a
populist, if not “democratic,” sense). The new ICT networks are likely to have a critical
effect in countries where the governing regime has little or no social base (which was
true of Tunisia and Egypt, but does not fully apply to Syria, Bahrain, or Libya, and is
not the case for populist regimes such as Iran or Venezuela). If a governing regime is
not alienated from the mass public but is at least partially mass-based, there are
significant limits to what even advanced ICT-based social media/protest networks can
achieve.
Finally, for ICT networks to succeed, the younger, relatively educated
generation, which represents the most active Internet-users, should make up not only
the bulk of activists, but also a sizeable percentage of the population at large. This
effectively excludes, for instance, areas of Eastern Europe and Eurasia where this
segment of the population faces a dramatic decline.
A Link to Western-style Democracy Promotion?
Yet another set of reservations concerns the short-sightedness of linking the mobilizing
role of new information and communications technologies and related networks
primarily to pro-democracy, pro-Western forces in the developing world.
The implications of the role of ICT and social media networks in the Middle
Eastern context go beyond direct parallels with other developing regions. The growing
spread of advanced information and communication/social media networks will
definitely reveal new vulnerabilities and opportunities in the developed world as well.
At the same time, identical tools may function quite differently in developed and
developing countries. Likewise, counter-tools employed by actors such as governments
or corporations targeted by social protest movements may be different or significantly
nuanced for developed democracies and developing hybrid regimes and autocracies
(consider the case of Twitter finding itself under repressive attack from the Mubarak
regime over anti-government protests, while simultaneously being subpoenaed by the
U.S. government over Wikileaks-related tweets).
5. 5
In this context, the United States stands out, first and foremost due to its role as
the lead external actor in the greater Middle East (in contrast to the more narrow and
focused role of certain European states, such as France, in certain parts of the region).
Perhaps even more critical is the U.S. position as the leader in the use of
information/social media networks, the main provider and developer of related
technologies, and the self-declared champion of Internet freedom, especially at the
governmental level. The Barack Obama administration, in particular, has elevated
Internet freedom projects around the world in U.S. diplomacy and budget allocations
(the funds appropriated for such projects in 2010 represented a 600 percent increase
from 2009).
However, there is an indication of dialecticism in U.S. policy regarding progress
and setbacks fueled by ICT developments. This offset may be seen by the controversial
impact for the United States of the Wikileaks phenomenon. U.S. policies on Iraq and
Afghanistan featured prominently in the open-access distribution of leaked materials
such as videos and classified or semi-classified U.S. Department of State cables revealed
by Wikileaks. The leaks delivered a public relations and diplomatic blow to the United
States, even though they did not affect actual U.S. policy toward Iraq and Afghanistan
and had a limited effect on the political situation in the region itself. As a result, the U.S.
government de facto posed as Wikileaks’ main “counter-agent,” reacting harshly to the
fall-out from the Wikileaks’ releases. In so doing, the Internet freedom agenda
championed by the United States suffered a major political and credibility setback
internationally (much criticism against this reaction came from some lead segments of
the Internet and media community, especially outside the United States§). At the same
time, the reaffirmation of support for Internet freedom by the United States and other
Western states in the wake of the Middle Eastern protests caused the pendulum to
swing back. In this context, the U.S. government’s firm and prompt denouncement on
January 28 (via Twitter at first) of Egypt’s crackdown on the Internet and social
mediaand Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s official denial of any U.S. role in coercing
private companies to deny services to Wikileaks in her “Internet freedom” speech on
February 15 may be seen as part of this overall trend.
In the end, however, the U.S. government’s somewhat moderated but persistent
blame-laying upon Wikileaks is not the weakest link in its public reaffirmation of
support for Internet freedom. Nor are the familiar claims, routinely made by Internet
activists and a number of foreign governments, of political bias in the U.S. Internet
freedom support agenda. Nor is the widespread concern about the potential for U.S.
support to compromise local forces who accept it as non-genuine, pro-Western actors.
The weakest link in U.S. policy on the matter is the automatic connection it
makes between social media networks and a Western-style democracy agenda. While
the U.S. government (and others) are probably doomed to make this connection, it is a
problematic one in several ways. By emphasizing the power of new technologies in
§
Criticism came from a wide range of sources including The Guardian, other newspapers, exchanges at Harvard University’s Berkman Center
for Internet Society (see links 1, 2, 3), etc.