Amal Hanano, writing over at Foreign Policy, published an article today detailing the importance of the polls. The article is good, but it could be better. The author did an acceptable job of describing the online battle between secularists & Islamists for the name of Friday's protests, but she obviously didn't do any research to see what people were saying on social media platforms other than Facebook and Twitter. Hanano writes:
Last week, before the Facebook polling closed for the name of the April 13 protests -- the day after the U.N. ceasefire deadline, the day in which solidarity was key -- one name was in the lead: the Friday of the Armies of Islam. Yet another divisive (and completely off message) choice. This time, however, peaceful activists were ready to take action and fight back in a battle for the Friday name.
On Wednesday, April 11, media activists on Facebook and Twitter began a campaign to "rock the vote" for Friday's name. They advocated the secular, inclusive choice, "A Revolution for all Syrians." It was an intense campaign. Usually around 8,000 votes are cast each week, but last week there were more than 30,000. It was as much a battle between Islamic sentiment and secular inclusiveness as it was a struggle between those dedicated to solely an armed resistance, and those who still valued the power of nonviolent activism.
If the author looked a little further, she would find that it wasn't a one sided campaign: Islamists were mobilizing their networks as well. They were doing it on forums and on Facebook. Some on Twittter even ignored the results of the poll, deciding to name the protests "Friday of the Armies of Islam" anyway, regardless of the fact that this name was defeated badly.While the article does have its shortcomings, at the end of the day, we salute the author of this article for shedding light on the ongoing and dynamic significance of social media to the Arab revolutions.
No comments:
Post a Comment