S O C I A L N E T W O R K I N G I S T H E N E W F A C E O F

D E M O C R A C YB Y S O P H I E B L A Z E Y

C o n t e n t s

R U S S I A

C O U N T R Y u p r i s i n g

E x i s t i n g w e b s i t e sW h a t y o u c a n d o

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Spain is undergoing constant economic crises due to a corrupt political system. Spain curr-entlyhas on of the highest unemployment rates in Europe,especially in youth. Basic human right surrounding home, work,culture, health and education are hugely affected by the economic crisis. Spain is re-latively new dem-ocracy leadingto underdevelopment and a dem-ocratic government that is notdirect. spain joined the European Union in 1986, due to this Spainexperienced rapid modernizationand economic growth. This rapidgrowth resulted in corruption in real estate construction and property values.“CORRUPTION SCANDALS HAVE TAR-NISHED ALL THE POLITICAL PARTIES,SPREADING ALL OVER SPAIN DURING THE LAST DECADE”(THE DAILY EL MUND)

The heavily corrupt political system in Egypt lead to an “Egyptian revolution” in 2011.Issues where brought to the streets by public protesters.The primary demands from protest organizers were the end of the Hosni Mubarak regime and the end of emergency law; fre-edom, justice, a responsive non-military government” Le- g a l a n d p o l i t i c a l i s s u e s , including police brutality lackof free elections and freedomof speech uncontrollable cor-ruption, and economic issues including high unemployment food price inflation and low minimum wages. Restrictions of freedom of speech resulting in the government frequentlyUNDERGOING HOME RAIDS, TORTURE, ARRESTS, AND FINING OF BLOGGERS AND REPORTERS THAT CRITICIZE THE GOVERNMENT IN ANY WAY.

E G Y P T S P A I N

Spain is undergoing constant economic crises due to a corrupt political system. Spain curr-entlyhas on of the highest unemployment rates in Europe,especially in youth. Basic human right surrounding home, work,culture, health and education are hugely affected by the economic crisis. Spain is re-latively new dem-ocracy leadingto underdevelopment and a dem-ocratic government that is notdirect. spain joined the European Union in 1986, due to this Spainexperienced rapid modernizationand economic growth. This rapidgrowth resulted in corruption in real estate construction and property values.“CORRUPTION SCANDALS HAVE TAR-NISHED ALL THE POLITICAL PARTIES,SPREADING ALL OVER SPAIN DURING THE LAST DECADE”(THE DAILY EL MUND)

The main issues are social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue in-fluence of corporations on government particularly from the financial services sector. Americans claiming to be fed up with corporate abuse of our political system took to the streets to occupy public spaces and protest. With the battle cry of “We are the 99%”, this new movement set out to draw attention to the socialand economic inequalities of our system, making reference t o t h e f a c t t h a t t h e v a s t m a j o r i t y o f w e a l t h i n o u rcountry is actually held by only 1% of the population and that the rift between the very r i c h a n d t h e v e r y p o o r i s rapidly growing.OCCUPY WALL STREET (OWS) WAS BECOMING “OCCUPY EVERYWHERE”

Russian legislative election processhas been proven to be c o r r u p t . T h e e l e c t i o n s o f Valdiir Putin’s recent six-yearpresidential term has beenconsidered as fraud.This is not democracy at all “there were more than 1,100 officialreports of election irregul-a r i t i e s a c r o s s t h e c o u n t r yincluding allegations of votefraud, obstruction of observers and illegal campaigning.”(RIA Novosti)Some of the reports fromthe 2012 elections include;Sealing of the ballot boxes, voters were shuttled between multiplepolling stations tocast several ballots. Illegal campaigning by distributing l e a f l e t s a n d n e w s p a p e r s a t p o l l i n g s t a t i o n s . A t s o m e polling stations the voters had been ordered to vote for the Communist party with threats of violence.

R U S S I A U S A

P R O T E S T S I N E G Y P T / S P A I N /r u s s i a / u s a a r e f u e l e d b y

s o c i a l n e twork i ng

P R O T E S T S I N E G Y P T / S P A I N /r u s s i a / u s a a r e f u e l e d b y

s o c i a l n e twork i ng

MAY 15-17: Around 15,000 gathered to protest against police viol ence.Fueled by social net working.protesters called via SMS, Facebook

and Twitter for a mass response at 8pm in several Spanish squaresMAY 19-20:“tens of thousands” camped out in Madrid. “we are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers”

MAY 21: Huge protests all over Spain. The word spread though social net working to raise up on this day. A few other European countries caught on.

MAY 27: The violence of the police in the clearing of protesters widely

JUN 9: Canadian anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters registers the domain name Occupy WallStreet.org.

AUG 23:“Hactivist” collective Anonymous releases a video pledging

its support for the protest and encouraging its members to participate.

SEP 9: Supporters of Occupy Wall Street start posting their photos and stories to a new “We are the 99 %” Tumbr page

SEP 17: The protest begins, with about 1,000 people gathering in downtown Manhattan and walking up and down Wall Street. The protesters settle into Zuccotti Park, two blocks north of Wall Street.

SEP 24: About 80 people are arrested during a permit-less march uptown, and video of the event esp-ecially the use of pepper spray on a group of women earns Occupy Wall Street its first major media coverage. Oct. 1: Some 700 protesters are arrested in a march across the

Brooklyn Bridge.

Oct. 5: At least 39 organizations including New York City’s largest labor unions and MoveOn.org, join Occupy Wall Street.

JAN 25:The“Day of Revolt” Egyptian Revolution Began Protests erupted throughout President Hosni Mubarak’s government.Facebook and twitter used as main tools for

organizing the protest. A massive flood of internet photographs and videos shows a gigantic presence in Cairo,Alexandria, and other Egyptian cities globalized the issue.

JAN 26: Shutting down the internet and mobile services. After several Facebook groups were created and tweets called for mass demonstrations, the Egyptian government shut down internet access.

JAN 28: The“Friday of Anger”(antiMubrarak) internet was shut down but this did not stop video compilations of clips blogged all over the net to raising an international awareness.

FEB 10:Mulbrarak resigning,

international response all over the internet.

APR 1: The “Save the Revolution” day: Approximately four thousand

Massive uprise of

protests against December’s disputed parliamentary elections,organized largely thoughsocial media

DEC 5-7: Alexey Navalny a top blogger and anti-corruption activist sparked 50,000 to

MAY 21: Huge protests all over Spain. The word spread though social net working to raise up on this day. A few other European countries caught on.

MAY 27: The violence of the police in the clearing of protesters widely

dispersed through social networks such as twitter.

JUN 1:Officers fired plastic bullets in order to disperse a group of protesters outside police cordon. Captured and spread over

the internet.

JUN 19: Massive demonstration was carried out in almost 80 Spanish cities and towns. It is believe that more than a three million people rallied that day.

JUL 23:After a month long walk, the columns of walkers from the Indignant People’s March who had departed from the main cities of Spain join in Madrid where the Movement emerged

OCT 15: As part of the 15 October movement (related to the “Occupy”

protesters) hundreds of thousands marched in Madrid and other cities.

2012 Protest: Further protests are accruing with similar issues to 2011 protests.

Brooklyn Bridge.

Oct. 5: At least 39 organizations including New York City’s largest labor unions and MoveOn.org, join Occupy Wall Street.

NOV 15: In Oakland, police arrest 20 people and clear protesters from the plaza where they had been living;the mayor’s legal adviserresigns in protest. And at 1.am.

Nov. 19: Campus police at the University of California, Davis, pepper spray protesters who are peacefully obstructing a public walkway.

international response all over the internet.

APR 1: The “Save the Revolution” day: Approximately four thousand

demonstrators filled Tahrir Square

APR - NOV: 2012 On going p rotests in Tahrir Square fueled by social networking

protests against December’s disputed parliamentary elections,organized largely thoughsocial media

DEC 5-7: Alexey Navalny a top blogger and anti-corruption activist sparked 50,000 to

protest against Ballot fraud on his LiveJournal blog and Twitter account.

DEC 10:Via a facebook group, mass protest against the government sprang in Bolotnaya Square.

DEC 24: the country’s largest antigovernment demonstration in two decades. Protest organizers launched afundraiser campaign on facebook and had raised $129,000,.

JAN 12: Vladimir

Putin launched website in gearing up for the presidentialcampaign,featuring a suggestion forum.thesuggestion box became flooded with negative comments, such as “please leave politics”“Fair election” protests organized through social mediums such as facebook and

twitter continue into 2012. On the 26th of feburary thousands of people demonstated against Vladimir Putin

SOCIALNETWORKS HAVING A HUGE ROLL IN TOPPLING MULBARAK

E G Y P T i o n P R O T E S T S

P O W E R E D

B y

S O C I A L N E T W O R K I N G

AS EGYPT’S EMBATTLED PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK

GAVE UP HIS PRESIDENCY, ANALYSTS AND SOME OF

THE EGYPTIAN PROTESTORS SAID HE’D STILL BE IN

CHARGE IF NOT FOR THE POWER OF SOCIAL NETWORKING.

After 18 days of tumultuous protests and stubborn refusals to leave a position he’s held for 30 years, Mubarak gave up power,handing over authority to the nation’s military leaders. During a time of unrest that saw Mubarak’s regime disconnect Egypt from the Internet for several days, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter served as critical tools for the people seeking to topple the long-time ruler.

I CERTAINLY DO NOT THINK HE WOULD HAVE LEFT OFFICE AT

THIS POINT IF IT WASN’T FOR SOCIAL NETWORKING. I THINK

THEY WANTED ALL EYES TO BE TURNED AWAY FROM THE UPRISING,

BUT THE CRACKDOWNS ON NTERNET ACCESS FA ILED.

Three years ago, an activist started the A p r i l 6 M o v e m e n t p a g e o n F a c e b o o k t o support striking workers. The page has drawn in more than 60,000 members conce-rned with issues like free speech,the country’s poor economy and frustration with the government.

What’s been particularly interesting is that the Egyptian activists weren’t simply looking for people to “like” their protest pages or to give people a place to vent their frustrations. They used social net-working sites to engage people to motivate them into action, not justonline but in the real world.

”Brad Shimmin

“

On a Saturday evening in Cairo, a digital campaign against military trials for civilians is on. Acti- vists are posting comments on the Facebook site of the Egyptian Armed Forces, whose Supreme Council the SCAF -- holds power in Egypt. SCAF took over after President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in the revolution in February. Tanja Aitamurto

The campaign was announced on a Facebook page and about 8,000 participants have joined. After bomb-arding the SCAF’s site with comments for 15 minutes, the crowd moved on to criticizing the ministries’ sites. Tanja Aitamurto,

As the military has closed Tahrir Square from de-m o n s t r a t i o n s , s m a l l e r p r o t e s t s a r e h a p p e n i n g elsewhere in Cairo. Facebook pages, such as We are all Khaleed Said, with more than 1.6 million followers, are used for spreading the message about protests and campaigns.

The April 6 Movement, one of the central organ-izations behind the revolution, arranges protests i n s e v e r a l p a r t s o f C a i r o . F i v e m i n u t e s f r o m Tahrir Square, young Egyptian activists gather for TweetNadwas, a series of online and offline meetings, to discuss the next steps in campaigning.

Crowdfunding initiatives in Egypt also have been organized through social media. In an online event called Tweetback, Egyptians gathered funds for humanitarian projects. Companies, non-profits and individuals were invited to donate.

“That was eye-opening for me. I went home and I videoblogged about it so that everybody can see how our military is,” Videoblogger el Daly

O N L I N E S O C I A L N E T W O R K I N G I S A

T O O L O F A C T I V I S M W I T H R E C E N T P R O T E S T S I N S P A I N .

S P A I N

ONLINE CAMPAIGNS INCLUDE REALDEMOCRACY NOW AND YOUTH WITHOUTH A FUTURE

THE 2011–2012 SPANISH PROTESTS, ARE A SERIES

OF ONGOING DEMONSTRATIONS IN SPAIN WHOSE

ORIG IN CAN BE TRACED TO SOCIALNETWORKS

SUCH AS REAL DEMOCRACYNOW OR YOUTH WI-

THOUTH A FUTURE AMONG OTHER CIVILIAN DIGITAL

PLATFORMS AND 200 OTHER SMALL ASSOCIATIONS.

O N L I N E S O C I A L N E T W O R K I N G I S A

T O O L O F A C T I V I S M W I T H R E C E N T P R O T E S T S I N S P A I N .

The protests started on 15 May with an initial call in 58 Spanish cities. The series of protests demands a radical change in Spanish politics, as protesters do not consider themselves to be represented by any traditional party nor favored by the mea-sures approved by politicians. The movement drew inspiration from 2011 revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and uprisings in 1968 France, and Greece in 2008. The protests were staged close to the local and regional elections,held on 22 May.Even though protesters form a heterogeneousand ambiguous group, they share a strong rejection of unemployment, welfare cuts, Spanish politicians, the current two party system in Spain between the Spanish Soci-alist Workers’ Party and the People’s Party, as well as the current political system, capitalism, banks and bankers, political corruption and firmly support what they call basic rights: home, work, culture, health and education.

ACCORDING TO STATISTICS PUBLISHED BY RTVE,

THE SPANISH PUBLIC BROADCASTING COMPANY,

BETWEEN 6 .5 AND 8 M ILL ION SPANIARDS HAVE

PA R T I C I PAT E D I N T H E S E S T R E E T P R OT E S T S .

“”

S P A I N

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Whether it is requesting supplies, giving advice in case of police intervention or linking to other city centre protests across Spain, social networks are “an essential tool for us”, Zulo (28-year-old activist)

“There are eight of us updating social network acco-unts with our computers or smartphones,” said Zulo, sporting a green T-shirt emblazoned with the words “social networks”.

In the first days after the creation of the Facebook page Spanish revolution -- https://www.facebook.com/SpanishRevolution -- the account had 1,000 supporters registering every hour. Now it has more than 146,000. Virginie Grognou

“Even if you cannot compare our situation to that of Arab countries, like them the role of social networks has been fundamental,”

According to Jose Feliz Tezanos, sociologist at Mad-rid’s UNED university, social networks provided young protesters with a new meeting place.

“Now the role of the social networks is to let us carry on getting our message out, so the movement can continue beyond the Puerta del Sol encampment,” Spokesman, Pablo Prieto.

According to Jose Feliz Tezanos, sociologist at Mad-rid’s UNED university, social networks provided young protesters with a new meeting place.Social networks power Spain protests Virginie Grognou

R U S S I A N P R O T E S T E R S

M O B I L I S E V I A S O C I A L N E T W O R K STHE FOCUS OF THE PROTESTS HAVE BEEN THERULING PARTY, UNITED RUSSIA, AND ITS LEADER VLADIMIR PUTIN

SIMILARLY, THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE

OF THE OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTOR GENERAL OF

THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION REPORTED THAT MOST OF

THE VIDEOS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET PURPOR-

TING TO SHOW VOTE MANIPULATION “APPEARED TO

BE EDITED”.

The 2011–2012 Russian protests first began as a response to the 2011 Russian legislative election process, which many Russian and foreign journalists, political activists and members of the public considered to be flawed, and the protests continued despite the fact that the Central Election Commissionlater said that only 11.5% official reports could be confirmed to be true.

On 10 December 2011, after a week of small-scale demonstrations, Russia saw some of the biggest protests in Moscow since the 1990s. The focus of the protests have been the ruling party, United Russia, and its leader Vladimir Putin, the current prime minister and previous two-term president, who has announced his intention to run again for President in 2012. Another round of large protests took place on 24 December 2011. These protests were named “For Fair Elections” and their organizers set up the movement of the same name.

By 10 December the “For Fair Elections” pr-otesters had coalesced into five main points:

-Freedom for political prisoners; -Annulment of the election results; -The resignation of Vladimir Churov(head of the election commission) -the opening of an official investigation into vote fraud; registration of opposition Parties and new democratic legislation on parties and elections, as well as new dem- ocratic and open elections

A Moscow march to protest election fraud unexpe-ctedly drew tens of thousands of people on Saturday. With 40 percent of Russian adults online, many say social media, including the Russian social networking site VKontakte, has made it possible for a long stalled opposition movement in Russia to organize a rally that size.

Dressed in a sweater his mother knit him, the 23-year-old is a new breed of Russian activist more likely to reach for an iPad than a bullhorn. “When it comes to the rally today, Internet has played an extremely vital role in making it happen because nothing was broadcast on television. Everything is disseminated through Twitter, Facebook and through our VK site,” Japhet Weeks

After recent parliamentary elections, YouTube was flooded with videos alleging vote rigging by the country’s ruling United Russia party. Japhet Weeks

According to a report by Russian search giant Yandex, Russia has over one million Twitter users. A five-fold increase over last year.

And nearly 40,000 people signed up to attend Satu-rday’s rally on Facebook, despite efforts by state-run television to brand such gatherings as dangerous and the protesters themselves as violent rabble rousers.

Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Moscow on Saturday, the largest number to rally since the fall of the Soviet Union nearly two decades ago. Organizers were keenly aware they couldn’t have done it without the Internet. Japhet Weeks

S O C I A L M E D I A H A S P L A Y E D A V I T A L R O L E I N T H E O C C U P Y W A L L S T R E E T m o v e m e n tTHIS HAS LED TO OCCUPY PROTESTS AND MOVEMENTS AROUND THE WORLD

Occupy Wall Street is a protest that beg- a n o n S e p t e m b e r 1 7 , 2 0 1 1 i n Z u c c o t t i Park, located in New York City’s Wall Street financial district. The Canadian activist group Adbusters initiated the protest, which has led to Occupy protests and movements around the world. The main issues are social and economic inequality,greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government—particularlyfrom the financial services sector. The OWS slogan, We are the 99%, addresses the growing income inequality and wealth dis-tribution in the U.S. between the wealth-iest 1% and the rest of the population. To achieve their goals, protesters act on consensus-based decision made in general assemblies to effect direct action insteadof petitioning authorities for redress.

“NOW, ONE IN EVERY SEVEN AMERICANS LIVES BELOW

THE POVERTY LINE - THAT’S A RECORD 46.2 MILLION

PEOPLE (ALTHOUGH IT MIGHT ACTUALLY BE HIGHER)

ONE IN SIX AMERICANS HAVE NO HEALTH INSURANCE

- 50 MILLION PEOPLE, A POPULATION TWICE THE SIZE

OF TEXAS (27M PEOPLE). OF EVERY 17 AMERICANS, AT

LEAST ONE WILL BE EARNING BELOW THE MINIMUM

WAGE OF $7.25 PER HOUR. 14 .5% OF AMERICANS

HOUSEHOLDS ARE DEFINED AS

OCCUPYWALLST.ORG IS THE UNOFFICIAL DE FACTO

ONLINE RESOURCE FOR THE GROWING OCCUPATION

MOVEMENT HAPPENING ON WALL STREET AND AROUND

THE WORLD. WE’RE AN AFFINITY GROUP COMMITTED

TO DOING TECHNICAL SUPPORT WORK FOR RESISTANCE

MOVEMENTS. WE’RE NOT A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

NYCGA NOR AFFILIATED WITH ADBUSTERS, ANONY-

MOUS OR ANY OTHER ORGANIZATION.

“I think the online component was critical, the ab-ility to stream video, to capture the images and create records and narratives of sacrifice and res-istance,” said Yochai Benkler,

It was video of that episode spreading on YouTube that helped get the conversation going. YouTube ispart of the formidable digital presence that has been created with 1.7 million videos, viewed 73 million times, that are tagged with the keyword “occupy” in YouTube’s News and Politics category. Japhet Weeks

The movement counts more than 400 Facebook pages with 2.7 million fans around the world. On Tumblr.com, the “We Are the 99 Percent” blog continues to publish the personal stories of hundreds of people struggling with student debt, health care costs and foreclosure. There are also dozens of new wikis and Web pages, including OccupyWallSt.org and HowToOc-cupy.org.

On Twitter there are more than 100 accounts with tens of thousands of followers that come together under the hashtag #ows. The main account, @occupywallstnyc,has more than 94,000 followers.

over the last two months, protesters used cellphones and social sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to spread their message around the world. Jennifer Preston

To help propel the Occupy movement forward and prompt discussion across social networks, organizers are planning multiple protests in the coming weeks.

E G Y P T S P A I N

h t t p : / y o u t h w i t h o u

t a f u t u r e . c o m /

h t t p : / / w w w . t h e p e t i

t i o n s i t e . c o m /

h u n d r e d s o f w e b s i t E s l i k e t h e s e w o r k a s a t o o l t o

give the pUBLIC a VOICE

R U S S I A U S A

h t t p : / / o c c u p y w a l l s t . o r g /h t t p : / / m o r e - t o p i c s .

b l o g s p o t . c o . n z /

h t t p : / y o u t h w i t h o u

t a f u t u r e . c o m /

h u n d r e d s o f w e b s i t E s l i k e t h e s e w o r k a s a t o o l t o

give the pUBLIC a VOICE

Y o u c a n m a k e a c h a n g e t h r o u g h

Y o u c a n m a k e a c h a n g e t h r o u g h

SOCIAL MEDIA IS A NEW WAY OF COMMUNICATING.

AND IT ’S NOT GOING AWAY. IT ’S BECOMING EVER

MORE POPULAR. PEOPLE ARE USING TOOLS L IKE

FACEBOOK AND TWITTER TO INCITE REBELLIONS

AND STAGE REVOLUTIONS. THE INFORMATION IN

THIS BOOKLET HAS PROVIDED INFORMATION ABOUT

HOW PEOPLE HAVE HAD A VOICE IN EGYPT, SPAIN,

RUSSIA AND THE USA THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA. MY

MANIFESTO HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS AND ASKS YOU TO JOIN IN ON THIS TOOL OF HAVING

A SAY. THE WORLD IS A DARK PLACE; AT TIMES, IT

CAN SEEM HOPELESS.BUT WHEN YOU CONNECT PEOPLE

TO G E T H E R T H R O U G H S O C I A L M E D I A , T H E Y M AY

S T U M B L E U P O N A N OT H E R S TO R Y. P E O P L E A R E

LOOKING FOR MORE THAN AN OPPORTUNITY TO

SHOW OFF. A “FOLLOWING” DOESN’T HAVE TO BE

JUST ANOTHER EGO STROKE. IT CAN BE AN OPPOR-

TUNITY TO BE PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER THAN

YOURSELF. AND SOCIAL MEDIA MAKES THIS POSSIBLE

LIKE NEVER BEFORE.

S O C I A L N E T W O R K I N G I S T H E N E W F A C E O F

D E M O C R A C Y