Week 12
Social media has no doubt become of tool of dissidence thanks to the millions of users who spread and share information across different platforms. Bill Wasik examines a very important aspect of the significance of social media as a tool of revolution: it brings together crowds. According to Wasik’s research, “crowds [are seen] as the opposite of ruleless, and crowd violence as the opposite of senseless: What seems like anarchic behavior is in fact governed by a shared self-conception and thus a shared set of grievances.” Especially through social media, people are able to come together through a shared cause and express themselves. The power of social media essentially comes from us, the public. Information is powerful, and the ability to share it with others is even more powerful.
A great example of a group that employs resistance through the use of social media is Anonymous, the group of cyber hacktivists (hacker-activists) that are a completely anonymous, decentralized group who DDoS organizations that they consider to be oppressive. They associate themselves with the ideals of net neutrality and Internet freedom. They have “declared war” on the middle-eastern terrorist group ISIS through Facebook and Twitter, used YouTube to reprimand music artist Kanye West, and have attacked the Church of Scientology for their controversial beliefs. Though it could be argued that this group itself can be considered controversial for its vigilante actions, Anonymous demonstrates a profound usage of social media in organizing dissidence against what they consider oppressive organizations.
