On February 18th, in the small Kenyan town of Lanet Umoja, Chief Francis Kariuki employed Twitter to send a predawn warning to his community thereby foiling thieves who had broken into a neighbouring house. “Thieves in Kelven’s living room, let’s help him out please,” he tweeted (in the local language).
Though most residents do not have access to internet, the tweets are received as free text messages by many residents of the community. With so many followers, Twitter has replaced fliers and other forms of official messaging for this community including announcements for town meetings, bazaars, and the like.
Many companies and organizations use Twitter and other social messaging tools to comment on issues, make announcements, and launch promotions. It is not unusual for social media to be the first source for major announcements in the lives of celebrities and companies, such as new contracts, resignations or expansions.
However, social media and the internet are no longer confined to commercial and personal affairs, but governmental matters as well. As this paper has reported previously, social media played an instrumental role in the Arab revolution and Occupy Protests, not only in organizing protests and coordinating efforts, but in communicating platforms and ideas. On January 19th, many websites, including Wikipedia and Reddit blacked out in opposition to SOPA, a major factor behind the reversal of many lawmakers’ decisions and its subsequent postponement. Online hacktivist-group Anonymous frequently targets those who seek to oppress, such as those who seek to prosecute Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks. Here in Canada, anonymous twitterer Vikileaks shared intimate details of Justice Minister Vic Toews’s personal life to draw attention to the threat of the recent Conservative motion to enforce governmental spying on citizens without a warrant. Each of these examples illustrates how the internet is being used to shape and direct real-world politics.
However, internet politics is quickly moving out of the fringe domain. In 2010, the Republican Party launched YouCut, an online platform for ordinary Americans to vote on which agencies and programs they think are most wasteful and should be cut. On the flip side, the Obama administration launched WeThePeople, a site which allows individuals to petition the government for changes in policy or legislation. Any petition that reaches 5000 signatures will be reviewed by the administration for feasibility. While it is unclear how seriously these initiatives are taken at the moment, both these moves shed insight into what the future of politics might look like. Imagine a future, where instead of internet groups having to use hacking to make their voices heard, online voices are encouraged and acted upon.
While individual actions can be quite effective, true power of online governance will only occur when online communities are coordinated enough to rival the influence of existing special interests. It is well-known that even a small number of individuals, when united in (for example) seniors groups or unions, can impact the political process. Online organizations such as Avaaz form a virtual lobbying group – their efforts attempt to shame politicians or industrial figures by gathering resources from all those with a vested interest (eg. in climate change) and targeting those with the influence (eg. countries which are laggards in acting). Next week’s issue will look at how such communities will continue to develop and how they may supersede our traditional institutions.
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