Twitter & Tear Gas

 

Zeynep Tufekci's, Twitter and Tear Gas; The Power and Fragility of Networked Protests examines the ways in which shifts in information technology have fundamentally altered the social and political landscape for protest movements. Tufekci examines the ways in which technological advances and near-ubiquitous connectivity have changed how protest movements operate. The book examines the way protest culture has evolved in tandem with technology but also delineates some of the complexities and limitations that arise from that evolution. Tufekci charts a path through the protest movements of the past twenty years.   She charts the ways in which tactics and actions have changed largely as a result of advances in information technology, networked connectivity, and alterations to the ways in which information is disseminated. Tufekci compares more recent protest movements with iconic historical protest movements, such as the civil rights movement in the US, in order to clarify both the possibilities that technological advances make possible, as well as to point out the pitfalls of networked protest movements.

She includes movements led by indigenous and landless peoples, anti-global capitalist movements, reactions to oppressive regimes, to movements that seek to redress an imbalance or oppression faced by specific groups of people. Specific groups discussed include the Zapatistas, protests against the World Trade Organization, Arab Spring, the indignados in Spain, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter in the US. Other movements are mentioned, but these are some of the prominent ones. In part, the book is a history of protest movements of the past few decades, and the increasing move towards less hierarchical and top-down leadership, and toward horizontal and leaderless groups.

Tufecki writes of the Tahrir Square protest that it was, "camels and sticks versus satellite phones and Twitter" (2017). Networked connectivity allows groups to quickly organize on a large scale, to transmit information and updates rapidly to a large audience. For Tufekci, Tahrir Square is the eponymous example, where new technologies and rapidly evolving strategies amassed a movement very quickly, and specifically, a movement that the repressive regime was ill-equipped to counter. While she is cautious about the ways in which technology is credited for the actions of people, she also points out that what became a revolution that toppled a sitting president started as a Facebook page. She writes of the hopeful and euphoric creation of community, "twenty-first-century protest square: organized through Twitter, filled with tear gas, leaderless, networked, euphoric, and fragile" (2017).

Tufekci explains what she means by the relative fragility of networked protest groups. She argues that the work of organizing in a more traditional manner also created interpersonal bonds, gave groups experience in conflict management, and facilitated organizational stability. While logistics were often effectively handled in networked protests in a manner she calls, "adhocracy" --meaning that a call goes out or a hashtag is appended and people respond quickly, that initial work of organizing is skipped over. In her formulation, this is both a strength and a weakness, as a large group is assembled quickly, but the emphasis on leaderlessness and collective decision making, when coupled with the ad-hoc assemblage of the group itself, does not lend itself to tactical shifts or negotiations. Many of the networked groups exhibit what she calls, “tactical freeze,” which the author defines as, "the inability of these movements to adjust tactics, negotiate demands, and push for tangible policy changes." In part, she attributes this to the rapid growth of the group, in part to the leaderless nature, and in part to the lack of experience of collective problem solving, and lack of long term strategy. While the spontaneous nature of these movements is indeed part of their strength, it also can be a significant weakness.

The author outlines the ways in which bypassing traditional gatekeepers for the dissemination of information can cause rapid change, sometimes addressing injustices that may not have gained attention from the media. Networked protest has produced, "countries with authoritarian-leaning governments lose control over the public sphere, while in democratic countries, issues that had been sidelined from the national agenda, from economic inequality to racial injustice to trade to police misconduct, were brought to the forefront through the force of social media engagement and persistence by citizens." Tufekci argues that traditional protests needed to gain the attention of the media in order to get their message heard, and in repressive regimes, more overt censorship might silence dissent. Yet this ability to bypass traditional gatekeepers also means that there is less accountability. The author warns that "the internet’s relatively chaotic nature, with too much information and weak gatekeepers, can asymmetrically empower governments by allowing them to develop new forms of censorship based not on blocking information, but on making available information unusable" (Tufekci, 2017).

Tufekci suggests that repressive regimes have been able to quickly adapt to activists changing tactics. Again, Tahrir Square is the example against which all others play out. The author depicts attempts by the Egyptian government to shut down the protests as unsubtle and brutal- from the violence toward protesters to the attempt to suppress speech by shutting down the internet. These tactics only strengthened international outrage. Tufekci contrasts this with more sophisticated moves that utilize many of the same tactics the protesters use- the ability to spread information, or crucially, misinformation, quickly and to a large audience. The ability to sow confusion and doubt, and to question the veracity and legitimacy of emerging information.  "Rather than a complete totalitarianism based on fear and blocking of information the newer methods include demonizing online mediums, and mobilizing armies of supporters or paid employees who muddy the online waters with misinformation, information glut, doubt, confusion,harassment, and distraction, making it hard for ordinary people to navigate the networked public sphere, and sort facts from fiction, truth from hoaxes" (2017). People must be able to navigate information and determine which stories are true and which are hoaxes. Tufekci cites studies that show that many people struggle to determine which stories are true. While many reasons exist that explain some level of distrust toward traditional gatekeepers such as mass media, academics, and institutions; the need for gatekeeping in the form of fact-checking is greater than ever. The free flow of information and misinformation is something that impacts information professionals in particular. Finding ways to verify information is crucial, and determining whom we can trust to validate truthfulness is an essential element of disseminating information. While in the past, we may have struggled to provide access to information, in the networked age, the struggle is sorting through the noise as we search for the signal. All the movements discussed in the book involve informed citizens acting on information. What happens when individuals cannot trust that the information available to them is true? The author argues that this causes confusion and inaction, as individuals struggle to determine how to proceed.

I have not spoken at length of the ways in which the author describes the communities formed in public spaces, but the descriptions of them describe them as expressive, hopeful and connected. The author recounts several moving tales of individuals from very different backgrounds meeting in that space and seeking solidarity. Tufekci recounts that in each instance of a public space such as a park or a square becoming a focal point for a public protest, one of the first things the protesters created in the community space was usually a library. A call would go out for books, and people would bring them. This is true of Tahrir Square, Zuccotti Park, Gezi Park. These impromptu spaces included other basic necessities such as medical care, food, and shelter. But it strikes me as very telling that each instance of the large scale public protest also included a significant library. When evicting Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park, the police department destroyed an estimated 4000 books. The city later settled in a civil case, agreeing to pay restitution for the destroyed books. Tufekci's book intersects with our course content insofar as she too examines how communities form, how they seek information, and how that information gets to them. This book is primarily about the ways in which information technology has advanced and how that changes the ways we interact with information.

 

References:

Tufekci, Z. (2017). Twitter and tear gas: The power and fragility of networked protest. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. [WorldCat Permalink (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.]