Continued from: SOCIAL MEDIA MIGHT EXTEND THE ARAB SPRING TO SYRIA (I)
SYRIA IS NOT AS STERILE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA AS INITIALLY THOUGHT
Social media trends over the last year in responding to the regime's suppression claim this.
Syria is a country with over 22.5 million people and an impressive literacy rate of 86 per cent if we go by the figures available from US Department of State. According to the CIA World Factbook, Syria has over 15.5 million telecom connections including over 11.6 million cellular connections. According to a World Bank 2010 estimate, Internet penetration in Syria is around 21 per cent.
A good literacy rate, a teledensity over 70 per cent of the population and an Internet penetration of over 21 per cent - these figures are significant enough to provide the ideal ground indeed for the social media usage to extend the Arab Spring in Syria given if it gets the flare it needs.
It might come on any given day and the intensifying activity tells of the positive signs. Any brutal assassination video can fuel the unrest to a greater scale. Apart from building the solidifying base in Syria, it might grease the international opinion mobilization as well. Efforts are already initiated in this direction. As the Assad forces are busy emptying their shells on helpless men, women and children, another front is gaining ground voicing its opposition to the Assad regime’s continuance.
#UniteForSyria is an online opinion mobilization campaign launched on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. There are some 200 NGOs from 27 countries with the Human Rights Watch and the International Federation for Human Rights working on it. The Activists have launched a YouTube video pledging support to the Syrian cause and are inviting others to be part of the momentum.
The video titled UNITE FOR SYRIA: STOP ONE YEAR OF BLOODSHED (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9NltPsGZ0w&feature=player_embedded) is needed to be promoted well. Come, join it.
According to a Mashable report, apart from the campaign hashtag #UniteForSyria, the hashtags #oneyearlater, #1yearago, #syriaspeaks and #syriaremembers are all tracking on Twitter. The Facebook page link for the campaign is http://www.facebook.com/UniteForSyria.
According to a Mashable report, apart from the campaign hashtag #UniteForSyria, the hashtags #oneyearlater, #1yearago, #syriaspeaks and #syriaremembers are all tracking on Twitter. The Facebook page link for the campaign is http://www.facebook.com/UniteForSyria.
We still cannot say the trends related to the Syria tags have become viral on the Internet but are gaining ground slowly and can go viral soon as the Syria related online world activity in the recent days indicate. Damascus has seen intense fighting in the last two days and that is an effort by the rebels to tell the world community that they are not completely wiped out and are holding their ground by challenging Assad in the Syrian capital city.
Recent voices of the world community of arming the rebels might have been a major factor behind this resurgence. It also tells that messages from the Syrian badlands of the Assads, relayed through the social media platforms, are reaching to the world community, now even more effectively.
Assads are well aware of the damage a strong anti-regime campaign on social media platforms can bring (taking lightly the Arab Spring traits is going to be fatal for the regime). The leaked emails show efforts by the Assads to use social media for their own benefits like removing royal family impersonators to streamline the already manipulated flow of communication in Syria.
March 15 marked one year to the Syrian revolution yet nothing but advance of the Assad’s brutal regime looked only reality for certainty. Syria is unlike other Arab Spring countries. Dear to the Western powers until sometime ago, Assad has worked to weaken the opposition, control the communication platforms and maintain a strong army.
The other Arab Spring countries had a unitary face of opposition during the phase of uprising. That is not the case with Syria. State media was controlled, but the social media was strong in Egypt and Tunisia and helped spread the Arab Spring globally.
That might change now. The obscene opulence of wealth while he was bombing his own countrymen as revealed by Assads’ leaked emails might be a milestone moment in mobilizing the international opinion even more against Bashar and at the same time, can work to harden the resolve of the fighting Syrians. In spite of all the controls, Assads simply can’t stop content of these emails reaching to the large section of the Syrian population given the significant reach of the telecom connections. (Even China couldn’t stop the flow of information in case of Wukan protests!)
And who knows what more would be unearthed as the Guardian claims to be in possession of over 3000 leaked emails.
‘WikiLeaks’ revelations created many international geopolitical controversies and bad names. Isn’t it?
We might come across emails with Assads mocking and berating the international community or big leaders like Obama, Cameron or Sarkozy, using abusive words. (Just a conjecture at the moment but might be a reality as well!) - if it comes out like that, it is going to be ominous for the Assads.
