Voice of Russia
February 5, 2014
Facebook: real political lever of pressure
Anna Mikhailova
Photo: EPA
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Information is a power and just as press or television, social networks have great influence on their audiences. No wonder then that surveys show Facebook users are more socially and politically active. The recent events in the Middle East – the so-called Arab Spring – even produced a term ‘Facebook Revolution’ referring to different uprisings and protests, which were coordinated using social networking. Rick Rozoff, the owner and manager of the Stop Nato website, and Ilya Fabrichnikov, managing partner at UnitedCom Consultancy shared their opinions about the power and influence of social networks on world politics with the Voice of Russia.
Indeed, improbable as it may sound, the 2011 Egyptian revolution and the 2011 Tunisian revolution both began with the creation of groups on Facebook and Twitter. Though Rick Rozoff believes it is an international misconception that unrest in the Arab countries was a ‘cute’ Facebook, social media revolution, in which scrappy youths banded together over the internet to create change.
‘The whole political technology of generating so-called flash mobs that congregate in large numbers instantaneously without government detection in city squares, organized through so-called social media like Facebook and Twitter, with a host (really an army) of US-funded so-called non-governmental organizations that seem to have unlimited financial assets – largesse – with which they can distribute amongst maybe thrill-seeking or fun-loving young people, including handing out $200 and $300 smart phones’.
http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_07_09/The-U-S-has-a-role-with-every-faction-or-group-in-Egypt-Rozoff-2284/
But even if the US interference in the Arab Spring is no more than a conspiracy theory, the White House has been using Facebook as a political instrument long before the situation in the Middle East got out of the control. Ilya Fabrichnikov recalls the phenomenon of the first presidential election when Barack Obama won the hearts of Americans through social networks.
‘As they say, Obama was the first president who utilized the full potential of the social networks, which were just emerging that time in the United States and after that the whole social network thing received a huge boost. And why washe so successful in this strategy? – because the social networks allow people to reach, and to send a message to each and every voter’.
http://voiceofrussia.com/2012_06_16/78301975/
So either for better or for worse, Facebook has become a major platform for political activism that even the leading players of world politics have to abide by. Because as easily as the social network can make you the hero of the day, it can as easily take its ‘likes’ away.