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Old 11-25-2013, 22:01   #1
MtnGoat
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Asscrackistan
Posts: 4,289
The Role of Social Media in Mobilizing Political Protest, Movement, and Revolution.

I had someone tell me once, about three or four years ago that we, military to SOF, don't need to look at anything cyber because that is CYBERCOM's job. Something that is becoming more and more clear is that "people" are using social media as a catalyst for many of the movements in different countries. Over the past two decades, the political role of the Internet and social media have played into different movements tied to revolutions. Different examples are from the Kosovo Conflict 1999-2000, the Saffron Revolution in Myanmar in 2007, and the Green Movement in 2009, the Jasmine Revolution in 2010, Arab Spring 2011, etc.

Most people, think of social media as the catalyst for anything cyber. I was on of them, but when your looking at foreign third world countries with a population that typically has least than 30% with a laptop with internet connection. Then with such low numbers of internet users, then how are all these mobilizing in political protest, movement, and revolution in all these countries? When know how, the mobile link. These mobile users fall into a class of "Information and Communication Technologies" users. Information and Communication Technologies refers to technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications. This includes the Internet, wireless networks, cell phones, and other telecommunications mediums. Through these different ICT individuals are linked and creat a "global village," in which people now can communicate with others via their mobile devices just like they would have from the village message broad. With actual social media sites and services, they can communicate with others across the world as if they were living in the same village. Just like most Americans do daily via their Facebook, Twitter and message broads like PS.com. For this reason, ICT should be studied in the context of how modern communication technologies affect society mobilizing in political protest, movement, and revolution in different countries apart of someone studying the battlefield environment.


What are Information and Communication Technologies
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