Introduction
In the early years of development, activism was a chaotic event characterized by violence, injuries, and deaths. It was hard for people to take up action against something since a lot of people lacked full details of the campaign. One great event that required a high campaign turnout was the black revolution in America. It took several years for the African Americans to change from slaves to free men who had equal rights with the white Americans. The continued activism started in the mid-19th century and went as far as a mid-20th century. The same case applies to other areas like South Africa. However, recent years show a change in the area. The change came from the continued use of internet and increase of users. Information spreads faster because of the several social networks set out for people to use. Social networks play a major role in activism and bring about faster if not an instant change.
The founders of most social networks had one thing in mind; communication. They set out to come up with their plan to enable people communicate easily and fast. Social media came to overpower the old ways of communication like a telegram, letters, and fax. It is easier to have a conversation with someone on the net than through the older methods. However, people advanced the social network’s blueprint from simple communications to mobilization. International organizations and non-governmental organizations use social networks to immobilize people to volunteer and aid their projects. Rescue missions in major and minor calamities benefit greatly because information gets to people in the shortest time possible hence increasing the chances of survivors. Activist use the platform to spread out their campaigns. The campaigns get instant followers who have a similar interest in the topic. Within a few days or weeks, most of the campaigns get worldwide recognition. One of the greatest changes that the world experienced was the overthrow of the Egypt president’s Mubarak.
Cyberactivism in Egypt
The Egyptians had gone through series of dictatorship experiences with Mubarak. The youths of the country were up and down in the streets trying to demonstrate against their leader (Cambanis, 2015). However, most of the demonstrations did not end well since most of the youths end up hurt and in prison cells. That is when some of them took the initiative to take the talk to the internet. With the high population of Egyptians on the internet, there was a good ground for their campaign. They created pages and hashtags that centered on the reasons as to why they conducted the demonstrations. The events happened in the early months of 2011 and in no time, the international news had headlines devoted to the movement. The country went into a glow slow that led to the depreciation of the economy. The international markets feared to venture in the country for fear of clashes and losses. The country was in a point of the immediate decision if they need to have good returns in the end. On the 11th of February in the same year, the government evicted Hosni Mubarak from office (Cambanis, 2015). The news led to the end of a popular and peaceful demonstration and led to the revolution of cyber activism.
The action demonstrated by the youths in Egypt showed how impulsive the social media is towards the improvement or change. The actions taught the world that the new wave of activism is cyber activism, and the magnitude of it exceeds the normal way by a great margin. Facebook was one of the pillars of the movement. With a fan base of more than 1 billion people, the social media provided the numbers to create awareness of the movement. It helped fans and followers share wise thoughts and various initiatives that will assist in the mission. Hashtag revolution within Twitter helped people to keep updated with the news on the ground (Herman, 2014). A hashtag is a way of sending information to the world using a common line like Egypt activism after a ‘#’ to the beginning or the end of a sentence. Hence any message that bears #Egyptactivism will fall under one group of similar hashtags.
Results
Similar actions led to the end of Gaddafi’s reign in Libya. The event happened after the end of Egypt’s revolution. Nigeria experienced a couple of cyber activism in recent years that has seen the government take certain issues into consideration. Among the first revolution was the free ciaxon. The hashtag came to be after the government detained Twitter activist, Yusuf Siyaka Onimisi for 12 days because of the true but harsh tweets. The frenzy got big, and the government feared a major catastrophe coming up and released Yusuf. Nigeria was among the first countries to adopt the social media activism with their first campaign being #LightUpNigeria, which centered on electrification of most areas.
#Bringbackourgirls was and still is the biggest revolution that came from Nigeria (Bogart, 2014). It started as a way to mobilize the government to take action on the kidnapping of 200 girls. The kidnaps happened under the government's watch and did not do much about it. The Nigerians united to create the campaign and direct their grievances to the government. It did not take long before the whole world joined in unison towards the campaign. People started sending pictures with plank cards written #Bringbackourgirls to show their support for the movement. The government felt the pressure from international markets and the urgency of the matter. The United States sent some of their military personnel to help out in the capture of the kidnappers and bring back the girls. The fight against the illegal group, Boko Haram, and the country went into a civic battle between the militia and the government. However, with the use of social media, progressive growth continues in the country, and more campaigns will boost the activism to a new level.
References
Bogart, N., 2014. Can social media really help #BringBackOurGirls and end terrorism in Nigeria?. [Online] Available at: http://globalnews.ca/news/1321755/can-social-media-really-help-bringbackourgirls-and-end-terrorism-in-nigeria/[Accessed 19 April 2015].
Cambanis, T., 2015. Is Egypt on the Verge of Another Uprising?. [Online] Available at: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/01/the-egyptian-revolution-four-years-later/384593/[Accessed 19 April 2015].
Herman, J., 2014. Hashtags and Human Rights: Activism in the Age of Twitter. [Online] Available at: http://www.newsweek.com/hashtags-and-human-rights-activism-age-twitter-290950[Accessed 19 April 2015].
