Social Media as Alternative Public Sphere for Citizen Participation and Protest in National Politics in Zimbabwe

The chapter examines and discusses the role and communicative potential of social media based platforms in citizen political participation and protests in Zimbabwe specifically focusing on the #thisflag movement on Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp. #thisflag is a social media-based platform that rose to challenge the Zimbabwean government over the political and economic decay as well as rampant corruption characterising the country contemporarily. While a new phenomenon to Zimbabwe and Zimbabwean politics, the impact and communicative potential of social media as an alternative public sphere was recently tested in nationwide protest stayaway organised through the Facebook and Twitter movement under the #thisflag handle/brand. This chapter discusses the manners in which such social media platforms impact national politics in Zimbabwe as well as globally, specifically looking at the #thisflag movement as a case study.

Hashtag Activism and the Transnationalization of Nigerian-Born Movements Against Terrorism

This chapter describes how the Nigeria-based civil society initiatives have, of late, deployed digital activism in a bid to mobilize both endogenous and exogenous institutions against the terrorist group, Boko Haram. One of these anti-terrorism movements is the #BringBackOurGirls campaign which was launched in May 2014, following the abduction by Boko Haram of 276 schoolgirls, in the Northeastern village of Chibok (Nigeria). The #BringBackOurGirls” movement quickly attracted support from millions of voices (including Heads of States, their wives and celebrities) all over the world. In spite of its internationalization, the campaign has variously been critiqued. Many critics have arguably equated it with mere “clickitivism”. Using empirical understandings, this chapter appraises the #BringBackOurGirls campaign vis-à-vis the fight against terrorism in Nigeria. The chapter starts by examining the genesis of the movement and its progressive trans-nationalization. It proceeds to exploring the extent to which the movement could be seen as “clicktivism”; and ends with a review of some of its successes.

Euphoria and Delusion of Digital Activism

This chapter seeks to question and problematize the concept of cyber-utopianism that has characterized the phenomenal increase of digital activism in the African continent in the last decade. Using tweets collected between November 1, 2015 and May 1, 2016 on the #ZumaMustFall digital activism as a case study, the chapter argues that the ability of new media technologies in digital activism to create awareness has created a sense of euphoria that digital activism can bring about political, economic and socio-cultural changes. The study revealed that #ZumaMustFall digital activism has had limited impact as Zuma has not fallen and this can be attributed to the elite nature of the movement that has excluded vast majority of ordinary South Africans from the activities of the movement. In addition, the racial coloration of the movement (i.e. identity) hindered the movement from reaching out to the public who could have actively participated in translating the movement from the online space to the offline space and achieve their goals and objectives.

Social Media Strategies of Political Power

This chapter analyzes the social media strategies of political power focusing on Turkey. By using inner-circle and outer-circle conceptualizations, it shows that the ruling party in Turkey simultaneously prevents and embraces social media in order to consolidate its power. The inner-circle strategies consist of practices facilitating an efficient use of social media whereas the outer-circle strategies are composed of judicial and technical measures to obstruct the democratic use of social media. By stressing that political power can also use social media efficiently, the chapter contributes to the literature in which social media is generally associated with emancipatory initiatives and the strategies of power are mostly explored in terms of restrictive measures. The chapter also describes the strategic role of social media in the increasingly violent power struggle in Turkey and the difficulties of using it in advocacy campaigns.

Trans-National Advocacy and the Hashtag Black Lives Matter

This chapter offers an insight into racial debates and equality advocacy in the 21st century and explores the emergence, the becoming and long-lasting effect of #BlackLivesMatter. The hashtag story is a traditional viral web content. Nevertheless, technologies allowed these initially local concerns, to become a world-wide plea. The first section summarises the past and current struggle for civil rights and equality in the USA. The second one focuses on the European reception of the hashtag in two structurally different countries. The last section discusses both outcomes and consequences in terms of social policies and international advocacy. A journalistic and critical analysis of the movement is here provided, with long term effects and reception case studies.

Barriers to Social Media Advocacy

This chapter describes how the latest statistics on social media usage shows Facebook as the biggest social networking site with over a billion users. With all the possibilities of the potential to grow transnational advocacy networks presented by the use of social media, its adoption and usage is not without limitations. A social media led campaign requires resources to ensure its effectiveness and should be used to complement a traditional advocacy campaign. Project Tell Them We are From Here, an anti-xenophobia campaign is used to explore some theories and demonstrate some of the resource challenges and how very few examples of true transnational advocacy can be found. This project is a collaboration of established non-governmental organisations with strong transnational links with a production company seeking to drive a social movement for unity and raising awareness of the daily plight of immigrants. Despite the campaign team's limited finances and capacity and shortcomings in the implementation of its social media campaign, the project demonstrates the affordances of social media for resource and capacity restrained activists.

Social Media Activism From an Information Warfare and Security Perspective

The use of social media in advocacy, and particularly transnational advocacy, raises concerns of privacy and security for those conducting the advocacy and their contacts on social media. This chapter presents high-level summaries of cases of social media in advocacy and activism from the perspectives of information warfare and information security. From an analysis of these, the impact and relationships of social media in transnational advocacy and information security is discussed. Whilst online advocacy can be considered to be a form of information warfare aligned to a Cyber Macht theory, it can be argued that social media advocacy negatively impacts information security as it encourages various actors to actively attempt to breach security.

From Jenin to Johannesburg

Social media has given Palestinians around the world a voice with which to confront flawed media coverage of the Israeli occupation. This chapter will explore the use and rise of internet-based information and communication technologies (ICTs) and social media to expose Israel's colonial project in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and advance pro-Palestine advocacy. The success and limitations of social media-based activism are examined, as well as the Israeli government's repressive response to these advocacy efforts. While social media has successfully challenged some deeply-entrenched media stereotypes about the Israeli occupation, it is a crucial tool for advancing Palestine activism globally. The chapter concludes that social media campaigns must be integrated with traditional advocacy, lobbying and grass-roots activism to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine and achieve a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis.

Using Social Media to Advocate LGBT Rights in Black Africa

The prevalence of draconian homophobic laws in Cameroon and Nigeria has systematically stultified sympathy for the LGBT communities and made pro-gay street activism a risky venture in these two countries. In view of this, a good number of gay rights activists have resorted to the social media as a suitable platform for a less risky advocacy. Using the social media has afforded them the opportunity to explore interactive, post-modern, and personified approaches to sensitizing and mobilizing their readership in favour of gay proselytism in Cameroon, Nigeria, and some other parts of Africa. Based on a content analysis of 200 blog posts and web/facebook pages generated by Cameroonian and Nigerian gay activists, this chapter measures the extent to which gay activists adopt a national/local perspective versus the level to which they adopt an international perspective in their online advocacy. The chapter equally examines the degree to which these citizen journalist/activists construct their advocacy discourse from the prism of a cultural war between the West and Africa.

Enhancing E-Transparency in Public Governance Through Social Media

This chapter is a discussion on e-transparency. It is motivated by the trend where e-governance fails to significantly distinguish itself from the traditional governance, through embracing its secretive and prolonged nature of decision making. Both service delivery, and process and event models provided a basic background on enhancing transparency in governance activities. The emphasis is to make citizens the centre of governance processes. Moreover, key areas where citizen participation is desired, are discussed. The discussion integrates the role of ICTs is maximising participation. The later section of this chapter focuses on addressing contemporary challenges of e-transparency, in governance activities. Collectively, the modern society must embrace e-transparency, in ensuring that citizens decide their fate.