15.3.2 The Internet and Social Media

The process of globalization has been accelerated by the rise of the internet and the various social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter that exist there. Many people were introduced to the potential of computer networks for sharing information and creating small social networks in the 1980s, when individual users became able to connect their computers to others by using modems and telephone networks. This connectivity gave rise to regional bulletin board systems (BBSs), in which one person’s computer served as a host for those of other users (Figure 15.18). BBSs functioned much like websites today. Though they ran far more slowly and had limited capabilities, they allowed users to share computer files like games and images, post messages for others to read, participate in virtual discussions and debates, and play text-based online games. BBSs used phone networks to communicate, and long-distance calls were then expensive, so their users tended to be local.

Throughout the 1980s, BBSs continued to be popular with computer hobbyists and those intrigued by the idea of unique virtual communities, while networking technology improved steadily behind the scenes. The United States, Europe, and other developed countries were busy adopting a uniform protocol system that would allow computers around the world to easily communicate with others. Once this protocol had been established, the commercial internet as we currently understand it was born.

As early as 1987, about thirty thousand hosts resided on the burgeoning internet. Soon telecommunications and software companies began to exploit this new network by creating online service providers like America Online (AOL) to act as gateways to the internet. Initially, they used standard phone lines and modems to connect, much as BBSs had. But as the volume of information on the internet increased exponentially, service providers turned to more expensive broadband connections that used cable television lines and even dedicated lines to connect. During the 1990s, the first websites, the first internet search engines, and the first commercial internet platforms were established.

By 2005, more than one billion people worldwide were using the internet regularly. They were able to shop online, make phone calls around the world, and even create their own websites with almost no technical training. Never before had the world been so connected. In 2004, Facebook was launched. Originally a networking tool for Harvard students, it quickly expanded globally to become a giant in the new world of social media. By 2010, nearly half a billion Facebook users around the world were sharing images and messages, creating communities, and linking to news stories. By 2022, the number of Facebook users had reached nearly three billion.

Before 2007, almost all internet users gained access to the network via a personal computer, either at home or at work. That year, however, Apple Inc. released the first iPhone, a powerful cell phone but also a portable computer capable of performing all the tasks it once required a desktop computer to do. Even more revolutionary, it connected to the internet wirelessly through cell-phone infrastructure. While the iPhone was not the first phone to connect to the internet, its revolutionary touch-screen interface was far superior to earlier systems. Within just a few years, other cell-phone manufacturers were imitating its design and putting smartphones, and thus internet access, in the pockets of users around the world.

Smartphones have transformed life in developing countries, where they have helped bypass some of the traditional stages of infrastructure creation. In Africa, for example, people living where no landlines existed can now communicate with others using cell phones. Small farmers and traders can use cell phones for banking and to connect with potential suppliers and customers. In communities without libraries, schoolchildren can access the internet’s resources to study.

Smartphones have also democratized the internet, serving as powerful tools for organizing and promoting political change. The large pro-democracy movement in Cairo’s Tahrir Square captured the world’s attention in 2011, for example. But it began with twenty-five-year-old activist Asmaa Mahfouz’s YouTube video of January 18, 2011, in which she spoke directly to the camera and urged young Egyptians to protest at the square as part of the larger Arab Spring, a call for government reform and democracy that echoed across in the Arab world.

The Arab Spring was touched off in December 2010 when Muhammad Bouazizi, a young college graduate, set himself on fire in Tunisia after government officials there tried to interfere with the fruit cart that was his only source of income. Other young Tunisians took to the streets in protest, and demonstrations began again in January 2011. As people died in confrontations with government forces, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled the country, and Tunisia’s prime minister resigned shortly thereafter.

The Tunisian protests led to similar demonstrations in Egypt. On January 17, 2011, an Egyptian set himself on fire near the nation’s Parliament to protest the lack of economic opportunities. Crowds of mostly young people responded with massive demonstrations that lasted weeks (Figure 15.19). These demonstrations were fueled by and broadcast to the world through text messages, photos, tweets, videos, and Facebook posts sent by thousands of mobile phones, including that of Mahfouz. The devices amplified the calls for democracy and showed the world the Egyptian government’s use of violence to try to silence the protestors. Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak resigned on February 11, 2011. He was later convicted for his role in ordering government forces to harm and kill protestors.

In the wake of the Egyptian protests, activists in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan, and other countries coordinated their activities using computers and smartphones to access social media, video, and mobile phone messaging. These efforts resulted in protests, changes to the laws, and even the toppling of governments, such as in Egypt and Tunisia. They also led to civil war in Syria, Iraq, and Libya, leading to thousands of deaths and a refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. While Twitter and Facebook were useful for scaling up protests, the movements to which they gave birth often struggled to find a purpose in countries without a well-established resistance movement.

Since 2011, governments around the world have come to recognize the power of social media to bring about change, and many authoritarian and even ostensibly democratic leaders have moved to limit or block social media use in their countries. China has blocked Facebook and Twitter since 2009 and encourages its citizens to instead use the state-authorized app WeChat, which shares information with the government. In 2020, India banned the social media app TikTok, claiming it threatened state security and public order. In March 2022, following its February invasion of Ukraine, Russia banned Instagram and Facebook because, the government alleged, the platforms carried messages calling for violence against Russian troops and against Russian president Vladimir Putin. Turkmenistan has gone further than China, India, or Russia. It not only bans Facebook and Twitter, but it also requires citizens applying for internet access to swear they will not try to evade state censorship.

In the United States, lawmakers have recognized that social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can both promote and endanger democracy. Social media provides extremist groups with the ability to attract followers from across the nation and incite violence. Groups can use the platforms to spread fake news, and a report by the U.S. Senate has concluded that Russian intelligence operatives used Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to manipulate voters. Legislators have called on social media to more actively censor the content on their platforms and limit or block access by groups or persons spreading hate speech or disinformation. The potential for misuse of technology is heightened by advances that enable the creation of deepfakes, computer-generated images that closely resemble real people.