What happens when you start a website which grows so large it starts effecting world-wide geo-politics and is involved in the restructuring of nation’s boundaries, and leadership? Well, in walks Twitter, Google, and Facebook and yes, they are effecting human civilizations and societies to a very large degree. So much so, that many nations are considering banning them if they don’t play along with the current regimes, authorities, and prevent civil disobedience, protests, riots, and “days of rage” – which if you’ve been watching the news is exactly what’s going on these days.
Did you know that social networks have been used in uprisings in Iran, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, China, Myanmar, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Nigeria, Uganda, and probably will soon in the Palestinian territory of Jordan, Venezuela, and about four others I can think of.
There was a very interesting article recently in the San Jose Mercury News titled “Facebook to Assemble Global Team of Diplomats” by Mike Swift posted on May 22, 2011 and undated with more accurate and emerging news on May 23, 2011 after Iran announced a Nation-wide firewall to prevent Western Powers from a “Soft War” using online venues, and after the many articles about how Middle Eastern profiles were rapidly dropping off of Facebook post “Day of Rage” and pro-democracy riots and uprisings. The article stated:
“With 70 percent, 600 million members, outside the US, Facebook is creating a network of ambassadors from India to Ireland with foreign governments and cultures. The new global policy team will monitor the local politics and act as multilingual, TV-friendly voice. Due to its global nature and membership it’s much larger than the population of most countries, with technology that can antagonize both Middle Eastern dictators and European democracies fretful about privacy.”
Already nations are requiring that Facebook work with them, and Facebook has hired an international Diplomacy team now. Saudi Arabia wants to get its own social network, one that the Royal Family can control to prevent uprisings, but still allow their people to enjoy online communications.
Recently, many countries have shown a net-loss of social networking participants in the Middle East, partly because Facebook is a Western Internet company, and some say because no one in these countries wants the regimes to come and knock on their doors in the middle of night, arrest them, and haul them off to prison or worse.
The World is changing in more ways than one and Social Networking appears to be a big player and enabler, which has some folks worried, some folks empowered, and other folks watching to see what will happen next. Please consider all this and think on it.