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The Internet: A New Voice for Civil Rights Group
With the availability of modern and cheapertechnology, the world has become a
single state, a world that now has imaginary boundaries in terms of communications.
Ever since the Internet was born it has continually evolved and now became an
important part of our daily undertakings. It is the treasure trove of information. News
coming from the other side of the world reaches us within seconds with the help of the
internet. Ideas and information continuously change hands in the Web shaping our
societies today.
We are now in the Information age and it posses the power to change our lives
and even the world. As Dorothy Denning (a Distinguished Professor at the Department
of Defence Analysis Naval Postgraduate School and author of Activism, hacktivism,
and Cyberterrorism: the Internet as a tool for influencing foreign policy andother books
dedicated to Internet and its usage) argued, the Internet is a powerful tool for
communicating and coordinating action due to its relatively easy to access nature and
inexpensive operation (Denning, 2000). This is the main argument why a single man or
groups of any size can reach each other and use the Net to promote an agenda.
Anyone coming from any geographical region in the world can access articles and other
publications promoting an ideology or an agenda anytime and anywhere in the Internet.(Denning, 2000).
The use of the Internet in order to promote advocacy is can be described as a
form of Cyber Activism. It is the promotion of ideas or agendas with the use of the
Internet through gadgets like computers, cellular phones and tablets.
Cyber-activism is a new form of activism that was done in a digital manner. It was
made possible by the Information Age. With huge amount of information and data
available with only a touch of a finger, the possibilities of its use are endless. The
amount of ideas and information that can be shared to a large crowd willing to listen is a
massive opportunity to people and groups to advance their interest. Internet has the
capacity to become a tool for interest articulation. Today it has been tapped by
numerous people, especially civil rights groups and was able to influence political
landscapes.
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Throughout history, political lobbying generally has been done in-person, using
lobbyists and/or strategic monetary donations to facilitate their goals. With the growth of
the Internet however, new means of interest articulation have risen. The most prominent
types of Cyber Activism used are the social media activism and hacktivist movement.
According to Anthony Pratkanis, a professor of Psychology from the University of
California, he significance of Technology in political participation especially in the
process of interest articulation is that the effects brought upon by CyberActivism was
just the starting point of a new and higly sophisticated tool in communication (Samuel,
2004). Thus we must pay attention to future trends. The digital world connects people
and ideas. These areas are still vastly uncharted. Their possibilities are endless and
one by one we can charter these great areas of the political world.
The world saw its great capabilities unleashed and turned into action in the
Middle East. The Arab spring was a revolution joined by young protesters influenced by
the social media. In the year 2011, hacking group known as the Anonymous and the
website Wikileaks leaked government documents online. The secrets that have been
revealed stirred the people causing them to act against their government.
Individuals and other groups such as Civil rights groups are tapping the Internet
to propagate their ideas and agendas. Their actions have resulted in the formation of
Internet as modern public spheres.
Internet as a modern Public Sphere
The Public Sphere theory proposed by Jurgen Habermas explains the existence
of an external authority, completely separated from the state, safeguards the rights of
the people. This external authority is composed of discussion groups of people
discussing existing social and political issues. These groups of intellectual discussion
create a public sphere, freely discussing relevant matters and making it possible to
create solutions. It was a phenomenon studied by Habermas in the Bourgeouise era,
but the concept is still applicable in current situation.
Sidney Verba and Gabriel Almond, in their study of the distribution and causes of
mass activism, said that cultural attitude of the people affects mass movement. (Almond
and Verba,1963). It is said that education (and socioeconomic status) plays a vital role
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in peoples participation. Men are more likely to participate if they are informed,
interested, and efficacious, if they care strongly about the outcome, and if they think that
they can make a difference.
That is the effect brought about the interactions brought by Social Networking
websites and blog websites. They are promoting discussions and intellectual debates
online in these websites. With an easy access to these intellectual discussions, these
websites increase peoples participation, which in turn turns into political education.
The cycle continues as the political education turns into mass political
participation caused by the empowerment brought about the new information they have
obtained. Mass participation greatly increases the democratic process helping the
people mould the laws that will suit better for their needs.
This is the backbone of the public sphere theory. The people are capable of
creating an independent organization, separate from the state, to safeguard the rights of
the people. The laws and policies created by the government should reflect the public
sentiment with the help of the public sphere. It is the nature of legitimate democratic
government to follow the lead of the people.
Dahlgren proposed that there are different sectors of Net-based public spheres
and there are five categories in which he divided the public sphere. These are E-
governments, Activist Domain, Civic Forums, Parapolitical Domain and Journalism
Domain. (Dahlgren, 2005):
The E-Government is the approach made by the state through its representatives
to interact more with it citizen. Activist Domains are public spheres where discussion is
framed by an individual or groups with a specific advocacy with the goals of forming
political intervention, Civic Forums meanwhile is the type of public sphere where views
are exchanged among citizens and deliberation can take place. Parapolitical Domain
are public spheres which conducts discussion among groups of people who are sharing
common social or cultural interests. Lastly the Journalism Domain is the public sphere
composed mainly of large news organizations with websites (CNN et al), Internet-based
news organizations (Rappler et al) and one-person weblog sites or Blogs in short.
(Dahlgren, 2005)
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International Effects of CyberActivism
One of the most glaring evidence of the effect of CyberActivism is the changes
brought upon by the Anonymous Movement in the political landscape of the Internet.
We have seen the success they have achieved in recent years in using the Internet as a
platform to launch their agenda. Politically motivated data breaches and propaganda
movement made by the Anonymous have inspired full-blown revolutions. In the spring
of 2011, protestors, often young, took to the streets in the Middle East, rallying against
their governments, some of which had been in power for decades. They were
emboldened by, among other things, technology. For some, WikiLeaks and a
decentralized online organization known as Anonymous created the environment that
gave rise to the Arab Spring by posting secret government documents online.
Internet based activist groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec have garnered
much media attention over the last few years with takedowns of the FBI, Visa,
Mastercard, Paypal, and Department of Justice websites, as well as disruptions to the
Sony Playstation network. Law enforcement around the world has had difficulty coping
with the decentralized nature of these associations, yet has scored a few recent
successes in arresting individual hackers. The Weekly Focus takes a look at the
organization and goals of Anonymous, as well as the ways that law enforcement has
responded to internet based activists groups and problems law enforcement has faced
in dealing with these organizations.
Anonymous was created in 2003 as a coordinated, but anonymous, online
community. The group first gained notoriety after it initiated an online campaign against
the Church of Scientology, although it wasnt until 2008 that Anonymous started its
devotion to hacktivism - a term the group uses to identify their protest by the way of
hacking. The group has attacked what it views as censorship and regulation of the
Internet, often through distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, or online hacking
that temporarily stops users from accessing targeted websites. The organization is not
tied to any identifiable individual or group, so it is hard to pin down perpetrators in
response to its actions.
Filipino Internet Usage Trends
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The Philippines is dubbed as the social media capital today and was considered
as one of the countries that has the most active people in the internet. The availability of
cheaper gadgets and propagation of free wireless connections makes it possible for
Filipinos to access the internet thereby increasing the number of Filipinos online
annually. Around 29 million Filipinos or 29.2% of the total population are internet users
out of 104 million of the total Philippine population with an estimated 3.7 million of which
are active internet users (Pertierra 2012).
Filipinos are primarily active in the use of Social Media with platforms such as
Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Blog Sites. The active usage of Filipinos to different
social media platforms will result in the gradual reshaping of the Filipino values and
culture (Pertierra 2012).
National Effects of CyberActivism
Events that unfolded in the early 21st century until now have brought to us the
importance of Internet and Technology in the field of politics. Leaders and their regimes
are being toppled down by these digital activities. Mindsets about political ideas are
being influenced and moulded by the information they have accumulated with the help
of online media. We can share our thoughts and ideas in the networking sites and
discuss them to a large number of people. All these and more are the power possessed
by the social media.
A significant event in the year 2001 has shown us the true power of Social Media
when Philippine President Joseph Ejercito Erap Estrada was ousted from presidency.
The very bare appearance of EDSA II All is that it was a successful the peaceful
revolution. What is not known to many is that the EDSA revolution became a success
due to modern technology. The phenomenon was believed to have been caused by
unseen activities the night before the people gathered in EDSA and President Estrada
was ousted from his office. The text brigades that happened around the around the
metropolitan area of the Philippines and nearby provinces have stirred the emotions of
the people. The massive information dissemination about the alleged corruption of the
President and about the protest that was about to happen was sent through SMS (Short
mail service).
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Overall Analysis
The Internet is a new form of media and an effective way of providing the people
an outlet in airing their concerns and grievances or just sharing their ideas and
advocacy. Internet also provides a way of protesting through civil disobedience, either
through Social Media Activism as we have seen in Million People March a mass
movement against the pork barrel and Hacktivism in the Case of Anonymous
Philippines and the cybercrime Law.
The use of social media in activism influences and continuously alters the
political landscape of a country. The continuous growing amount of social media users
will have an effect on the political landscape of today. With the prices of gadgets going
down (with the help cheaper manufacturing technology and huge number of
competition) and the ease of access in the Internet, the Information age has yet to
discover unknown and untapped potentials that will eventually change our lives in the
future.
We are now living in the Information age. Various forms of Media have surfaced
through the innovations from the past years. Internet is one of the product of these
innovation. Its usage has penetrated the daily functions of modern man. Information and
news is just one click away. It has totally overhauled the system of communication and
the way we interact with other people. As Marshall Mcluhan have said.
Any technology gradually creates a totally new human environment
Works Cited
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Almond G. and Sidney Verbas The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and
Democracy in Five Nations (1963)
Brodder, David S. Democracy Derailed: Initiative Campaigns and the Power of
Money .New York: Harcourt, 2000.
Dahlgren, Peter. Media and Poltical Engagement: citizens, communication and
democracy.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Denning, D. E., Activism, Hacktivism, and Cyberterrorism: The Internet as a Tool
for Influencing Foreign Policy, Nautilus Institute. A revised version appeared
in The Computer Security Journal, Vol. XVI, No. 3, Summer 2000, pp. 15-35. A
further revision appeared in Networks and Netwars : The Future of Terror, Crime,
and Militancy, J. Arquilla and D. F. Ronfeldt (eds), 2001, pp. 239-288.
Mckenna, Regis. Real Time: Preparing for the Age of Never Satisfied Customers.
Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, 1999.
Pertierra, Raul. "The New Media, Society & Politics in the Philippines." Friedrich-
Ebert-Stiftung (FES) , 2012
Samuel A. (2004) Hacktivism and the Future of Political Participation. Harvard
University. Cambridge Massachusetts