Introduction: Worldwide Internet
Activism and Movements
No other subject is drawing more attention in the world of communication today
than the social media. Often discussed in conversations about influences on young
people in America, digital media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and
YouTube—along with an Internet’s worth of websites and blogs—have become
huge influences on world affairs as well. The social media are not just an American
phenomenon; they are used in similar ways and with similar impact by people all
over the world. And, since more than 1.6 billion people—23 percent of the world’s
population—have no say in how they are governed, the Internet and social media
are being used as a means to broadcast that oppression and to push for greater
freedoms. It’s a very risky proposition for people in these countries to do that. They
typically are harassed, imprisoned, tortured, and sometimes killed for doing noth-
ing more than exercising the basic human rights of free expression and association.
This Introduction takes a macro look at some of the transnational movements
that have arisen online either to promote greater freedoms or to push for reforms
on causes deemed important to the world. It also looks at international efforts—
often spearheaded by the United Nations and the United States—to protect indi-
viduals’ rights to the access of information on the Internet around the world. One
section looks at how the Internet is being used by the terrorist group ISIS to spread
its message of hate and to recruit terrorists. The Introduction closes with a look
at the dangers that journalists face in reporting on conditions around the world.
The remainder of the book is a collection of stories about the people of the
world, some of whom live in the most oppressed developing counties, some of
whom live in advanced nations that still deny citizens their basic rights of free
expression, and some of whom live in the freer nations of the world but never-
theless face limits on their freedoms, often the freedom of privacy. Entries in the
collection vary in length, depending on the challenges that the people of these
countries were facing when this book was written in 2016, the significance that
their activist movements had beyond their own borders, and the amount of mate-
rial that could be obtained regarding the countries.
A New Voice
In the 21st century, the social media have given protesters and demonstrators a
voice that they did not have before the age of the Internet. It is much easier for
