Social Network

Social media as a public space in the 21^st century.

Abstract.

Social media have progressively became extensive and enormous. Nonetheless, the written works on political issues and the internet has not completely clutched just how much the global computer network have crucially and radically changed the aspect of organisational interaction, ranging from an independent party having the power and mean to directly assemble materials to making grassroots transnational governmental issues more organisationally plausible and practical. A huge aperture in the writings is the absence of apprehension of how the internet have structured social movement organisations and the organisation of social movements. This problem brings jointly a distinctive collection of articles that plan and remarked on the domain of social media and social movements. In this sphere, the work grants to literature by inspecting how the internet is not only structuring constitutional coalition, advocacy and activism from the viewpoint of organisational communication but as well as developing the means in which activists communicate with one another. Hence, this work is mainly focused on how social media is being galvanised to manipulate public opinion and organised political active service. In short, the focal point of this conference paper will principally explore the aspect of how social media is being a public sphere when it comes to activism such as the campaign of Obama and Ségolène Royal, the Black Lives Matter, the Women March, the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Arab Spring- which has to do with politics. This collection produces an analytical starting point to apprehend the internet and social movement effectively, a field which is crucially vital to a variety of disciplines but is intensely under searched and under rated.

To begin with, the exposure of the Internet in the early nineties, shortly became obvious that this brand new manifestation of technology had the prospective of developing a cyberspace for governmental debate. The emergence of the global computer network has permitted for an unparalleled proficiency of data sharing. The flexibility of the Internet sites means one can connect with an extensive audience, no matter if it is via the low commitment of the 140-character count on Twitter, the visual-audio feature of Instagram, or the accessibility of Facebook. The causes of community can be made completely apparent through 30-second videos which can be easily shared by millions of computer operators. The efficient circulation of statistics by social media has granted to the case of social media activism, where administrative dynamism are quickly spread among users via social networking. Nowadays, Internet websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Wikipedia, Flickr and YouTube are the top activities on the World Wide Web. For instance, since April 2011, Facebook has roughly 600 million recorded users and according to marketers, people spend more time on Facebook than on Google (R. Effing et al, 2011). Today, the utilisation of mobile internet gave an extra uplift and push to the use of social media. Communities such as bureaucratic parties are attempting to keep up with this changing environment. By carrying activism on media platforms, politicians are able to share ideas and exchange views to million within minutes (Social media and political participation, 2018).

In 1992, Garnham, a television director asked ‘what new political institutions and new public sphere might be necessary for the democratic control of a global economy and polity?’’. The answer credibly showed itself with the entry of the Web in the beginning of the nineties. A sphere which empowered human to communicate across any distance, regardless of age and status, caste and gender. Furthermore, face to face communication of the public realm was over, ‘democracy must henceforth take into account new forms of electronically mediated discourse’ (Poster, 1997). Social media was shown as more active and dynamic and anyone who had computer and Internet facilities could be rewarded from its communication and online civic engagement. Finally, today social media is pushing forward a present-time public space through online discussion and networked communication without any unfairness or partiality. This part of the scholarly work, lay importance on the fact that earlier everybody did not get the chance of bringing forward their perspective but with the progression of social media they easily shared their views openly and have the ability to take part in online activism carried out by political bodies.

How social media as a public space led to a success in activism are shown in the case of Obama and Ségolène Royal political campaign. The case of Obama’s election crusade was substantially and consistently bottomed on online media platforms. Next to his own website, the former president of the United States of America, used fifteen social media web pages to promote his works. He very well perceived and interpreted the power of flattering the offline work with an online campaign. The latter coherently connected the online community with the offline social actions such as fundraising. His social work was seen by million across the planet through the site of the Internet like Twitter, which gave him the image of an ideal and noble president. Thus, his use of the global computer network was a significant feature of his general campaign master plan (J. Hillegersberg et all, 2011). Additionally, another victorious case was the campaign of Ségolène Royal during the French elections in 2007. The latter was able to conduct a connection with a massively huge crowd in the online world. Her activism done on social media, led to a rise in her party membership from 120, 000 to 200, 000 members. Surprisingly, earlier 90% of a sudden rise had not been a member of an administrative party. Therefore, with examples of mass mobilisation like inhabitant oppositions in Iran and other Middle-Eastern nations, it is secure and relevant to claim that social media are changing the game of party politics (Social media and political participation, 2018).

Ultimately, because of the essence of the Internet, activism is allowed to enlarge its definition to those who are constantly sharing links, appeal and other Internet resources to stimulate their political interests. Individuals are effortlessly able to team with the protests via hashtags or changing their online avatar. Anybody out there with Internet accessibility have the ability to be a social activist and make their voice heard across borders. Conceivably, the most important part of social networking activism is the capability of translating words into action. The huge oppositions of the yesteryears have all been planned via different social media sites. Remarkably, the Women’s March in Washington was arranged on a Facebook event by women with no early acquaintance. Three acclaimed women activists had distinctly posted about a feasible women’s march opposing President Trump’s establishment. They team up, enrolled other activists to plan the big event. Eventually, thousands and thousands of people stipulated their objective to attend via a ‘’Répondez s’il vous plaît’’ to the Facebook event and it finally acquired hundreds of supporting parade all over the universe. The occurrence victoriously provoked the interest of the nation, assembling upward about two million individual in a mass protest. Precisely, the creation of the march were able to be broadly perceived and accessible to anyone. The obtainability of social media permitted a large-scale support base which will subsequently stop such a movement from being seen as something useless (R. Lau, 2017).

Consequently, the Internet regularly issues a way of recognition.  Once again, with the intervention of hashtags, social media users have the facility of distinguishing themselves with the movement of activism. The most well-known example is the inventive use of the ‘’Black Lives Matter’’ hashtag in its conflict in opposition of police cruelty and consistent racism. Here, the Internet has demonstrated itself as a monstrous tool in providing a voice to individual all over the planet mainly to the marginalised sectors. The Black Lives Matter movement started with a hashtag on websites and the support of the so-called ‘’slacktivitist’’ on social media made it ‘’a member-led global network of more than 40 chapters’’, according to the Black Lives Matter webpage. Moreover, the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ice bucket challenge, which filled all platforms of social media with videos of people submerge the head with ice water, raised $115 million and an additional $13 million was given into charity to the institution’s regional branches (N. Langfield, 2017). Furthermore, corresponding hashtags were utilised to boycott against the Hudson Bay Company, for the eviction of Ivanka Trump’s stock and Uber, for its CEO’S participation in Donald Trump’s advisory board. These tags permits posts to be classified, facilitate it for viewers to be in line with the happenings. Finally, the Hudson Bay Company flown out a declaration concerning the avoidance and Uber’s CEO left from the advisory board. Hence, while putting a hashtag to a tweet may seem like a tiny action but it certainly results to triggering answers from authority (Social media as tool for meaningful political activism, 2017).

Once again, the noticeable Black Lives Matter movement as well shows the power of a social movement widely footed on Internet sites as a substitute voice for the repressed. While traditional media may not be willing to involve certain occurrences in its printing because of political pressures, tensions and corporate restrictions, a coalition free from these imprisonment may proclaim itself without any fear or hesitation. For instant, the death of Travyon Martin, the crime which flickered the organisation, was limitedly wrapped by the old media till a journalist persuade big channels to take up the story. After the death of Martin, upcoming unfairness undertaken by the Black Lives Matter movement were published on web pages under the hashtag. The old media’s defeat to label white greatness, and in the duration its criminalisation of Black victims, led voices on social networking sites to become a relevant source of data (R. Lau, 2017). Thus, once again the Internet has been shown as a public sphere for activism.

Likewise, a fresh blog post by an ex female Uber worker revealing its coherent prejudices against women initiated an investigation by Uber’s chief executive. The website post which had the detailed incidents of sexual molestation by the top management and the brush off of concern by the human resources, resonated with many women workers from the technical stream and unmasked a bigger issue of sexism inside the fraternity. Uber is one among the big companies with a notable impact and it is understandable to see why media channel would refuse to take up any such story. The very same story when posted on media platforms like Twitter were shared a thousand times and it obtained traction once it was supported and fought by other female workers who left Uber. Popular bloggers who have huge amount of followers were able to provoke change via their prospective capability to associate with their people, unlike news outlets, where the publishers were restricted by the editors and tackled by the people who contradict (Social media as tool for meaningful political activism, 2017).

Coming back to the real politics side of things, social media has become a mean for political institutions all over the political spectrum. In order to understand how this change occurred, it is important to look a bit in the past. Six years ago, a sequence of well-known movements all over the planet spelled hope for Facebook and Twitter as a mean of social change. The first one starting in 2011 was the Occupy Wall Street movement. It was all began as a small protest but quickly turned into a transnational movement, pulling consciousness to the concentration of cash in a few wealthy ‘’one-percenters’’. The occupiers of Wall Street pulled it off by the use of Twitter to unfurl their message. While Occupy was in many ways a non-resistant and acceptably failed organisation, its victory in mobilisation sowed seeds which bore fruits in upcoming activists campaigns (D. Murthy, 2018).

Another big argument how social media acts as a public space for activism is the Arab Spring. The second version of the Arab Social Media Report disclosed that almost nine out of ten Egyptians and Tunisians utilised Facebook to plan and publicised protests and almost all protests took place. Additionally, the document found that the use of Facebook risen and doubled between January and April 2011. The overall amount of operators had augmented by thirty percent in comparison to the eighteen percent rise in 2010. Its utilisation in Bahrain soared by fifteen percent in three month time. It is argued that during the time of protests in Egypt and Tunisia, eighty eight percent Egyptian and ninety four percent Tunisians revealed that they were receiving their information through social media websites. On twitter the tweets summited at particular incidents just like the January 14 protest in Tunisia and they augment days after the Bahraini affirmation started on February 14. Ultimately, the Egyptians hashtag ‘’Egypt’’ gained 1.4 million tags in three month (Arab Social Media Report, 2011). This kind of digits show the unexpected level of participation in social media.

In conclusion, previously parliamentary posts on the Internet were denigrated for their incapacity to impact genuine change. However, acclaimed organisations unfolded a different reality. When people get the feeling of a reasonable pain to rectify, they will go to extreme extent to make it known. This has been proved by the turnout of Occupy in 2011, the Black Lives Matter and the transnational participation in the Women’s March. Activism on the Internet has obviously grown into a pivotal part of impactful political theory. Government bodies prolong mobile Twitter accounts and online appeal are frequently shared on the Web. Consequently, the Internet has permitted people from small sector to make a change in their own way possible. It has make data become inequity towards the commanding group. Internet activists acknowledge the capability of online community and while there are enquiry about the originality of unfiltered voices, the rate and result of such a system are licencing and empowering.

Reference list:

Badoura, S. The role of social media in the Arab Spring. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/JUGUN%20DIKSHA/Downloads/Badoura.pdf

Effing, R., & Hillegersberg, J., & Huibers, T. (2011). Social Media and Political Participation: Are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Democratising Our Political Systems? Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221353460_Social_Media_and_Political_Participation_Are_Facebook_Twitter_and_YouTube_Democratizing_Our_Political_Systems

Kim, S (2017).  Can we use social media as a form of activism? Retrieved from http://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2017/12/can-we-use-social-media-as-a-form-of-activism

Langfield, N. (2017). Social media activism is no joke. Retrieved from http://www.queensjournal.ca/story/2017-10-27/lifestyle/social-media-activism-is-no-joke/

Lau, R. (2017). Social Media as Tool for Meaningful Political Activism. Retrieved from http://mcgillleftreview.com/article/social-media-tool-meaningful-political-activism

Moyer, J. (2017).  POLITICAL ACTIVISM ON SOCIAL MEDIA HAS GROWN SOME TEETH. Retrieved from https://psmag.com/social-justice/social-media-activism

Murthy, D. (2018). Introduction to Social Media, Activism and Organisation. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305117750716#

Xu, C. (2017). Going Viral: Using Social Media for Activism. Retrieved from https://medium.com/social-media-stories/going-viral-using-social-media-for-activism-78cade6e2371

Abstract

This paper explores the concepts of community and how computer-mediated technologies, such as Social Network Sites (SNS), influence the ways in which these communities are structured within the virtual and physical environments. As SNSs become common in our everyday life, individuals are increasingly involving themselves in a variety different social networks online that cater for a diverse and niche audience. Particularly, this paper explores how the political realms interact with SNSs to not only allow traditional and non-traditional political organisations to disseminate news and information, but to foster debate and discourse among those involved within these political communities. Further, this paper will analyse how the extent to which communities utilise SNSs to access news and information influences the social capital of individuals. This paper will then analyse studies from Zuniga, Jung, and Valenzuela (2012,) and Zuniga, Barnidge and Scherman (2017), to specifically understand how SNS enable this increased social capital, in addition to how this consequently influences the levels of civic and political engagement both online and offline. Moreover, this paper will argue that the accumulation of news and information through SNSs increases individuals social capital and political and civil participation. Further, this paper will conclude that increased online social capital is predictive towards an increase in social capital offline.

 Keywords: computer-mediated technology, communities, social capital, political science

Introduction

Current studies into the concepts of community within our contemporary society focus on how the experience of community has been affected by computer-mediated technologies such as smart phones, computers and the internet (Katz et al. 2004). Many authors within this field offer many varying definitions of “community” to provide a broad context whereby they argue differing community constructs. While Arensberg (1965) identifies three constructs to community; environment, social form, and pattered behavior; Sanders (1966) argues four; a place to live, a spatial unit, a way of life, and a social system. With an abundance of differing definitions around community, Jones (1995) found that the majority of definitions relied heavily on the constructs of social involvement and interaction, rather than relying on physical space, and more on the social systems that function within a community environment. Meyrowitz’s (1985; 1989) analysis of social roles and identities within communities, focusing on media and mental constructs, allows for an argument that is more appropriate to the virtual landscape in which computer-mediated technologies provide. Meyrowitz (1985; 1989) describes how individuals gain a sense of who they are, and the community in which they identify, by imaging how others – live and mediated – view them, noting the importance of media and mediation in the development of community. Katz et al. (2004) review many of these varying definitions of “community” to provide characteristics that both physical and virtual communities allow for, noting similarities, but more importantly, differences whereby virtual communities extend the boundaries of physical communities. Through their analysis, Katz et al. (2004) provide four ideal community types; traditional communities, pseudo-communities, imaginary communities, and social networks.

Social Networks

Social network communities refers to virtual communities, where personal mediated technologies have allowed for telecommunication that transcend geographic location, facilitating specialized and personal communities based on belonging rather than physical proximity (Katz et al., 2004). Katz et al. (2004) describe this community as networked individualism, where individuals can choose their community voluntarily within a larger social construction. Moreover, personal mediated technologies, such as mobile phones, can facilitate this network individualism faster than that of physical communities. Social network sites (SNS) are increasingly becoming an important platform that aid the creation of these social networks and communities online. SNSs allow users the ability to create individual profiles based around their identity and interests, and ultimately connect and navigate with others within the SNS (Zuniga, Jung and Valensuela, 2012). Social network sites allow for what Katz et al. (2004) describes as ‘network individualism’ with others within the social network that share similar interests, beliefs, or activities. Boyd and Ellison (2008) describe how SNS can cater for a more diverse and niche audience who seek to network based around racial, sexual, religious, political, or nationality-based identities.

SNSs and Politics

Politics in particular has become an important determinant in the development of social network communities, as individuals are able to interact and collaborate with others who share similar political ideologies and affiliations. Facebook in particular has become saturated with social network groups that identify all ends of the political spectrum, whether it’s hard-left, centric, or hard-right ideologies. These social networks can be facilitated by traditional political parties in an attempt diversify their communication channels. For example, the ‘The Australian Greens’ and ‘One Nation’ both have Facebook pages in an attempt to communicate directly with their publics. Whilst these traditional political parties utilise Facebook as a means to communicate policy, news and civic information with physical communities in which they are responsible for, they lack authoritative control over the activities and discourse that function within their social network. Private citizens, no matter of political ideology, can interact with each other through these political Facebook groups, in a manner that allows for rational, inclusive and general debate. Similar to that of traditional political organisation, private citizens can form communities on Facebook around subjective political interests and activities. The Facebook page “Patriot Blue” is publicity organised community of individuals who boast far-right political interests in Australia, supporting policies that are seen as anti-immigration and anti-globalist, to name a few. Empowered by the rise of Pauline Hanson’s ‘One Nation’ political party, ‘Patriot Blue’ utilise Facebook as a space for individuals who identify as ‘patriots’ or ‘nationalist’ to share news and civic information that reap right-wing characteristics (Tran, 2017). Similarly, Facebook communities can foster around specific political and public issues rather than a particular political ideology that is interested in a number of policy issues that affect their communities. The Facebook page ‘Australian Marriage Equality’ is a community of individuals with an interest and involvement in the issue regarding the legalisation same-sex marriage in Australia. This group boasts a social network of over 303,000 users, utilising Facebook as a social tool to communicate and engage with others the issues regarding same-sex marriage. Engagement with news and information published by ‘Australian Marriage Equality’ within this public forum allows for further debate and discourse around the issue. Users who disagree or express a different opinion with the information produced by ‘Australian Marriage Equality’ can react, comment  or share their personal opinion with others within the social network ‘Australian Marriage Equality’ provides, in addition to their own personal social network.

Social Capital and News

Coleman originated the term ‘social capital’ as a “common set of expectations, a set of shared values, and a sense of trust among people” (1990, p. 306).  Since the term was originated, other theorists have conceptualised vary definitions of social capital, particularly within studies involving community relations with the public and political sphere. As scholars became interested in the constructs of social involvement and interaction (Jones, 1995) in facilitating communities, social capital was viewed as the value this social involvement and interaction added to individuals’ lives. As SNS’ facilitate the growth of differing on political communities, it too facilitates the structure and nature of the social capital within these communities. As SNSs become common place within our computer-mediated society, they are becoming increasingly used as a tool to gather news and information about their online and offline communities (Zunia, Jung and Valenzuela, 2012). The same ways in which individual use SNS as a tool to construct identity and maintain social relationships, it is also utilised as a tool to contribute and share news information that is public or politically orientated. News and information, as Zuniga, Jung and Valenzuela (2012) note, can be curated around individuals political interests, values and beliefs, allowing them to be shared and discussed among their social network. Zunia, Jung and Valenzuela (2012) conducted a study through data collected in the U.S. between December 15, 2008, and January 5, 2009, in order to explore how individual SNSs use for news contributed to the creation of social capital. The study found that the extent to which respondents used SNSs to gather and share political news and public information about their community was positively related to social capital (Zunia, Jung and Valenzuela, 2012). The study found that respondents who shared political and public news reinforced new and existing community ties by keeping up to date with each other with what’s going on in their community, further creating more trusting and strong relationships (Zunia, Jung and Valenzuela, 2012). As individuals increasingly utilise SNSs as a tool to gather and share news and information about their communities, increasingly individuals found to report higher levels of value within their relationships with the online network of individuals whom they’re sharing this news and information. Consequently, high levels of social capital reported also found to influence individuals willingness to civically engage; particularly influencing online and offline political participation activities.

Civic and Political Participation: Online and Offline

The research provided by Zuniga, Jung and Valenzuela (2012) allows an understanding of how SNS use for news and information gathering and sharing effects individual social capital levels. It also provides an understanding of how these social capital levels can influence individuals willingness to participate in civic and political activities within their online and offline communities. The study present by Zuniga, Jung and Valenzuela (2012) measured participation at three levels; civic engagement, offline political participation, and online political participation. While civic engagement refers to the extent to which individuals are willing to work for the community, like volunteering for a charity, political activities (online and offline), political enagement refers to the involvement and behaviour towards government action and policy making (Zuniga, Jung and Valensuela, 2012). The study found that individuals political efficacy, SNS use for news, and political discussion network attributes, had a positive impact on individuals online participation activities like sharing political news and messages (Zuniga, Jung and Valensuela, 2012). Similarly, individuals behavioural use of SNSs to gather news and information was found to be predictive of offline political participation activities such as protesting and voting (Zuniga, Jung and Valensuela, 2012). Further research from Zuniga, Barnidge and Scherman (2017) introduces the idea that social capital fostered within SNS is different to that of social capital fostered within physical communities, relating to different types of citizenship and political participation online and offline. In a study conducted in the U.S. between December 2013 and January 2014, Zuniga Barnidge and Scherman (2017) found distinct different between offline social capital and SNS social capital, concluding they respect different constructs and difference. The study found that although both constructs are different, they’re still interrelated as SNS social capital was found to be more predictive of offline social capital more strongly than the other way around (Zuniga, Barnidge and Scherman, 2012). Moreover, Zuniga Barnidge and Scherman  (2012) describe social capital in online and offline communities as a ‘virtuous circle’ due to ones predictability over the other; that being, that social capital fostered through SNS predicts whether these citizens will continue to foster social capital within their communities offline through civil and political participation activities.

In the case for the Facebook communities previous mentioned in ‘SNSs and Politics’, increased participation in online and offline civic and political activities can be analysed. The Facebook community ‘Patriot Blue’ have been noted within news media to utilise SNSs as a tool to not only disseminate information and foster political discourse online, but to coordinate activities offline in objective to further their collective political agenda. Tran (2017) reported on how this far-right Australian group coordinated protests and activist activities offline through SNSs, like ambushing NSW Labour Senator Sam Dastyari, a self-proclaimed left-wing NSW Labour Politian (now ex-politician). The Patriot Blues recorded this confrontation between the two polarising political spectrums, and shared in with their Facebook community in an attempt to send a message to the community that this type of political confrontation is acceptable (Tran, 2017). Though the incident has been labelled a ‘stage-managed stunt’ due to the nature of the confrontation that lacked appropriate political discourse, and focused more around insults towards the senators race and ethnicity, this Facebook community exemplifies how SNS can enabled collective offline activities that are motivated by political ideologies and affiliations. Similarly, in the case for ‘Australian Marriage Equality’, this non-traditional political organisation utilised Facebook to not only communicate news and information around same-sex marriage issues, but they also organised and coordinated hundreds of offline protests throughout wider Australian communities. Koslowski (2017) reports in the Huffington Post that over 20,000 people showed interest in the Sydney event on Facebook, while Weeks (2017) from The Guardian reports an estimated 30,000 people rallied from Sydney town hall to Circular Quay in support of the ‘yes’ campaign towards same-sex marriage.

Limitations

The article presented by Zuniga, Jung and Valenzuela (2012) provides a study that attempts to overcome the limitations of the accuracy of representing the entire population of U.S adults. The authors identify that their study allowed for more females who were slightly more educated than the general population, which may cause discrepancies and bias within the study. Despite its limitations, the study provides an important contribution into how computer-mediated technologies enrich the social capital of different communities and accordingly, encourage civic and political engagement. Similarly, the article presented by Zuniga, Barnidge and Scherman (2017) identifies the inherent limitations of casual order when regarding the relationship between online social capital and political participation. This papers attempt to analyse particular Facebook groups that identify towards a specific political ideology or policy issue provides a broad understanding of the types of offline activities that online communities can coordinate and engage in. Though this paper explores different instances within Australia whereby SNSs have facilitated offline civic and political participation, the analysis can only assume similar findings to Zuniga, Jung and Valenzuela (2012), and Zuniga, Barnidge and Scherman (2017), whereby SNSs enabled greater amounts of social capital to foster which consequently saw an increase in individuals willingness  to participate in both online and offline political activities.

 Conclusion and Future Study

In summary, this paper seeks to explore the influence SNS have in enabling online and offline communities to function, grow and strengthen. As SNSs become an integral tool for individuals to navigate and understand the diverse communities in which they reside and identify, they are increasingly becoming a space for the political realm to function. In the same ways in which traditional political organisations utilise Facebook as a communication channel to disseminate news and information that suit their political agenda or affiliation (The Australian Greens), more commonly SNSs are allowing non-traditional political organisations (Patriot Blue and Australian Marriage Equality) the ability to communicate news and information about their communities particular political interests and beliefs. As Facebook users are increasingly found to be utilising the social network as a space to gather news and information around political interests, users are consequently seen to exhibit higher levels of social capital. As users foster higher levels of social capital online, they’re found to have a greater willingness to participate in civic and political activities both online and offline. In conclusion, this paper found that increased online social capital was predictive towards an increase in social capital offline, identifying a shift in the relationship between the structure and function of social capital within different community types.

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Zuniga, H., Barnidge, M., and Scherman, A. (2017). Social Media Social Capital, Offline

Social Capital, and Citizenship: Exploring Asymmetrical Social Capital Effects.

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Abstract

            This paper explores the privacy and censorship issues among web communities in China. This paper looks at the different social media platforms banned in China such as Facebook, Twitter and Google and their Chinese controlled replacements including WeChat and Weibo. This paper will introduce the reasons for the Chinese government to invade the privacy of its people and understand explore whether such restrictions will continue to be accepted by its citizens or whether such strategies would backfire on the very essence that the concept was developed around.

Keywords: privacy, China, surveillance, censorship, freedom

The emergence of new smart and intelligence technologies has changed the dynamics of global commercial competitiveness and also provided enterprises with real-time outcomes. On the other end of the pendulum, the use of the internet for social communication has experienced a trending away from traditional internet censorship towards a next generation of censorship and surveillance undertaken by Governmental regimes. This is due to social media being perceived as portraying political insensitiveness and the extreme censorship and surveillance by government authorities have chipped significantly away at the fragility of human freedom for a voice to the right of speech. Perhaps, this paper would examine the democratic viewpoint of whether media scrutiny is of social benefit or a fallacy for political demarcation.

The Cost of the Internet

            Previously, it was a laborious effort to plod through countless physical files and books. Today, our access to any type of data is instantaneous because of technological advances, involving computers and the Internet.

However, trying to maintain privacy on the Internet has become increasingly challenging because an individual may be tracked online by creating digital footprints whenever we use our emails, web browsers, search engines and social media sites.          How can our details be protected so that our lives are not manipulated for the entertainment or benefit of others? Recently, Cambridge Analytica used personal information taken without authorisation from Facebook’s profiles of US voters and harvested the data towards a political outcome. 

To what lengths have we handed over our privacy?

In the event that existing database is hacked or on sold, the privacy of the Internet user is lost. Although there are many ways to minimise intrusion into our electronic space, once we have dipped our toe into the Internet pond, can our privacy be truly guaranteed?

Contrary to what the public believes, not all those concerned with security and privacy are hackers or terrorists. Some governments have taken the surveillance of Internet usage to an extreme and China is racing towards a pervasive system of algorithmic surveillance. (Mitchell & Diamond, 2018). The Chinese government tracks and monitors their citizens online with a surveillance system called Golden Shield, allowing easy access to local, national, and regional records on each citizen. (Mitchell & Diamond, 2018) So far, this ambitious project is confined to a content-filtering Great Firewall. Examples of foreign internet sites which have been caught up in this Firewall and prohibited from the Chinese cyberspace are Google, Facebook, and The New York Times. For example, Facebook was blocked in China following the 2009 Ürümqi riots because Xinjiang independence activists were using Facebook as part of their communications network. According to the Renmin Ribao, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, 80% of its citizens agreed that China should punish Facebook (July 10, 2009). Some Chinese users also believed that Facebook would not have been able to progress successfully following these issues because the Chinese alternative Renren has many features similar to Facebook and complies with government regulations regarding content filtering. Although users were able to access Facebook in limited areas such as hotels favoring the patronage of foreigners, however, Facebook is still blocked according to Mazur (2017).

In addition, the communist party-state is also developing a scoring system on its citizens as a form of control on its own society. For example, depending on whether a person’s use of the Internet is deemed to be positive or negative (which refers to anything discriminatory against the Chinese government in any form), these activities transpose cumulatively onto the scoring system. The ability to obtain a financial loan or visa for overseas visits is dependent on where on the scoring system a person sits. This means that China is placing obstacles in the path of civil liberties on the pretext of undertaking surveillance to monitor crime and terrorism.

With a population of 1.4 billion (Worldmeters, 2018) and growing, it is known as the country with the highest number of mobile users worldwide (Pochtler, 2018). For example, in January 2018, there were about 1.4 billion subscribed and registered mobile phone users and China has set very strict guidelines on how the Internet is used in China. The level of strictness it administers over what the citizens posts is to ensure that no comments are placed online to cause the government to “lose face”.

The current statistic reflects its netizens’ unquenchable appetite for capitalism and contrasts China’s foray into the Internet landscape. In September 1987, Professor Qian Tianbai sent China’s first E-mail titled “Crossing the Great Wall to Join the World” which marked the beginning of the Internet in China. The Chinese government foresaw the potential and by the first quarter of 1990, a pilot network of education and scientific research (NCFC) for the Zhongguancun area was initiated using World Bank loans to build a high-speed interconnected network and a super-computing centre. In that same year, China officially registered its top domain name as CN. (Evolution of Internet in China, 2001)

In the beginning, the Chinese government undertook efforts to facilitate the use of the Internet by slashing fees charged to the dedicated circuit users by half. This resulted in a proliferation of users by 30 June 1999: 1.47 million PCs connected to Internet with 4 million Internet users and 29,045 registered domain names of CN with a total of 9,906 WWW web sites. (Evolution of Internet in China, 2001)

Since then, the government has been tracking existing user profiles and if one is found to have been associated with any comments deemed illegal or anything that will affect either China’s or its leader’s reputation, that particular outlet would be shutdown. The issue of censorship in China was further exacerbated when President Xi was offended by the citizens, in a meme likening him to Winnie the Pooh (Hernandez, 2018). The reason why the protesters created this meme was because they were unhappy with the presidential term limits and thought this protest would bring about changes. (Brimelow 2018) However, the cartoon was immediately censored as Chinese government is very particular that citizens should respect their leaders.

To further tighten up its already stringent regulations, “the government is starting to put together a real name registration and setting up a social credit system to tie one’s online activity to one’s physical identity. This makes it much more difficult to participate in that [meme] culture.” (McLauchlin, 2017) In addition, the English letter ‘N’ was briefly censored as it was used to also highlight unwanted attention to the President’s political tenure. This meant that social scientists were prevented from expressing dissent mathematically by using N > 2, with ‘N’ being the number of Mr. Xi’s terms in office (Hernandez, 2018)

The various social media platforms including Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and Twitter were banned in China because the companies refused to comply with the government’s policy of editing articles prior to being posted online (Beam, 2013) According to blogger Michael Anti, it was forseeable that Twitter would not last long because “Twitter is a tool which can put all the sensitive things and sensitive guys together, very quickly. That’s the very thing that the Chinese government doesn’t want to see in China,” (Branigan 2009) Banning such sites reiterated the governing party’s control over its people. (LaFraniere & Barboza, 2011) However, similar platforms such as Sina Weibo (Weibo) and Wechat, emerged in China to fill the void.

Weibo is the largest Chinese web application. (Yu & Asur & Huberman, 2011) It is also known as a space for freedom of speech and a platform for the community to access important news, however, not without the fear of retribution from the governing bodies. (Monggilo, 2016, p.169) Although a clone of Twitter, Weibo was created with microblogging services on the application, with the ability to monitor the keywords that are trending and other new words viewed as having the ‘potential to offend’ list. (Yu & Asur & Huberman, 2011) However, when Weibo failed to censor the content prior to posting online, it was suspended for a week. (Sun, 2018)

Widely used by 902 million daily users and about 38 billion daily messages sent on the platform, WeChat is poised to become China’s electronic ID system” (Liao, 2018). Lien & Che (2014) agrees that WeChat has become an important social media platform in China since the blocking of other social media platforms. However, the government is also able to monitor and track what the Wechat users are doing and all the information posted online are shared with the government. (Tech, 2017) The Chinese government has also created microblog operators to monitor social media accounts, delete all the false information online and to duplicate a copy of what the users have posted for six months. (The Associated Page, 2018) The limitation of freedom of speech in China is an issue that affects the everyday lives of the Chinese people, due to their opinions and ideas being regulated and monitored by the government. (Asamoah, 2016)

WeChat has many features that can help the government to track any data that they require such as “heat map”. This is a feature that had been installed with locationtracking abilities to find out about protests or areas that need a higher security to control order. (McLauchlin, 2017) Perhaps, this is a strategy by the Chinese government to prevent the same level of international scrutiny that took place after the 1976 Tiananmen Square incident. Besides, WeChat also plays a role in shaping public opinion. Five cent army, which is also known as wu mao, refers to a group of Chinese citizens that are paid by the government to post online statements in order to create interest in the Communist Party. This activity is predominantly undertaken by “public opinion analysts” who rely on tools such as big data analysis and cloud computing to undertake their surveillance. (McLauchlin, 2017)

Although it is widely recognised within China that WeChat is a platform that is massively monitored, its owner (Tencent) has attempted to convince users to “rest assured as respecting user privacy has always been one of WeChat’s most important principles.” (Liao, 2018) In flexing its political muscles on its own people, the Chinese government has effectively clamped down on the country’s freedom of speech, a freedom that is taken for granted in Western cultures. However, the message that China wishes to convey is “as long as you’re not doing anything weird and plotting against the government, they’re not going to dig through your data” (Liao, 2018)

China has not only tightened censorship of the Internet and media and passed a new law regulating foreign nongovernmental organizations but has also launched ideological campaigns in universities and think tanks. Perhaps, the most intimidating strategy employed to date is the arrest of rights lawyers, feminists, foreign NGO workers, bloggers, environmental activists and others who are viewed not to tow the political line. (Segal, 2016, p.5)

Who benefits?

            Companies and consumers in China have traditionally not had any expectations for individual privacy. It was also a given that this kind of privacy did not always leave to negativities because of the perceived benefits including the prevention of terrorism and the guarantee of a safe and peaceful existence. Compared to snooping accepted at home where typical multi-generational households were overcrowded, the government’s poking around in one’s business didn’t feel like an extreme intrusion. (Minter, 2017)

Companies such as Alibaba and Tencent Holdings have been taking advantage of this casual attitude, granting themselves complete freedom to disclose user behavioral profiles to third-party vendors and users have recourse in the event the data has been misused. (Zuo 2017)

In a 2015 survey by a Chinese internet security organization, 44% of Chinese websites had security vulnerabilities resulting in data leakages. There has also been a sharp increase in theft of personal information, with losses estimated at $13.2 billion. (Yu, 2014) Cyber-thieves have little to fear from the law and many third-party brokers ply their trade in the open because law enforcement agencies often do not pay any credence to related reports. However, China can no longer afford that kind of complacency because the Chinese are growing more demanding for changes and international companies have begun to lose trust to invest in China.

Internet and Privacy in the Western World

            The beginnings of the Internet in Australia followed a path similar to China and were once the property of an exclusive community steeped in academia. (Zobel, 2014)   Existing restrictions meant that the Internet protocols were only adopted after attaining a level of maturity and technology progressing rapidly from 1989 onwards, witnessed by the   proliferation of small devices with wireless access to the Internet (Clarke, 1994)

However, tensions between liberty and authoritarianism have resulted in ongoing efforts by the government to overcome the anonymity offered to Internet users and enable increased governmental control. Methods such as ‘tunnelling’ techniques to close down portion of the transmission capacity required for ‘virtual private networks’ and using people to use authority issued identities which can be authenticated are some examples to facilitate surveillance. (Clarke, 1999)

In the UK, the ISPs are required to store user internet history for a certain period enabling messages months ago to be easily retrieved. Details on calls, texts and website history can be used in the event of a police investigation. (Forrest 2016). Australia has legislated similar strategies in overcoming terrorism. Therefore, is the control exerted by these governments different from China and will it be a matter of time before views of governments globally will be in agreement that total social control is the only solution forward?

Conclusion   

            The world today is accustomed to placing a positive reliance on interconnected networks, with the added freedom of social media expression. However, severe curtailment of this freedom in China has eroded the cornerstone of the rule of law for its people.

While China’s actions may be viewed as rather extreme, it could also be said that the Chinese people have displayed a lack of understanding of cohesiveness enjoyed by other countries regarding social media. While strict enforcement of censorship to social media outlets has positively ensured the lack untoward social behavior in China, the downside to this fallacy is that its citizens are often left in the dark about any inappropriate conduct or wrongdoings by their own government.

The fundamental truth is that the global internet is ideally a knowledge gathering resource to empower individuals but it is also a tool for control through censorship and surveillance by politically sensitive governments where the norm is “By the stroke of a pen by the legislative draftsman, the civil liberties of an individual may be snatched away without a minute’s notice”.

 

 

 

 

 

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