0:00:00.996,0:00:05.802
So recently, we heard a lot about[br]how social media empowers protest,

0:00:05.802,0:00:07.381
and that's true,

0:00:07.381,0:00:09.146
but after more than a decade

0:00:09.146,0:00:12.721
of studying and participating[br]in multiple social movements,

0:00:12.721,0:00:14.533
I've come to realize

0:00:14.533,0:00:17.714
that the way technology[br]empowers social movements

0:00:17.714,0:00:21.220
can also paradoxically help weaken them.

0:00:21.220,0:00:25.004
This is not inevitable,[br]but overcoming it requires diving deep

0:00:25.004,0:00:27.187
into what makes success possible

0:00:27.187,0:00:29.137
over the long term.

0:00:29.137,0:00:31.668
And the lessons apply in multiple domains.

0:00:31.668,0:00:34.153
Now, take Turkey's Gezi Park protests,

0:00:34.153,0:00:35.685
July 2013,

0:00:35.685,0:00:38.680
which I went back to study in the field.

0:00:38.680,0:00:41.583
Twitter was key to its organizing.

0:00:41.583,0:00:43.347
It was everywhere in the park,

0:00:43.347,0:00:45.106
well, along with a lot of tear gas.

0:00:45.106,0:00:46.615
It wasn't all high tech.

0:00:46.615,0:00:50.353
But the people in Turkey had already[br]gotten used to the power of Twitter

0:00:50.353,0:00:52.443
because of an unfortunate incident

0:00:52.443,0:00:54.324
about a year before

0:00:54.324,0:00:58.225
when military jets had bombed and killed

0:00:58.225,0:01:02.404
34 Kurdish smugglers[br]near the border region,

0:01:02.404,0:01:06.978
and Turkish media completely[br]censored this news.

0:01:06.978,0:01:08.766
Editors sat in their newsrooms

0:01:08.766,0:01:11.645
and waited for the government[br]to tell them what to do.

0:01:11.645,0:01:14.385
One frustrated journalist[br]could not take this anymore.

0:01:14.385,0:01:16.825
He purchased his own plane ticket,[br]and went to the village

0:01:16.825,0:01:18.187
where this had occurred,

0:01:18.187,0:01:21.043
and he was confronted by this scene:

0:01:21.043,0:01:24.247
a line of coffins coming down a hill,

0:01:24.247,0:01:26.151
relatives wailing.

0:01:26.151,0:01:28.752
He later he told me[br]how overwhelmed he felt,

0:01:28.752,0:01:30.493
and didn't know what to do,

0:01:30.493,0:01:32.536
so he took out his phone,

0:01:32.536,0:01:34.324
like any one of us might,

0:01:34.324,0:01:37.482
and snapped that picture[br]and Tweeted it out.

0:01:37.482,0:01:40.849
And voila, that picture went viral

0:01:40.849,0:01:45.237
and broke the censorship[br]and forced mass media to cover it.

0:01:45.237,0:01:48.418
So when, a year later,[br]Turkey's Gezi protests happened,

0:01:48.418,0:01:51.390
it started as a protest[br]about a park being razed,

0:01:51.390,0:01:54.083
but became an anti-authoritarian protest.

0:01:54.083,0:01:57.891
It wasn't surprising[br]that media also censored it,

0:01:57.891,0:02:00.933
but it got a little ridiculous at times.

0:02:00.933,0:02:02.883
When things were so intense,

0:02:02.883,0:02:07.388
when CNN International[br]was broadcasting live from Istanbul,

0:02:07.388,0:02:10.058
CNN Turkey instead was broadcasting

0:02:10.058,0:02:13.611
a documentary on penguins.

0:02:13.611,0:02:15.584
Now, I love penguin documentaries,

0:02:15.584,0:02:17.929
but that wasn't the news of the day.

0:02:17.929,0:02:20.971
An angry viewer[br]put his two screens together

0:02:20.971,0:02:22.596
and snapped that picture,

0:02:22.596,0:02:24.408
and that one too went viral,

0:02:24.408,0:02:26.126
and since then, people call Turkish media

0:02:26.126,0:02:28.030
the penguin media.

0:02:28.030,0:02:31.071
But this time, people knew what to do.

0:02:31.071,0:02:34.020
They just took out their phones[br]and looked for actual news.

0:02:34.020,0:02:35.994
Better, they knew to go to the park

0:02:35.994,0:02:38.432
and take pictures and participate

0:02:38.432,0:02:40.545
and share it more on social media.

0:02:40.545,0:02:45.165
Digital connectivity, that was used[br]for everything from food to donations.

0:02:45.165,0:02:52.247
Everything was organized partially[br]with the help of these new technologies.

0:02:52.247,0:02:56.473
And using Internet to mobilize[br]and publicize protests

0:02:56.473,0:02:58.609
actually goes back a long way.

0:02:58.609,0:03:02.254
Remember the Zapatistas,[br]the peasant uprising

0:03:02.254,0:03:05.134
in the southern Chiapas region of Mexico

0:03:05.134,0:03:08.129
led by the masked, pipe-smoking,

0:03:08.129,0:03:11.240
charismatic Subcomandante Marcos?

0:03:11.240,0:03:12.819
That was probably the first movement

0:03:12.819,0:03:15.930
that got global attention[br]thanks to the Internet.

0:03:15.930,0:03:17.533
Or consider Seattle '99,

0:03:17.533,0:03:19.878
when a multinational grassroots effort

0:03:19.878,0:03:22.409
brought global attention

0:03:22.409,0:03:25.241
to what was then an obscure organization,

0:03:25.241,0:03:26.936
the World Trade Organization,

0:03:26.936,0:03:31.627
by also utilizing these digital technologies[br]to help them organize.

0:03:31.627,0:03:33.902
And more recently, movement after movement

0:03:33.902,0:03:37.060
has shaken country after country:

0:03:37.060,0:03:42.122
the Arab uprisings from Bahrain[br]to Tunisia to Egypt and more;

0:03:42.122,0:03:45.604
indignados in Spain, Italy, Greece:

0:03:45.604,0:03:47.206
the Gezi Park protests;

0:03:47.206,0:03:50.968
Taiwan; Euro Maidan in Ukraine; Hong Kong.

0:03:50.968,0:03:55.890
And think of more recent initiatives,[br]like the "Bring Back Our Girls" hashtags.

0:03:55.890,0:03:59.466
Nowadays, a network of tweets

0:03:59.466,0:04:02.926
can unleash a global awareness campaign.

0:04:02.926,0:04:06.734
A Facebook page can become the hub[br]of a massive mobilization.

0:04:06.734,0:04:08.684
Amazing.

0:04:08.684,0:04:12.538
But think of the moments I just mentioned.

0:04:12.538,0:04:16.393
The achievements they were able to have,

0:04:16.393,0:04:17.461
their outcomes,

0:04:17.461,0:04:22.453
are not really proportional[br]to the size and energy they inspired.

0:04:22.453,0:04:26.284
The hopes they rightfully raised[br]are not really matched

0:04:26.284,0:04:30.812
by what they were able to have[br]as a result in the end.

0:04:30.812,0:04:33.064
And this raises a question:

0:04:33.064,0:04:38.729
as digital technology makes things[br]easier for movements,

0:04:38.729,0:04:43.002
why haven't successful outcomes[br]become more likely as well?

0:04:43.002,0:04:48.017
In embracing digital platforms[br]for activism and politics,

0:04:48.017,0:04:50.827
are we overlooking some of the benefits

0:04:50.827,0:04:52.661
of doing things the hard way?

0:04:52.661,0:04:53.868
Now, I believe so.

0:04:53.868,0:04:55.633
I believe that the rule of thumb is

0:04:55.633,0:05:00.950
easier to mobilize does not always mean[br]easier to achieve gains.

0:05:00.950,0:05:03.713
Now, to be clear,

0:05:03.713,0:05:07.057
technology does empower in multiple ways.

0:05:07.057,0:05:08.357
It's very powerful.

0:05:08.357,0:05:11.863
In Turkey, I watched[br]four young college students

0:05:11.863,0:05:14.463
organize a countrywide citizen journalist[br]network called "140 Journals"

0:05:14.463,0:05:20.524
that became the central hub[br]for uncensored news in the country.

0:05:20.524,0:05:23.681
In Egypt, I saw another four young people

0:05:23.681,0:05:27.768
use digital connectivity to organize[br]the supplies and logistics

0:05:27.768,0:05:31.529
for 10 field hospitals,[br]very large operations,

0:05:31.529,0:05:35.128
during massive clashes near Tahrir Square

0:05:35.128,0:05:37.450
in 2011,

0:05:37.450,0:05:40.097
and I asked the founder of this effort,

0:05:40.097,0:05:43.000
called "Tahrir Supplies,"[br]how long it took him

0:05:43.000,0:05:47.527
to go from when he had the idea[br]to when he got started.

0:05:47.527,0:05:49.896
"Five minutes," he said. Five minutes.

0:05:49.896,0:05:52.264
And he had no training[br]or background in logistics.

0:05:52.264,0:05:56.327
Or think of the Occupy movement[br]which rocked the world in 2011.

0:05:56.327,0:05:58.185
It started with a single email

0:05:58.185,0:06:03.316
from a magazine, Adbusters,[br]to 90,000 subscribers in its list.

0:06:03.316,0:06:06.590
About two months after that first email,

0:06:06.590,0:06:08.819
there were in the United States

0:06:08.819,0:06:11.559
600 ongoing occupations and protests.

0:06:11.559,0:06:15.669
Less than one month,[br]less than one month

0:06:15.669,0:06:18.803
after the first physical[br]occupation in Zuccotti Park,

0:06:18.803,0:06:25.374
a global protest was held[br]in about 82 countries, 950 cities.

0:06:25.374,0:06:27.116
It was one of the largest global protests

0:06:27.116,0:06:28.509
ever organized.

0:06:28.509,0:06:32.665
Now, compare that to what[br]the Civil Rights Movement had to do

0:06:32.665,0:06:36.636
in 1955 Alabama to protest

0:06:36.636,0:06:39.909
the racially segregated bus system

0:06:39.909,0:06:41.163
which they wanted to boycott.

0:06:41.163,0:06:42.835
They'd been preparing for many years

0:06:42.835,0:06:45.041
and decided it was time[br]to swing into action

0:06:45.041,0:06:47.084
after Rosa Parks was arrested.

0:06:47.084,0:06:48.570
But how do you get the word out

0:06:48.570,0:06:50.613
-- You know, tomorrow[br]we're going to start to boycott --

0:06:50.613,0:06:53.051
when you don't have Facebook,

0:06:53.051,0:06:56.116
texting, Twitter, none of that?

0:06:56.116,0:06:59.251
So they had to mimeograph

0:06:59.251,0:07:01.085
52,000 leaflets

0:07:01.085,0:07:04.754
by sneaking into a university[br]duplicating room

0:07:04.754,0:07:07.145
and working all night, secretly.

0:07:07.145,0:07:10.698
They then used the 68[br]African-American organizations

0:07:10.698,0:07:14.715
that criss-crossed the city[br]to distribute those leaflets by hand.

0:07:14.715,0:07:19.335
And the logistical tasks were daunting,[br]because these were poor people.

0:07:19.335,0:07:21.425
They had to get to work, boycott or no,

0:07:21.425,0:07:24.327
so a massive carpool was organized,

0:07:24.327,0:07:26.603
again by meeting.

0:07:26.603,0:07:28.948
No texting, no Twitter, no Facebook.

0:07:28.948,0:07:30.875
They had to meet almost all the time

0:07:30.875,0:07:32.477
to keep this carpool going.

0:07:32.477,0:07:34.869
Today, it would be so much easier.

0:07:34.869,0:07:36.657
We could create a database,

0:07:36.657,0:07:39.605
available rides and what rides you need,

0:07:39.605,0:07:42.949
have the database coordinate,[br]and use texting.

0:07:42.949,0:07:45.503
We wouldn't have to need all that much.

0:07:45.503,0:07:47.779
But again, consider this:

0:07:47.779,0:07:50.983
the Civil Rights Movement[br]in the United States

0:07:50.983,0:07:55.557
navigated a minefield[br]of political dangers,

0:07:55.557,0:07:58.970
faced repression, and overcame,

0:07:58.970,0:08:01.153
won major policy concessions,

0:08:01.153,0:08:04.636
navigated and innovated through risks.

0:08:04.636,0:08:07.979
In contrast, three years[br]after Occupy sparked

0:08:07.979,0:08:10.765
that global conversation about inequality,

0:08:10.765,0:08:13.970
the policies that fuel it[br]are still in place.

0:08:13.970,0:08:17.545
Europe was also rocked[br]by anti-austerity protests,

0:08:17.545,0:08:21.237
but the continent[br]didn't shift its direction.

0:08:21.237,0:08:24.743
In embracing these technologies,

0:08:24.743,0:08:28.319
are we overlooking some of the benefits

0:08:28.319,0:08:31.291
of slow and sustained?

0:08:31.291,0:08:32.870
To understand this,

0:08:32.870,0:08:36.213
I went back to Turkey[br]about a year after the Gezi protests

0:08:36.213,0:08:38.280
and I interviewed a range of people,

0:08:38.280,0:08:40.927
from activists to politicians,

0:08:40.927,0:08:46.174
from both the ruling party[br]and the opposition party and movements.

0:08:46.174,0:08:50.400
I found that the Gezi protesters[br]were despairing.

0:08:50.400,0:08:51.991
They were frustrated,

0:08:51.991,0:08:55.567
and they had achieved much less[br]than what they had hoped for.

0:08:55.567,0:08:58.005
This echoed what I'd been hearing[br]around the world

0:08:58.005,0:09:01.441
from many of the protesters[br]that I'm in touch with,

0:09:01.441,0:09:04.227
and I've come to realize[br]that part of the problem

0:09:04.227,0:09:06.178
is that today's protests

0:09:06.178,0:09:09.777
have become a bit[br]like climbing Mt. Everest

0:09:09.777,0:09:12.284
with the help of 60 sherpas,

0:09:12.284,0:09:15.651
and the Internet is our sherpa.

0:09:15.651,0:09:16.974
What we're doing is taking the fast routes

0:09:16.974,0:09:22.083
and not replacing the benefits[br]of the slower work,

0:09:22.083,0:09:24.939
because you see,

0:09:24.939,0:09:28.677
the kind of work that went[br]into organizing all those daunting,

0:09:28.677,0:09:30.790
tedious logistical tasks

0:09:30.790,0:09:33.599
did not just take care of those tasks,

0:09:33.599,0:09:36.084
they also created the kind of organization

0:09:36.084,0:09:38.173
that could think together collectively

0:09:38.173,0:09:40.658
and make hard decisions together,

0:09:40.658,0:09:44.025
create consensus and innovate,[br]and maybe even more crucially,

0:09:44.025,0:09:47.902
keep going together through differences.

0:09:47.902,0:09:52.500
So when you see[br]this March on Washington in 1963,

0:09:52.500,0:09:54.184
when you look at that picture,

0:09:54.184,0:09:55.995
where this is the march[br]where Martin Luther King

0:09:55.995,0:09:58.851
gave his famous "I have a dream" speech,

0:09:58.851,0:10:00.267
1963,

0:10:00.267,0:10:02.264
you don't just see a march

0:10:02.264,0:10:04.679
and you don't just hear a powerful speech,

0:10:04.679,0:10:10.112
you also see the painstaking,[br]long-term work that can put on that march,

0:10:10.112,0:10:11.667
and if you're on power,

0:10:11.667,0:10:16.126
you realize you have to take[br]the capacity signaled by that march,

0:10:16.126,0:10:17.588
not just the march,

0:10:17.588,0:10:19.724
but the capacity signaled[br]by that march, seriously.

0:10:19.724,0:10:21.257
In contrast, when you look[br]at the Occupy's global marches

0:10:21.257,0:10:26.319
that were organized in two weeks,

0:10:26.319,0:10:28.362
you see a lot of discontent,

0:10:30.663,0:10:31.383
but you don't necessarily[br]see teeth that can bite

0:10:34.097,0:10:34.347
over the long term.

0:10:34.347,0:10:35.725
And crucially, the Civil Rights Movement

0:10:35.725,0:10:36.840
innovated tactically

0:10:36.840,0:10:40.206
from boycotts to lunch counter sit-ins

0:10:40.206,0:10:43.805
to pickets to marches to freedom rides.

0:10:43.805,0:10:47.311
Today's movements scale up very quickly[br]without the organizational base

0:10:47.311,0:10:50.330
that can see them through the challenges.

0:10:50.330,0:10:53.720
They feel a little like start-ups[br]that got very big

0:10:53.720,0:10:55.995
without knowing what to do next,

0:10:55.995,0:10:58.352
and they rarely manage to shift tactically

0:10:58.352,0:11:00.929
because they don't have[br]the depth of capacity

0:11:00.929,0:11:03.321
to weather such transitions.

0:11:03.321,0:11:04.783
Now, I want to be clear:

0:11:04.783,0:11:09.288
the magic is not in the mimeograph.

0:11:09.288,0:11:12.469
It's in that capacity to work together,

0:11:12.469,0:11:15.905
think together collectively,

0:11:15.905,0:11:18.111
which can only be built[br]over time with a lot of work.

0:11:18.111,0:11:19.597
To understand all this,

0:11:19.597,0:11:24.311
I interviewed a top official[br]from the ruling party in Turkey,

0:11:24.311,0:11:26.029
and I ask him, "How do you do it?"

0:11:26.029,0:11:29.442
They too use digital technology[br]extensively, so that's not it.

0:11:29.442,0:11:31.462
So what's the secret?

0:11:31.462,0:11:32.716
Well, he told me.

0:11:32.716,0:11:35.014
He said the keys is

0:11:35.014,0:11:39.542
he never took sugar with his tea.

0:11:39.542,0:11:42.793
I said, what does that[br]got to do with anything?

0:11:42.793,0:11:45.579
Well, he said, his party starts[br]getting ready for the next election

0:11:45.579,0:11:47.390
the day after the last one,

0:11:47.390,0:11:51.221
and he spends all day every day[br]meeting with voters in their homes,

0:11:51.221,0:11:54.193
in their wedding parties,[br]circumcision ceremonies,

0:11:54.193,0:11:55.865
and then he meets with his colleagues

0:11:55.865,0:11:57.258
to compare notes.

0:11:57.258,0:11:59.278
With that many meetings every day,

0:11:59.278,0:12:02.784
with tea offered at every one of them[br]which he could not refuse,

0:12:02.784,0:12:05.246
because that would be rude,

0:12:05.246,0:12:08.009
he could not take even one cube of sugar

0:12:08.009,0:12:10.679
per cup of tea,

0:12:10.679,0:12:13.697
because that would be many kilos of sugar,

0:12:13.697,0:12:14.533
and he couldn't calculate[br]exactly how many kilos,

0:12:14.533,0:12:16.739
and that point I realized[br]why he was speaking so fast.

0:12:16.739,0:12:20.942
He had met in the afternoon,[br]and he was already way over-caffeinated.

0:12:20.942,0:12:23.290
But his party won two major elections

0:12:23.290,0:12:29.838
within a year of the Gezi protests[br]with comfortable margins.

0:12:29.838,0:12:32.647
Now, to be sure, governments have[br]different resources to bring to the table.

0:12:32.647,0:12:34.157
It's not the same game.

0:12:34.157,0:12:36.084
But the differences are instructive,

0:12:36.084,0:12:40.089
and like all such stories, this is not[br]a story just of technology.

0:12:40.089,0:12:42.503
It's what technology allows us to do

0:12:42.503,0:12:45.081
converging with what we want to do.

0:12:45.081,0:12:48.587
Today's social movements[br]want to operate informally.

0:12:48.587,0:12:51.187
They do not want institutional leadership.

0:12:51.187,0:12:53.608
They want to stay out of politics,

0:12:53.608,0:12:56.093
because they fear[br]corruption and cooptation.

0:12:56.093,0:12:57.556
They have a point:

0:12:57.556,0:12:59.111
modern representative democracies

0:12:59.111,0:13:02.594
are being strangled in many countries[br]by powerful interests.

0:13:02.594,0:13:06.158
But operating this way[br]makes it hard for them

0:13:06.158,0:13:08.538
to sustain over the long term

0:13:08.538,0:13:10.465
and exert leverage over the system,

0:13:10.465,0:13:14.170
which leads to frustrated[br]protesters dropping out,

0:13:14.170,0:13:17.049
and even more corrupt politics.

0:13:17.049,0:13:22.227
And politics and democracy[br]without an effective challenge hobbles,

0:13:22.227,0:13:26.569
because the causes that have inspired[br]the modern recent movements

0:13:26.569,0:13:29.610
are crucial. Right?

0:13:29.610,0:13:31.445
Climate change is barreling towards us.

0:13:31.445,0:13:36.808
Inequality is stifling human growth[br]and potential and economies.

0:13:36.808,0:13:38.643
Authoritarianism is choking[br]many countries.

0:13:38.643,0:13:41.184
We need movements to be more effective.

0:13:41.184,0:13:43.622
Now some people have argued[br]that the problem is

0:13:43.622,0:13:47.491
today's movements are not formed of people

0:13:47.491,0:13:50.347
who take as many risks as before,

0:13:50.347,0:13:52.669
and that is not true.

0:13:52.669,0:13:54.851
From Gezi to Tahrir to elsewhere,

0:13:54.851,0:13:58.659
I've seen people put their lives[br]and livelihoods on the line.

0:13:58.659,0:14:01.238
It's also not true,[br]as Malcolm Gladwell claimed,

0:14:01.238,0:14:04.140
that today's protesters[br]form weaker virtual ties.

0:14:04.140,0:14:06.461
No, they come to these protests[br]just like before with their friends,

0:14:06.461,0:14:10.873
existing networks,

0:14:10.873,0:14:12.685
and sometimes they do[br]make friends for life.

0:14:12.685,0:14:15.261
I still see the friends that I made

0:14:15.261,0:14:18.953
in those Zapatista-convened[br]global protests more than a decade ago,

0:14:18.953,0:14:21.785
and the bonds between strangers[br]are not worthless.

0:14:21.785,0:14:23.759
When I got tear-gassed in Gezi,

0:14:23.759,0:14:28.171
people I didn't know helped me[br]and one another instead of running away.

0:14:28.171,0:14:30.678
In Tahrir, I saw people, protesters,

0:14:30.678,0:14:34.858
working really hard to keep[br]each other safe and protected.

0:14:34.858,0:14:37.017
And digital awareness-raising is great,

0:14:37.017,0:14:40.616
because changing minds[br]is the bedrock of changing politics.

0:14:40.616,0:14:43.356
But movements today

0:14:43.356,0:14:45.376
have to move beyond[br]participation at great scale very fast

0:14:45.376,0:14:51.265
and figure out how[br]to think together collectively,

0:14:51.265,0:14:54.097
develop strong policy proposals,

0:14:54.097,0:14:57.176
create consensus,

0:14:57.176,0:14:59.150
figure out the political steps[br]and relate them to leverage,

0:14:59.150,0:15:02.633
because all these good intentions[br]and bravery and sacrifice by itself

0:15:02.633,0:15:04.305
are not going to be enough.

0:15:04.305,0:15:06.301
And there are many efforts.

0:15:06.301,0:15:10.690
In New Zealand, a group of young people[br]are developing a platform called Lumio

0:15:10.690,0:15:13.151
for participatory[br]decision-making at scale.

0:15:13.151,0:15:16.866
In Turkey, 140 Journals[br]are holding hack-a-thons

0:15:16.866,0:15:19.560
so that they support communities

0:15:19.560,0:15:21.649
as well as citizen journalism.

0:15:21.649,0:15:24.845
In Argentina, an open-source platform[br]called Democracy OS

0:15:24.845,0:15:28.503
is bringing participation[br]to parliaments and political parties.

0:15:28.503,0:15:30.128
These are all great, and we need more,

0:15:30.128,0:15:37.001
but the answer won't just be[br]better online decision-making,

0:15:37.001,0:15:39.416
because, to update 21st-century,

0:15:39.416,0:15:41.436
we are going to need to innovate

0:15:41.436,0:15:43.247
at every level,

0:15:43.247,0:15:46.660
from the organizational[br]to the political to the social.

0:15:46.660,0:15:50.932
Because to succeed over the long term,

0:15:50.932,0:15:53.974
sometimes you do need tea without sugar

0:15:53.974,0:15:55.367
along with your Twitter.

0:15:55.367,0:15:57.039
Thank you.

0:15:57.039,0:16:01.010
(Applause)