Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win
-
0:01 - 0:06So recently, we heard a lot about
how social media helps empower protest, -
0:06 - 0:07and that's true,
-
0:07 - 0:09but after more than a decade
-
0:09 - 0:13of studying and participating
in multiple social movements, -
0:13 - 0:14I've come to realize
-
0:14 - 0:18that the way technology
empowers social movements -
0:18 - 0:21can also paradoxically help weaken them.
-
0:21 - 0:25This is not inevitable,
but overcoming it requires diving deep -
0:25 - 0:29into what makes success possible
over the long term. -
0:29 - 0:31And the lessons apply in multiple domains.
-
0:31 - 0:35Now, take Turkey's
Gezi Park protests, July 2013, -
0:35 - 0:38which I went back to study in the field.
-
0:38 - 0:41Twitter was key to its organizing.
-
0:41 - 0:44It was everywhere in the park --
well, along with a lot of tear gas. -
0:44 - 0:46It wasn't all high tech.
-
0:46 - 0:50But the people in Turkey had already
gotten used to the power of Twitter -
0:50 - 0:54because of an unfortunate incident
about a year before -
0:54 - 0:58when military jets had bombed and killed
-
0:58 - 1:0234 Kurdish smugglers
near the border region, -
1:02 - 1:07and Turkish media completely
censored this news. -
1:07 - 1:08Editors sat in their newsrooms
-
1:08 - 1:11and waited for the government
to tell them what to do. -
1:11 - 1:14One frustrated journalist
could not take this anymore. -
1:14 - 1:16He purchased his own plane ticket,
-
1:16 - 1:18and went to the village
where this had occurred. -
1:18 - 1:21And he was confronted by this scene:
-
1:21 - 1:26a line of coffins coming down a hill,
relatives wailing. -
1:26 - 1:28He later he told me
how overwhelmed he felt, -
1:28 - 1:30and didn't know what to do,
-
1:30 - 1:32so he took out his phone,
-
1:32 - 1:34like any one of us might,
-
1:34 - 1:37and snapped that picture
and tweeted it out. -
1:37 - 1:41And voila, that picture went viral
-
1:41 - 1:45and broke the censorship
and forced mass media to cover it. -
1:45 - 1:48So when, a year later,
Turkey's Gezi protests happened, -
1:48 - 1:51it started as a protest
about a park being razed, -
1:51 - 1:53but became an anti-authoritarian protest.
-
1:53 - 1:58It wasn't surprising
that media also censored it, -
1:58 - 2:01but it got a little ridiculous at times.
-
2:01 - 2:03When things were so intense,
-
2:03 - 2:07when CNN International
was broadcasting live from Istanbul, -
2:07 - 2:13CNN Turkey instead was broadcasting
a documentary on penguins. -
2:13 - 2:18Now, I love penguin documentaries,
but that wasn't the news of the day. -
2:18 - 2:22An angry viewer put his two screens
together and snapped that picture, -
2:22 - 2:24and that one too went viral,
-
2:24 - 2:29and since then, people call Turkish media
the penguin media. (Laughter) -
2:29 - 2:31But this time, people knew what to do.
-
2:31 - 2:34They just took out their phones
and looked for actual news. -
2:34 - 2:38Better, they knew to go to the park
and take pictures and participate -
2:38 - 2:40and share it more on social media.
-
2:40 - 2:47Digital connectivity was used
for everything from food to donations. -
2:47 - 2:52Everything was organized partially
with the help of these new technologies. -
2:52 - 2:56And using Internet to mobilize
and publicize protests -
2:56 - 2:59actually goes back a long way.
-
2:59 - 3:00Remember the Zapatistas,
-
3:00 - 3:05the peasant uprising
in the southern Chiapas region of Mexico -
3:05 - 3:11led by the masked, pipe-smoking,
charismatic Subcomandante Marcos? -
3:11 - 3:13That was probably the first movement
-
3:13 - 3:15that got global attention
thanks to the Internet. -
3:16 - 3:17Or consider Seattle '99,
-
3:17 - 3:22when a multinational grassroots effort
brought global attention -
3:22 - 3:27to what was then an obscure organization,
the World Trade Organization, -
3:27 - 3:31by also utilizing these digital
technologies to help them organize. -
3:31 - 3:34And more recently, movement after movement
-
3:34 - 3:37has shaken country after country:
-
3:37 - 3:42the Arab uprisings from Bahrain
to Tunisia to Egypt and more; -
3:42 - 3:47indignados in Spain, Italy, Greece;
the Gezi Park protests; -
3:47 - 3:51Taiwan; Euromaidan in Ukraine; Hong Kong.
-
3:51 - 3:56And think of more recent initiatives,
like the #BringBackOurGirls hashtags. -
3:56 - 4:03Nowadays, a network of tweets
can unleash a global awareness campaign. -
4:03 - 4:06A Facebook page can become the hub
of a massive mobilization. -
4:06 - 4:08Amazing.
-
4:08 - 4:13But think of the moments I just mentioned.
-
4:13 - 4:17The achievements they were
able to have, their outcomes, -
4:17 - 4:22are not really proportional
to the size and energy they inspired. -
4:22 - 4:26The hopes they rightfully raised
are not really matched -
4:26 - 4:31by what they were able to have
as a result in the end. -
4:31 - 4:33And this raises a question:
-
4:34 - 4:38As digital technology makes things
easier for movements, -
4:38 - 4:42why haven't successful outcomes
become more likely as well? -
4:42 - 4:48In embracing digital platforms
for activism and politics, -
4:48 - 4:52are we overlooking some of the benefits
of doing things the hard way? -
4:52 - 4:53Now, I believe so.
-
4:53 - 4:55I believe that the rule of thumb is:
-
4:55 - 5:00Easier to mobilize does not always mean
easier to achieve gains. -
5:01 - 5:04Now, to be clear,
-
5:04 - 5:06technology does empower in multiple ways.
-
5:06 - 5:08It's very powerful.
-
5:08 - 5:12In Turkey, I watched
four young college students -
5:12 - 5:16organize a countrywide citizen journalism
network called 140Journos -
5:16 - 5:21that became the central hub
for uncensored news in the country. -
5:21 - 5:26In Egypt, I saw another four young people
use digital connectivity -
5:26 - 5:30to organize the supplies and logistics
for 10 field hospitals, -
5:30 - 5:32very large operations,
-
5:32 - 5:37during massive clashes
near Tahrir Square in 2011. -
5:38 - 5:41And I asked the founder
of this effort, called Tahrir Supplies, -
5:41 - 5:47how long it took him to go from when
he had the idea to when he got started. -
5:47 - 5:50"Five minutes," he said. Five minutes.
-
5:50 - 5:52And he had no training
or background in logistics. -
5:52 - 5:56Or think of the Occupy movement
which rocked the world in 2011. -
5:56 - 5:58It started with a single email
-
5:58 - 6:03from a magazine, Adbusters,
to 90,000 subscribers in its list. -
6:03 - 6:06About two months after that first email,
-
6:06 - 6:13there were in the United States
600 ongoing occupations and protests. -
6:13 - 6:18Less than one month after the first
physical occupation in Zuccotti Park, -
6:18 - 6:25a global protest was held
in about 82 countries, 950 cities. -
6:25 - 6:28It was one of the largest
global protests ever organized. -
6:28 - 6:35Now, compare that to what the Civil Rights
Movement had to do in 1955 Alabama -
6:35 - 6:41to protest the racially segregated
bus system, which they wanted to boycott. -
6:41 - 6:42They'd been preparing for many years
-
6:42 - 6:45and decided it was time
to swing into action -
6:45 - 6:47after Rosa Parks was arrested.
-
6:47 - 6:48But how do you get the word out --
-
6:48 - 6:51tomorrow we're going to
start the boycott -- -
6:51 - 6:56when you don't have Facebook,
texting, Twitter, none of that? -
6:56 - 7:01So they had to mimeograph 52,000 leaflets
-
7:01 - 7:04by sneaking into a university
duplicating room -
7:04 - 7:07and working all night, secretly.
-
7:07 - 7:10They then used the 68
African-American organizations -
7:10 - 7:14that criss-crossed the city
to distribute those leaflets by hand. -
7:14 - 7:19And the logistical tasks were daunting,
because these were poor people. -
7:19 - 7:21They had to get to work, boycott or no,
-
7:21 - 7:24so a massive carpool was organized,
-
7:24 - 7:26again by meeting.
-
7:26 - 7:29No texting, no Twitter, no Facebook.
-
7:29 - 7:32They had to meet almost all the time
to keep this carpool going. -
7:32 - 7:35Today, it would be so much easier.
-
7:35 - 7:40We could create a database,
available rides and what rides you need, -
7:40 - 7:43have the database coordinate,
and use texting. -
7:43 - 7:46We wouldn't have to meet all that much.
-
7:46 - 7:48But again, consider this:
-
7:48 - 7:51the Civil Rights Movement
in the United States -
7:51 - 7:55navigated a minefield
of political dangers, -
7:55 - 8:01faced repression and overcame,
won major policy concessions, -
8:01 - 8:04navigated and innovated through risks.
-
8:04 - 8:08In contrast, three years
after Occupy sparked -
8:08 - 8:10that global conversation about inequality,
-
8:10 - 8:14the policies that fueled it
are still in place. -
8:14 - 8:17Europe was also rocked
by anti-austerity protests, -
8:17 - 8:21but the continent
didn't shift its direction. -
8:21 - 8:24In embracing these technologies,
-
8:24 - 8:31are we overlooking some of the benefits
of slow and sustained? -
8:31 - 8:32To understand this,
-
8:32 - 8:36I went back to Turkey
about a year after the Gezi protests -
8:36 - 8:38and I interviewed a range of people,
-
8:38 - 8:42from activists to politicians,
-
8:42 - 8:46from both the ruling party
and the opposition party and movements. -
8:46 - 8:49I found that the Gezi protesters
were despairing. -
8:49 - 8:52They were frustrated,
-
8:52 - 8:55and they had achieved much less
than what they had hoped for. -
8:55 - 8:57This echoed what I'd been hearing
around the world -
8:57 - 9:01from many other protesters
that I'm in touch with. -
9:01 - 9:03And I've come to realize
that part of the problem -
9:03 - 9:09is that today's protests have become
a bit like climbing Mt. Everest -
9:09 - 9:12with the help of 60 Sherpas,
-
9:12 - 9:15and the Internet is our Sherpa.
-
9:15 - 9:19What we're doing is taking the fast routes
-
9:19 - 9:22and not replacing the benefits
of the slower work. -
9:22 - 9:24Because, you see,
-
9:24 - 9:27the kind of work that went into organizing
-
9:27 - 9:30all those daunting,
tedious logistical tasks -
9:30 - 9:32did not just take care of those tasks,
-
9:32 - 9:37they also created the kind of organization
that could think together collectively -
9:37 - 9:39and make hard decisions together,
-
9:39 - 9:43create consensus and innovate,
and maybe even more crucially, -
9:43 - 9:47keep going together through differences.
-
9:47 - 9:51So when you see this
March on Washington in 1963, -
9:51 - 9:53when you look at that picture,
-
9:53 - 9:56where this is the march where
Martin Luther King gave his famous -
9:56 - 9:59"I have a dream" speech, 1963,
-
9:59 - 10:04you don't just see a march
and you don't just hear a powerful speech, -
10:04 - 10:09you also see the painstaking,
long-term work that can put on that march. -
10:09 - 10:11And if you're in power,
-
10:11 - 10:15you realize you have to take
the capacity signaled by that march, -
10:15 - 10:20not just the march, but the capacity
signaled by that march, seriously. -
10:20 - 10:24In contrast, when you look
at Occupy's global marches -
10:24 - 10:25that were organized in two weeks,
-
10:25 - 10:27you see a lot of discontent,
-
10:27 - 10:31but you don't necessarily see teeth that
can bite over the long term. -
10:32 - 10:36And crucially, the Civil Rights Movement
innovated tactically -
10:36 - 10:42from boycotts to lunch counter sit-ins
to pickets to marches to freedom rides. -
10:42 - 10:46Today's movements scale up very quickly
without the organizational base -
10:46 - 10:49that can see them through the challenges.
-
10:49 - 10:53They feel a little like startups
that got very big -
10:53 - 10:55without knowing what to do next,
-
10:55 - 10:57and they rarely manage to shift tactically
-
10:57 - 11:00because they don't have
the depth of capacity -
11:00 - 11:02to weather such transitions.
-
11:02 - 11:07Now, I want to be clear:
The magic is not in the mimeograph. -
11:08 - 11:13It's in that capacity to work together,
think together collectively, -
11:13 - 11:17which can only be built
over time with a lot of work. -
11:17 - 11:19To understand all this,
-
11:19 - 11:23I interviewed a top official
from the ruling party in Turkey, -
11:23 - 11:25and I ask him, "How do you do it?"
-
11:25 - 11:28They too use digital technology
extensively, so that's not it. -
11:28 - 11:30So what's the secret?
-
11:30 - 11:32Well, he told me.
-
11:32 - 11:39He said the key is
he never took sugar with his tea. -
11:39 - 11:42I said, what has that
got to do with anything? -
11:42 - 11:45Well, he said, his party starts
getting ready for the next election -
11:45 - 11:46the day after the last one,
-
11:46 - 11:50and he spends all day every day
meeting with voters in their homes, -
11:50 - 11:53in their wedding parties,
circumcision ceremonies, -
11:53 - 11:56and then he meets with his colleagues
to compare notes. -
11:56 - 12:00With that many meetings every day,
with tea offered at every one of them, -
12:00 - 12:04which he could not refuse,
because that would be rude, -
12:04 - 12:08he could not take even one cube of sugar
per cup of tea, -
12:08 - 12:12because that would be many kilos of sugar,
he can't even calculate how many kilos, -
12:12 - 12:16and at that point I realized
why he was speaking so fast. -
12:16 - 12:19We had met in the afternoon,
and he was already way over-caffeinated. -
12:21 - 12:25But his party won two major elections
-
12:25 - 12:29within a year of the Gezi protests
with comfortable margins. -
12:29 - 12:32To be sure, governments have
different resources to bring to the table. -
12:32 - 12:35It's not the same game,
but the differences are instructive. -
12:35 - 12:39And like all such stories, this is not
a story just of technology. -
12:39 - 12:44It's what technology allows us to do
converging with what we want to do. -
12:44 - 12:48Today's social movements
want to operate informally. -
12:48 - 12:50They do not want institutional leadership.
-
12:50 - 12:55They want to stay out of politics because
they fear corruption and cooptation. -
12:55 - 12:57They have a point.
-
12:57 - 13:00Modern representative democracies
are being strangled in many countries -
13:00 - 13:02by powerful interests.
-
13:02 - 13:06But operating this way
makes it hard for them -
13:06 - 13:09to sustain over the long term
and exert leverage over the system, -
13:09 - 13:13which leads to frustrated
protesters dropping out, -
13:13 - 13:16and even more corrupt politics.
-
13:16 - 13:21And politics and democracy
without an effective challenge hobbles, -
13:21 - 13:27because the causes that have inspired
the modern recent movements are crucial. -
13:27 - 13:30Climate change is barreling towards us.
-
13:30 - 13:35Inequality is stifling human growth
and potential and economies. -
13:35 - 13:38Authoritarianism is choking
many countries. -
13:38 - 13:40We need movements to be more effective.
-
13:40 - 13:43Now, some people have argued
that the problem is -
13:43 - 13:50today's movements are not formed of people
who take as many risks as before, -
13:50 - 13:52and that is not true.
-
13:52 - 13:54From Gezi to Tahrir to elsewhere,
-
13:54 - 13:58I've seen people put their lives
and livelihoods on the line. -
13:58 - 14:00It's also not true,
as Malcolm Gladwell claimed, -
14:00 - 14:03that today's protesters
form weaker virtual ties. -
14:03 - 14:07No, they come to these protests,
just like before, -
14:07 - 14:09with their friends, existing networks,
-
14:09 - 14:12and sometimes they do
make new friends for life. -
14:12 - 14:14I still see the friends that I made
-
14:14 - 14:18in those Zapatista-convened
global protests more than a decade ago, -
14:18 - 14:21and the bonds between strangers
are not worthless. -
14:21 - 14:23When I got tear-gassed in Gezi,
-
14:23 - 14:28people I didn't know helped me
and one another instead of running away. -
14:28 - 14:31In Tahrir, I saw people, protesters,
-
14:31 - 14:34working really hard to keep
each other safe and protected. -
14:34 - 14:36And digital awareness-raising is great,
-
14:36 - 14:40because changing minds
is the bedrock of changing politics. -
14:40 - 14:47But movements today have to move beyond
participation at great scale very fast -
14:47 - 14:51and figure out how
to think together collectively, -
14:51 - 14:54develop strong policy proposals,
create consensus, -
14:54 - 14:58figure out the political steps
and relate them to leverage, -
14:58 - 15:02because all these good intentions
and bravery and sacrifice by itself -
15:02 - 15:03are not going to be enough.
-
15:03 - 15:05And there are many efforts.
-
15:05 - 15:10In New Zealand, a group of young people
are developing a platform called Loomio -
15:10 - 15:13for participatory
decision making at scale. -
15:13 - 15:16In Turkey, 140Journos
are holding hack-a-thons -
15:16 - 15:20so that they support communities
as well as citizen journalism. -
15:21 - 15:24In Argentina, an open-source platform
called DemocracyOS -
15:24 - 15:27is bringing participation
to parliaments and political parties. -
15:27 - 15:31These are all great, and we need more,
-
15:31 - 15:35but the answer won't just be
better online decision-making, -
15:35 - 15:40because to update democracy, we are going
to need to innovate at every level, -
15:40 - 15:45from the organizational
to the political to the social. -
15:45 - 15:49Because to succeed over the long term,
-
15:49 - 15:51sometimes you do need tea without sugar
-
15:51 - 15:53along with your Twitter.
-
15:53 - 15:54Thank you.
-
15:54 - 16:01(Applause)
- Title:
- Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win
- Speaker:
- Zeynep Tufekci
- Description:
-
Today the speed at which we spread information is so fast that a single email can launch a worldwide awareness campaign, as with the Occupy movement. Yet as techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci seeks to show, the ease of social media can actually hurt social change in the long run. From Gezi to the Arab Spring to Ukraine to Hong Kong, she shows how today's movements can miss out on the benefits of doing things the hard (and slow) way.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 16:14
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win | ||
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win |