Social Media Overcoming Free Rider Problem During The Arab Spring Movement

In the second point, I believe that social media helped to overcome the “free rider” problem during the Arab spring movement. Because social media was used as a vehicle to gather likeminded citizens for demonstration, to overcome the social problem of the free riders in a the case of collective action, however this is not the case in ever revolution on social media, because there are cases where a person can say that they will be attending an event on social media and decide not to show up or forget about the event totally. The organizer of this event might get the impression that he/she might have 1000 people in attendance, but 500 people may show up and demonstrate. However, the 500 who were not in attendance may still benefit from the impact …show more content…
However, many of these people would not mind the victory of Clinton because things were not going to change drastically. Also Hillary Clinton`s supporters, who believed her supporters alone were enough votes to win the presidency, did not put a lot of work into reaching the alley to work with Bernie Sanders`s supporters who did not trust Hillary. However, there was a lot of work done on social media to suggest that Hillary Clinton had already won the election because of her temperament. CNN or ABC debates and all debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were shared in short clips praising the temperaments and qualifications of Clinton’s responses to questions posed by the debate moderators. The comments, likes were reassuring of victory over Donald Trump. However, the issue of unifying voters was not being addressed. This, I think, breaded lots of free riders in the democratic camp because the comments and likes gained by these clips might have jolted Bernie Sander’s supporter from casting their …show more content…
I believe that our generation`s use of social media from the Arab spring to now has given voice to the voiceless and has become the media for the people covering protests like the Million Man March, Black live Matters protests in the summer, and the recent protest of the result of the U.S elections. However as social media begins to play a vital role in our lives; I get worried about the integrity of social media. Until when will social medial remain neutral, as it has been for these years? I believe the high patronage of social media lie on how neutral it is. However, not all states are for social media judging from its impact on other regimes. Not too long ago, Ethiopia blacked out social media in the name of preventing exam leaks. However, it was later discovered that the blackout was to stall protests in the capital city. Also Turkey blacked out social media to keep a lid on the protests that went on in the capital city over the arrest of opposition