The Impact Of Online Activism On Hong Kong

Their system of filtering and censorship is acknowledged as the most advanced and effective in the world. The Chinese internet system includes about thirty-thousand censors, as well as having web browsers, such as Google and Yahoo, censor their results.10 For an average citizen to publish their opinions without either an elite free speech patron or a willing government publishing house, the safest method is to publicize their thoughts through an internet bulletin board system run by the Chinese government.11 However, these electronic bulletin boards are required by the law to be licensed, the posts monitored constantly, and any posts which are found to be “inappropriate” are removed. Any forums that are free from government censorship are forbidden, since the Chinese authorities refuse to recognize the rights of the citizens to publish their uncensored opinions. Furthermore, if debates over political or other issues begin to take a life of their own, they are commonly silenced by Chinese authorities.12 The Chinese authorities only permit these monitored bulletin boards both for their own benefit and because they recognize that there must be outlets for the average person to express their dissatisfaction with the government.13 Allowing the citizens to speak their mind functions to lessen the political tension, by acting as a release for their discontentment. These boards also serve as an excuse to deflect criticism by other countries, who complain that people in China do not enjoy freedom of expression. Additionally, they allow government authorities to monitor the mood of their people and to find weaknesses, both in the government and in their support. Finally, the bulletin boards allow government authorities to track those who express discontent, keeping their expressions visible, so the authorities can trace these

Activism is people who are trying to help the community and get their message across. Activism helps the community because they wanna make the world a better place and try to stop something that is bad for the community. There are over 1,000 activists all over the world.

Throughout Malcolm Gladwell essay he describes several examples of activism of different political movements. I agree with Gladwell’s argument about social media, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc., is a form of weak-tie activism and strong-tie activism requires strong connections to other individuals who are willing to sacrifice for a cause. Throughout the essay, the author takes us through different scenarios in history to prove his point regarding the difference between traditional activism and non-traditional.

Malcolm Gladwell’s essay “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted” is an excellent essay about how technology has affected activism. Specifically, Gladwell is writing this essay in response to the generalization that technology makes activism easier and/ or more effective. Gladwell continually references the Greensboro Sit-In that occurred in in early February of 1960. He uses this example as an example of what activism used to be like. In particular he emphasizes the dedication, danger, passion for the cause, and willpower that activism took in those days. He further expounds upon the use of technology in the modern era and how it affects communication. He agrees that people are much more connected because of technology but also notes that that connection is

Many people say that social media allows for more people to get involved and join into protests which it is true that it allows the word to be spread quicker to more people, but it also is a very unorganized and unstructured way to try and achieve something through activism. Many of the people who protest don't fully understand what they are fighting for which can hurt the organization's cause and make them seem disjointed and uninformed. In truth social media can be used to help raise funds for organizations that help actually organize protests such as Black Lives Matter but do the people that donate or retweet an organization's message on twitter have the right to call themselves an activist when that word should be used to represent the people who refused to give up their seat and were assaulted and harassed to stand up for what they believed in. I believe that the definition of activism is changing to a much more low risk and laid back definition and I am not sure if it will be able to be fixed. Social media is being used now more than ever with our current president feeding into which is making many Americans view it as a legitimate source of news and almost create an alternate reality of friends, facts and activism. If something is not done soon the word will be smeared for good and the people who sacrificed so much in the civil rights movement will be looked upon with less honor seen as

In his essay, “Changing the Face(book) of Social Activism”, Mark Pfeifle writes about the role social media has played socially and politically in our world. In his time, Mark Pfeife has served as a top national security advisor, communicator and deputy assistant for George W. Bush. Pfeife has come to the conclusion that social media has redefined social activism - in place, calling it “social slacktivism”. The word “slacktivism” is a conjuring of his views and biases. Pfeife believes this describes the populace as taking action over the internet without doing anything physically to change things. An example that Pfeife brings up is during the presidential election of 2008, Barack Obama’s campaign was promoted all over online, sources like

Malcolm Gladwell argues through social media “the traditional relationship between political authority and popular will has been upended, making it easier for the powerless to collaborate, coordinate and give voice to their concerns,” but ultimately concedes this collaboration doesn’t provide enough social motivation to act (Gladwell,

Activism by definition is “a doctrine or practice that emphasizes direct vigorous action especially in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue.” It is the ability of the people to do radical things in

Protesting has become the newest way to get attention and stand together, because of social media that provide inside to every internet users. In the following of recent protests against police violence and blame in the United States judicial system social media has show beyond doubt to be an important practical tool for activists aiming to a amass support and raise awareness on police brutality. Clearly, social media has the capacity to make, advocate and apprise mass crowd about protests. Social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter have the capability to connect us with millions of others internet users in order to acquire support and share awareness. These social media platforms permit us to reach an immensely large audience and allow people to participate and help a cause without having to be there in person.

Activism using the Internet and other new media is increasingly having an impact in broadening the scope of civic action in support of human rights in East Asia. Select one or two case studies of activism in ONE East Asian country studied in this course. With regard to your chosen case studies, how effective is online activism as a force for social change? How are government authorities responding to the challenge of internet activism?

Social movements come about as people of small groups which are loosely connected are united by a single purpose. Unlike interest groups who are often bureaucratic, social movements are loosely organized. Protests are often done to express people’s dissent or support on a certain issue or advocacy. However, not all social movements are able to thrive since their existence relies on the existence of a certain event or issue. Some social movements also decline since they succeeded, especially in movements with very specific goals. For others, movements are also at risk of repression and co-optation from the government, especially in non-democratic countries.

Activism is defined as “the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change” by the Oxford Dictionary online. Traditionally, this is the commonly accepted and widespread definition used to label the renegades of society, the fighters for justice, and the believers in change. This trend of societal self-modification has predicated our prevailing view of activism, because social change is, and always has been, a part of human evolution. Nowadays we are faced with a polymorphous concept of activism that baffles everyone – from academics to activists themselves. Over the past decade, new forms of pseudo activism have appeared, and have proven to be increasingly difficult to classify under the preexisting categorizations.

The 2011 uprising in Egypt was in many ways a traditional brick-and-mortar revolution, but with a cyber-twist to it: based on their statistical analysis of a large body of tweets related to the 2011 uprising in Egypt, Starbird and Palen (2012) observed that activists used Twitter as an important tool to share ideas and information with like-minded people, because Twitter allows a high number of activists interact using its retweet and other mechanisms. In this case, Twitter was used among participants and supporters of a traditional mass movement to bypass government controlled

My research project explored the extent of internet censorship and its necessity to China as a form of societal protection. It discussed the advantages, disadvantages and impacts of censorship on Chinese society. As I researched the topic, I determined that censoring parts of the internet was more than just about protecting the young Chinese children from online predators and distressing content. My initial intention was to highlight the wrongfulness of widespread censorship however, as I researched, I was able to understand that censoring parts of the internet improved the Chinese economy, prevented cybercrimes from occurring while concurrently offering online safety. I discovered this by analysing several different websites, YouTube videos and conducting two interviews with people with expertise in the Chinese internet. My outcome, presented in the form of a feature article, explained that censoring parts of the internet benefits society more than it harms.

According to Dictionary.reference.com, activism is the policy or action of using campaigning to bring about political or social change. A huge campaign that is well known across the world, the Civil Rights Movement, was brought about by Martin Luther King, Jr. King risked his life everyday to ensure justice and equality for the African American race. “Small Change” by Malcolm Gladwell gives insight on how activism is more effective than social media, especially from one scenario at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. Gladwell points out his strong belief of what activism can do for a society rather