The Digital Revolution

(A protester in Egypt. Photo by Sarah Carr.)

The internet is the most truly democratic institution man has ever created. The main problem with governments that suppress political opposition  within their country (non-democratic institutions) is that the government  never has an understanding of how deep or widespread public support for a political opposition is. This is often a central reason revolutions are successful, this is often why repressive regimes appear so flat footed and caught off guard moments before they fall. The government finds it wasn't able to appreciate how many people were truly unhappy at any given time because it always dedicated itself to making any small amount of political disturbance disappear. The threat of the opposition is of course an old feature of any political reality, but the internet is a rather new feature of all political reality and it's only making life much more difficult for oppressive regimes. The democratic nature of the internet has always posed a major threat to autocratic, secretive, and oppressive regimes, but as a young generation across the globe comes into its own armed with social media, many world leaders now have reason to seriously worry. The internet and social media are forcing the will of the people upon many unsuspecting figures in the world. That is to say the internet is starting to bring down governments and there is nothing anyone can do…except watch as it all unfolds 140 characters at a time on Twitter.