Political Impact of Internet?

asslam alaikum,
I met a man on facebook not long ago. He is an Syrian and he do support the movement against ditatorship through internet sites.

Actually many people accept that one of the reasons for the Jasmine revolution is Internet or Social networks like Facebook, I think.
But nowdays the civic movement doesn't come to an ends in middle east. So there are lots of webpages about each governmet.
So, I have a question about this.

Do you think the internet can impact the political things in Islamic society?

I am doing a research project in college in relation to this. It's really interesting how the internet can affect politics because when you think about it the internet makes you anonymous so you don't need to worry about being in danger where as in real life sometimes you can't say the things you would want to say. But political parties in control of a country can also use the internet for propaganda and to control what internet users see.

It is also really interesting that Hilary Clinton said internet freedom should be a symbol of democracies even though american politicians went crazy after the Assange situation. It is always easy to promote something until it affects you lol

Salaam, racheljeon.

racheljeon said:

Do you think the internet can impact the political things in Islamic society?

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I think there is no difference between Muslim society and non-Muslim society in this matter.

Internet can impact political things, but actually the direct impact is not so big. We can not move people to start a revolution just by writing articles on the internet. In contrast to direct speech in the society. But the articles that we have written in internet can motivate some people to start a speech for revolution among society in the real world.

The Internet truly revolutionizes the dissemination of information in a profoundly democratic way. Before it, to get your message across, you needed to get the media to do it for you, which required either paying a lot for it or finding favour with those who run the shows. Not so with the Internet. When something on it is of particular worth or appeal, it tends to go viral on its own, transmitted by hordes of supporting users.

Futuwwa said:

The Internet truly revolutionizes the dissemination of information in a profoundly democratic way. Before it, to get your message across, you needed to get the media to do it for you, which required either paying a lot for it or finding favour with those who run the shows. Not so with the Internet. When something on it is of particular worth or appeal, it tends to go viral on its own, transmitted by hordes of supporting users.

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This. I can't even tell you the last time I read a newspaper or watched a news broadcast on TV. But thanks to the internet, I can stay caught up on world news in just a few minutes each day.

The Arab Spring revolutions have had one thing in common so far. They have all been started by young (20's-early 30's) mostly college-educated dissatisfied citizens communicating via social media. This would not have been possible 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago.

exactly! I agree with you
But I think maybe there are some differences between secular world and Islamic world about the political effect of internet.
Because the Islamic world is based on the religious thing, I expected that Islamic world has another phenomenon about the internet:hmm:

There is no difference in terms of communication whether you're "secular" or "believer",
But the problem if you're not well grounded in knowledge and don't think for yourself is that the powers that be can manipulate masses of people into doing their bidding for them,
It is no secret that the pentagon has purchased social media software which creates multiple social media accounts for each operator and allows them to put fake info up:
Research :

Gay girl from damascus

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...agon-buys-social-networking-spy-software.html