Introduction

As many people are increasingly joining social media platforms, the influence of these sites on anti-government protests have increased. As the role of social media site in modern protests increase, it is important that the role that social media plays in protests and democracy is understood and its significance put to test (Shao, 2019). With a similar measure of importance, the efforts that the governments put in attempting to manipulate these sites and suppress their direct or indirect connection to protests. Governments from different places in the world have had had some experience with physical demonstrations and thus put some control over them (Lee, 2018). For example, in the Hongkong protest, the police use tear gas to disrupt protesters and at the same time, the government of China has passed legislations that have illegalized wearing facemask during protests.

Methodology

A lot of literature that tries to establish the relationship between social media and modern protest. However not all the literature was relevant to this research ad thus sources had to be selected carefully so that the ones that would be used to only be the ones that build up on the topic and not the ones that bring in new content and thus drive the research out of context. To this end, sources that were selected for this research were the ones that connect social media platforms with a particular modern protest and in particular the Hong Kong protest. In doing so, the literature used was connected to the experiences of organized social media protests. The literatures that was not associated with a specific protest and only talked of social media and modern protests were opted out. From the literature available on the topic, this review will look at the trends in social media and modern protests, the reason for writing the review, the summary of the literature available on the sources and a conclusion of the findings from the sources.

General trends in the literature on use of social media in modern protests

Social media is a new concept that had not been integrated into many parts of human existence until several years in the past (Lee, 2018). However, its influence almost in every aspect has taken the world by surprise. As a new aspect of protest, social media was not seen as popular in protests until later when scholars saw its significance in organizing protests, passing information among protest members, popularizing the protest movements, and putting pressure on government to respond to the protest agenda among other crucial roles. When these roles were observed in various protests scholars and media houses delved into social media and running of modern protests. As the use of social media in modern protest was on the rise, the governments that were affected by the protests responded in an attempt to control the new tactic and literature added this as part of its research.

Reason for the Review

Democracy is now well established in many parts of the world and the freedom of speech is now put into use more than any other time in the past. People are using various means to express their dissatisfaction with the status quo or to advocate for change (Shao, 2019). New trends of protesting have come up with people giving their support to the protest issue indirectly through social media. Understanding this topic calls for one to review the available literature on the topic and also establish the research gaps which can be filled up by future researches.

Discussion

A social movement is maintained through development and the recruitment of new members who replace the old and add to the strength of the movement. Social media helps advertise the agendas of the protest to potential members (Shao, 2019). Posts about the unpleasant status quo is presented to social media uses who judge the issue and decide to join or ignore the issue. Social media also offers a network for protest participants. Using social media groups and channels, McKeon & Gitomer (2019) postulates that members of protest movements are able to share progress, protest calendars, experiences and warnings which are essential in the running of the protest movements. Protest movements also network with other protest movements in other places in the world and share ideas and experiences which helps in the development of protest movements especially the new ones.

For protesters, it is easy to form a social movement on Twitter or Facebook saving them from facing the rough responses of authorities to protesters. However, for governments and police who try and control the protests its harder to perform their task effectively than in physical protests (Lee, 2018). Social media has little or no respect for borders and thus it is easy for people from other countries beyond the affected governments jurisdiction to participate in an online protest. Many governments have also not prepared their technological edge to track all protest activities online and this gives protesters an easy time to carry out their activities (Ovide, 2020). Unable to control social media movements, the Chinese government have also used social media to drive propaganda and divert the public opinion from the protest.

Conclusion

The use of social media in public protest is a new concept that is rapidly being used in various parts of the world. It is used to pass the realities on the ground to the world turning the local issue into an international concern and thus increasing pressure put on the relevant authorities. Social media is also essential in the documentation, organization, and assembly of protests. The unpredictable nature on social media has turned the government effort of controlling protests into a nightmare and the only way the government can respond is to run a parallel online propaganda campaigns against the protest. It has been alleged that governments in some developed countries have been purchasing social media data from the service providers which could be used to control protests. This part is missing from the literature available and future researches and literature can focus on it.