MARKO PRPIC and SEAN NOONAN examine the benefits and vulnerabilities of using social media tools to organize protests and revolutions using examples of various protests organized over the recent past that achieved varying degrees of success and failure.
In a Stratfor analysis, "Social Media as a Tool for Protest", they state that while social media undoubtedly offered advantages in disseminating messages quickly and broadly, a revolution required much more including organization, funding, mass appeal well beyond the internet-savvy youth and an ability to inspire and motivate individuals to get away from the comfort of their homes and face off against the government on the streets.
They caution that an over-reliance on social-media tools was no substitute to effective real-world leadership and ingenuity to tackle government counter-protest tactics while they could also be detrimental to the evolution of the leadership beyond cyberspace and potential isolation from alternate political movements with whome they may have shared goals.
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