Bursting on the heels of the mobile technology revolution, social media later recaptured international attention for its abilities to disseminate information more quickly and directly than traditional news outlets during critical moments in popular upheaval. With smart technology readily accessible to the masses, recent uprisings have been organized, documented, and litigated with digital evidence.

As discussed [PDF] in the Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, there are three main data streams that create a confluence surrounding popular movements- participatory journalism, mediated mobilization, and hacktivism. Participatory journalism encompasses the realm of social media as an alternative documentary news source, such as photos of martyrs in protests that capture intercontinental attention with a brutal shock factor. Mediated Mobilization is the next step – carrying the message into action by using social media such as Twitter and Blackberry Messenger to communicate by the second. Hacktivism is a completely different acitivity, with groups such as Anonymous using social media to lead cyber attacks on controversial organizations to popular appeal.

Social media-sparked revolutions have sprung their publishers onto Time “People of the Year” lists, including Malala Yousafzai and Mael Ghonim. Likewise, it is a popular tool to pay homage to martyrs of popular uprisings. Most notably among these is the death of Khaled Said, an Egyptian man who was physically removed from an internet cafe and beaten to death by police officers in Alexandria on June 6, 2010, despite attempts by a passerby physician to revive him. Photos of Mr. Said’s brutalized corpse were tweeted by his family, capturing the attention and support of Google Executive Mael Ghonim and quickening rising political tensions. However, because of the thin line between participatory journalism and mediated mobilization, countries going through upheaval have an incentive to limit access to social media sites, or in the event that the blocks to social media sites are hacked, to completely shut off internet access nationwide.

For example, China has instituted tighter restrictions on google and website bans, as has Russia. On the other hand, in response to several domestic law suits, Turkey recently lifted a ban on Twitter and Youtube. In response to such trends, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to protect free speech on the Internet. In 2013, Egypt and China were criticized for arresting bloggers that wrote against the state’s interests. Twitter came under criticism in France for refusing to release account information of members who used hashtags to spread anti-semitic messages, although Twitter did delete the posts immediately. Likewise, in 2012, Human Rights Watch called on several nations to release detainees held on charges of political blogging against the government. In 2011, Kevin Govern of Ave Maria School of Law compared the impact of social media to the use of political pamphlets such as the Communist Manifesto to inspire localized uprisings.