Recent historical events have shown the world how participative media systems such as Twitter and Facebook can overturn generational long regimes of power. Such was the case of the Arab Spring revolution of 2010 that happened miles away from many, owed by so few, yet brought closer to everyone through participative media.

Can social media be the new age weapon? More powerful than even an atomic bomb yet not completely bloodless in its coup. Simple words shared can turn into discontent but images can rile the winds for change. Stories of oppression and brutality have no place in our new generation of participative media users as they will rise to the challenge no matter the odds.

With the inevitable global democratization of data and online activisms, governments now need to find ways to legitimately exercise control on these participative media platforms. So volatile is this threat that some governments go to the extremes of deliberately imposing power outages or shutting down communication infrastructures or blanket censures to void the world of any unsanctioned news and views from its people. Some gavel laws to force social media providers to yield to their censure and data privacy requests.

The aftermath and fall-out of the Arab Spring revolution continues to have repercussions and ripples throughout the participative media network even till today. The bad, the good and the ugly elements are all being championed by different factions around the world even between ex-cold war hostiles and neighbouring countries in conflict zones. If participative media was politically weaponised, countries could overturn target governments without the need to send a soldier or fire a single bullet. Yet the bloodshed is all between the locals over a foreign ideal.

Before it was the pen. Now, even a tweet or a simple Facebook share could rally symphatists and emphatists from every end of the world in a very short time. Furthermore the message goes viral, multiplies and evolves rapidly making it even stronger, not just than a sword, but even a novel-virus.

Next Read: Arab Spring – History