Weibo worries Chinese Government’s secu

 Just read that Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, is causing sleepless nights for the  Government. Social media in an autoritharian regime is not all that great to keep your population at bay. So, some cyberutopians start mesmerizing about a twitter uprising already. 
Uhuh, nope, Dream on! Cyberutopian alert! Lets not forget that people using Weibo are not all trying to overthrow the government and you can trust the good ‘ol Chinese Party to keep a keen eye on anything suspicious happening on those platforms. I dont believe that it will cause big trouble in Little China.   

It does show that social media challenges the existing ways to control the flows of information. But a challenge is not by far the forerunner of a revolution.

But Maarten, for Gods sake, why so careful? Its a great new development, the first rays of light peeking through the slowly opening doors to democracy and freedom for all Chinese, i can hear some of my friends say.

I would say to that: Dont get me wrong, i am a strong believer in social media and the powers it harnasses to mobilise (not organise!) large groups of people. 
But heres my point: just because Twitter has proven some kind of mobilising ability elsewhere in the world will not make its bastardchild Weibo work in some Chinese province we never heard of.
Benghazi is not Shanghai, The Tahir square not Tienaminsquare. If Weibo or Twitter gain in momentum it wil be because of the people using it, not because of the medium itself. People will have to be willing to organise protests. Weibo can help mobilising people for these protests. But without some people organising in real life, nothing will happen. I am convinced of that.
The organising party will not be succesful or unsuccesfull BECAUSE OF social media. Its just a tool. A great tool, but just a tool.

To keep the debate going, here’s a link to a piece by Aaron Brady: very interesting, it helped me focussing your view on the China – social media debate as well. so, just to have an excuse to link to his piece, here it is.

Mobilisation vs Organisation

UPDATE ON THE UPDATE! Looks like London and mister ‘ modernity and i am totally new media fancyschmansy’ Cameron is looking at social media a little more concerned. So,after all the bad stuff happening and the mobilising of rioters with Blackberries, the UK is considering banning acces to social media to groups such as the rioters!  This is what you get when everybody gets all emotional over the power of social media. I got news: WRONG! As one reporter puts it: a chilling prospect. Party like its 1984, anyone?

Just a quick update on the #UKriots for ‘FREE WIDESCREENPLASMA’S AND BURNING STUFF’ BECAUSE ITS NOT NICE’

The protests are winding down and everything seems to get a little more under control, police is arresting lots of people, seems like the worst is over.

To me, this shows that social media is a great way of mobilising people, just as  the #riotcleanup Twitter helped mobilising people to clean up after the rioters where done playing their live action Angry Birds re-enactment performance. Great!

But! More important: it also proves that social media is not that great at organising the riots. Riots  just sprung up everywhere, messages spread through pinging and texting but once the wellorganised police showed up and started to fight back, the riots dwindled down to what now seems to be a tense, but calm situation in most of the British cities.  Wellorganised statecontrolled policeunits won the fight over quickly mobilised, but not organised group of, eh, good question. what exactly?

I’d like to smack internetcentrists -those who claim that the internet itself is the key to overthrwoing authority-  around the head with this. Those who claim that social media is the new and secret weapon for oppressed people in evil leader countries such as Lybia and Syria, must acknowledge that the spontaneous outbirsts of violence in Engeland where not  coordinated properly with social media. There was no strong leadership, no common ideology other than ‘STEAL STUFF  AND WEAR A SCARF’ that connected the people who participated in the riots.  The UK riots show that before social media can do anything like overthrowing a government, there must be a central coordination and a common cause amongst the people using that medium. Social media does not provide that common cause.

So its a great way for mobilising people, but a virtually ineffective tool for organising groups of people without a shared cause or ideology. No problem for the wellorganised nationstate to reclaim te streets.