After Tunisia, Egypt The Internet Could ‘Kill’ Regimes In Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria…
Comment on INTERNET USAGE IN AFRICA 2008After Tunisia, Egypt The Internet Could ‘Kill’ Regimes In Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria…
Posted:Sun 06 Feb, 2011 (20:45 EST)Angry protestors deposed Tunisia’s dictator Zine el-Abidine on January 14, exactly 10 days after the uprising against his 23-year regime.
Ten days later the revolutionary had spread to Egypt, where the country’s strongman, President Hosni Mubarak, has desperately clang on, promising that he will not run for office again in September. It is testimony of how bad things are in Egypt, that a despot who has been in power for all of 30 years can consider a promise to step down after that period to be a political concession!
Apart from having the same problems of a corrupt long-ruling political class and high youth unemployment, Tunisia and Egypt have a few more things in common; one being that they are among the top 10 Internet users in Africa.
They also have the same level of youth unemployment – 40 percent. In Tunisia’s case, though, nearly 50 percent of Master degree graduates and graduates with advanced technician diplomas are unemployed! The lack of jobs is one of the main reasons young Tunisians and Egyptians took to the streets.
It would seem that if you have high youth unemployment, it might not be a smart thing to also have high Internet use if you are a strongman who wants to preserve your power. Several commentators take it as given that social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, played the most critical role in mobilising the Tunisian and Egyptian protestors. Sceptics, however, argue that if that were the case, then the Egyptian demonstrators would have fizzled out after the regime shut down the Internet and switched off mobile phone services.
Indeed, in Egypt’s case, more than one million people turned out for the biggest rally last week, days after the Internet and mobile phones had been closed down.
This, however, would then only prove that social media is a great tool for igniting political action, not for sustaining.
If anything, the best proof that social media was influential in the Egyptian protests is that the leadership was – and remains – unstructured, mirroring the anti-hierarchy and near-anarchical structure on which Twitter and Facebook are partly founded.
If high-youth-unemployment vs. high-internet-use is a lethal political mix, then all the top Internet countries in Africa most worry. Indeed, their youth unemployment rates of some are far worse than Egypt’s and Tunisia’s.
Youth unemployment for Nigeria, which has largest numbers of Internet users on the continent, is 60 to 70 percent. Uganda’s is a record 80 percent. Kenya is also a perilous 65 percent, and South Africa is at 41 percent.
Now, if there is a cause-effect relationship here, it could be that jobless young people drive up Internet usage as they look for opportunities - or as they pass time. In the process, some of them might be politicised by progressive ideas on the Web. However, it is equally likely that the Internet is also a useful distraction that shields corrupt incompetent regimes from the anger of the unemployed. Shutting it down could bring protestors to the streets sooner. Perhaps if Egypt had left the Internet up, many people might have been frightened off by the tension, or had their “fix” of the protests sitting behind their computers. Instead, they took that away and, who knows, could have brought more people to Tahrir Square in the process.
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Ten days later the revolutionary had spread to Egypt, where the country’s strongman, President Hosni Mubarak, has desperately clang on, promising that he will not run for office again in September. It is testimony of how bad things are in Egypt, that a despot who has been in power for all of 30 years can consider a promise to step down after that period to be a political concession!
Apart from having the same problems of a corrupt long-ruling political class and high youth unemployment, Tunisia and Egypt have a few more things in common; one being that they are among the top 10 Internet users in Africa.
They also have the same level of youth unemployment – 40 percent. In Tunisia’s case, though, nearly 50 percent of Master degree graduates and graduates with advanced technician diplomas are unemployed! The lack of jobs is one of the main reasons young Tunisians and Egyptians took to the streets.
It would seem that if you have high youth unemployment, it might not be a smart thing to also have high Internet use if you are a strongman who wants to preserve your power. Several commentators take it as given that social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, played the most critical role in mobilising the Tunisian and Egyptian protestors. Sceptics, however, argue that if that were the case, then the Egyptian demonstrators would have fizzled out after the regime shut down the Internet and switched off mobile phone services.
Indeed, in Egypt’s case, more than one million people turned out for the biggest rally last week, days after the Internet and mobile phones had been closed down.
This, however, would then only prove that social media is a great tool for igniting political action, not for sustaining.
If anything, the best proof that social media was influential in the Egyptian protests is that the leadership was – and remains – unstructured, mirroring the anti-hierarchy and near-anarchical structure on which Twitter and Facebook are partly founded.
If high-youth-unemployment vs. high-internet-use is a lethal political mix, then all the top Internet countries in Africa most worry. Indeed, their youth unemployment rates of some are far worse than Egypt’s and Tunisia’s.
Youth unemployment for Nigeria, which has largest numbers of Internet users on the continent, is 60 to 70 percent. Uganda’s is a record 80 percent. Kenya is also a perilous 65 percent, and South Africa is at 41 percent.
Now, if there is a cause-effect relationship here, it could be that jobless young people drive up Internet usage as they look for opportunities - or as they pass time. In the process, some of them might be politicised by progressive ideas on the Web. However, it is equally likely that the Internet is also a useful distraction that shields corrupt incompetent regimes from the anger of the unemployed. Shutting it down could bring protestors to the streets sooner. Perhaps if Egypt had left the Internet up, many people might have been frightened off by the tension, or had their “fix” of the protests sitting behind their computers. Instead, they took that away and, who knows, could have brought more people to Tahrir Square in the process.
RELATED ARTICLE
INTERNET USAGE IN AFRICA 2008
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