Social Media, Politics and the State: Protests, Revolutions, Riots, Crime and Policing in the Age of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

264 Pages·2014·1 MB·English

by  Daniel Trottier

Social Media, Politics and the State
This book is the essential guide for understanding how state power and
politics are contested and exercised on social media. It brings together con-
tributions by social media scholars who explore the connection of social
media with revolutions, uprising, protests, power and counter-power, hack-
tivism, the state, policing and surveillance. It shows how collective action
and state power are related and conflict as two dialectical sides of social
media power, and how power and counter-power are distributed in this
dialectic. Theoretically focused and empirically rigorous research considers
the two-sided contradictory nature of power in relation to social media and
politics. Chapters cover social media in the context of phenomena such as
contemporary revolutions in Egypt and other countries, populism 2.0, anti-
austerity protests, the fascist movement in Greece’s crisis, Anonymous and
police surveillance.
Daniel Trottier is a postdoctoral fellow in social and digital media at the
Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) at the University
of Westminster.
Christian Fuchs is a professor of social media at the University of Westminster.
Routledge Research in Information Technology and Society
1 Reinventing Government 8 Internet and Society
in the Information Age Social Theory in the
International Practice in Information Age
IT-Enabled Public Sector Reform Christian Fuchs
Edited by Richard Heeks
9 Hacking Capitalism
2 Information Technology The Free and Open Source
in Government Software Movement
Britain and America Johan Söderberg
Helen Margetts
10 Urban Youth in China:
3 Information Society Studies Modernity, the Internet and
Alistair S. Duff the Self
Fengshu Liu
4 National Electronic Government
Building an Institutional 11 Network Governance
Framework for Joined Up of Global Religions
Government—A Comparative Jerusalem, Rome, and Mecca
Study Michel S. Laguerre
Edited by Martin Eifert and
Jan Ole Püschel 12 Migration, Diaspora and
Information Technology
5 Local Electronic Government in Global Societies
A Comparative Study Edited by Leopoldina Fortunati,
Edited by Helmut Drüke Raul Pertierra and Jane Vincent
6 National Governments 13 A Normative Theory of the
and Control of the Internet Information Society
A Digital Challenge Alistair S. Duff
Giampiero Giacomello
14 Is There a Home in Cyberspace?
7 The Politics of Cyberconflict The Internet in Migrants’
Security, Ethnoreligious and Everyday Life and the Emergence
Sociopolitical Conflicts of Global Communities
Athina Karatzogianni Heike Mónika Greschke
15 Frontiers in New Media 16 Social Media, Politics
Research and the State
Edited by Francis L. F. Lee, Louis Protests, Revolutions, Riots,
Leung, Jack Linchuan Qiu, and Crime and Policing in the Age of
Donna S. C. Chu Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
Edited by Daniel Trottier and
Christian Fuchs
This page intentionally left blank
Social Media, Politics
and the State
Protests, Revolutions, Riots, Crime and
Policing in the Age of Facebook, Twitter
and YouTube
Edited by Daniel Trottier and
Christian Fuchs
First published 2015
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2015 Taylor & Francis
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Social media, politics and the state : protests, revolutions, riots, crime and
policing in the age of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube / edited by Daniel
Trottier and Christian Fuchs.
pages cm. — (Routledge research in information technology and
society ; 16)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Internet—Political aspects. 2. Political participation. 3. Social
media—Political aspects. 4. Political psychology. I. Trottier, Daniel.
II. Fuchs, Christian, 1976–
HM851.S645 2014
302.23ʹ1—dc23
2014008525
ISBN: 978-0-415-74909-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-79824-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-76483-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Figures ix
Tables xi
SECTION ONE
Introductions
1 Theorising Social Media, Politics and the State: An Introduction 3
DANIEL TROTTIER AND CHRISTIAN FUCHS
2 Social Networking Sites in Pro-democracy and Anti-austerity
Protests: Some Thoughts from a Social Movement Perspective 39
DONATELLA DELLA PORTA AND ALICE MATTONI
SECTION TWO
Global and Civil Counter-Power
3 Populism 2.0: Social Media Activism, the Generic Internet User
and Interactive Direct Democracy 67
PAOLO GERBAUDO
4 Anonymous: Hacktivism and Contemporary Politics 88
CHRISTIAN FUCHS
SECTION THREE
Civil Counter-Power Against Austerity
5 The Rise of Nazism and the Web: Social Media as Platforms of
Racist Discourses in the Context of the Greek Economic Crisis 109
PANOS KOMPATSIARIS AND YIANNIS MYLONAS
viii Contents
6 More Than an Electronic Soapbox: Activist Web Presence as
a Collective Action Frame, Newspaper Source and Police
Surveillance Tool During the London G20 Protests in 2009 131
JONATHAN CABLE
7 Assemblages: Live Streaming Dissent in the ‘Quebec Spring’ 149
ELISE DANIELLE THORBURN
SECTION FOUR
Contested and Toppled State Power
8 Creating Spaces for Dissent: The Role of Social Media in the
2011 Egyptian Revolution 171
SARA SALEM
9 Social Media Activism and State Censorship 189
THOMAS POELL
SECTION FIVE
State Power as Policing and Intelligence
10 Vigilantism and Power Users: Police and User-Led
Investigations on Social Media 209
DANIEL TROTTIER
11 Police ‘Image Work’ in an Era of Social Media:
YouTube and the 2007 Montebello Summit Protest 227
CHRISTOPHER J. SCHNEIDER
Contributors 247
Figures
1.1 A visualisation of modern society 13
1.2 The process of social media communication 16