BackThe Twitter conundrum
The US attempt at creating a 'Cuban Twitter' validates Erdogan's paranoia about those who try to undermine governments using social networks
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Two stories have dominated the headlines in recent weeks: the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and Russia’s annexation of Crimea (or how Vladimir Putin pulled a fast one over Barack Obama).
Between these grim tales came the amusing news of the US government’s clandestine attempt at building a “Cuban Twitter" with the aim of creating unrest in the country. The Associated Press report that pulled the covers off this “secret" US operation reads something like a chapter from a spy novel, complete with a reference to a bank account in the Cayman Islands.
The US wanted to create a social network in Cuba, similar to Twitter, which would let users share news and opinion. When the number of users became sufficiently large, political content was to be introduced to start a ‘Cuban Spring’ of sorts, essentially mass protests against the beleaguered communist regime in the country.
The project was funded by USAID, which is supposed to be “the lead US Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential". (Nothing in there about creating a service to overthrow a government.)
The name of the social networking service was ZunZuneo, a spin on Zun Zun, a Cuban hummingbird, and a bad attempt at mimicking Twitter. The service was started in 2010 and abruptly stopped in 2012.
While there has been no evidence of a Cuban unrest, the news did create enough of a flutter in the US to necessitate a Congressional hearing about why Congressmen were as clueless about the aim of this operation as the Cubans who subscribed to the service.
America’s “Cuban Twitter Crisis" is somewhat laughable but it does point to a larger trend of the use of social networks and the Internet to spur unrest. This attempt at using the Net for political change has seen everyone try their hands—governments (the US in Cuba), hastily organized civil society groups (the Arab Spring) and even states that want to resist change (Turkey, by banning twitter).
Where it all started
The Arab Spring, which started in December 2012, led to the fall of autocratic regimes across North Africa and the Middle East. While unemployment, inflation and corruption were some of the main reasons for the outbreak of protests across the Arab world, it can’t be denied that some momentum was imparted by the wide use of social media. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter all provided the impetus needed to sustain the movement for long with more and more people discussing their dissatisfaction and coordinating protests.
Turkey’s Twitter troubles
Three weeks ago, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan banned Twitter in the country because he felt his rivals were using the website to publicize a video that implicates him and his son of corruption.
While much has been spoken about Erdogan’s regressive ban, there is an interesting story behind whom he blames for his troubles.
Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish cleric, a one time ally of Erdogan and now arch rival, is believed to be working systematically to overthrow the prime minister. Gulen is based in Pennsylvania in the US and runs networks of schools in Turkey and abroad, besides wielding great influence on Turkish media. Erdogan believes that Gulen and his supporters are creating fake Twitter accounts to plant recordings and messages that destroy Erdogan’s credibility.
“In one of the frequent sermons that Gülen delivers from his home, reaching big audiences in Turkey by means of supportive television stations and the Internet, the exiled preacher recently placed a malediction on his enemies, beseeching God to “consume their homes with fire, destroy their nests, break their accords."
Allegations of extensive government corruption, many of them involving rigged contracts for construction projects and the violation of zoning laws, have been repeated by the Gülenist media often enough for many of them to stick". (Turkey Goes Out of Control, Christopher de Bellaigue, The New York Review of Books, 3 April)
While Erdogan probably thought banning Twitter was the only way he could stop the spread of dissent, it was a counter-productive move on two counts:
1) Users found ways to circumvent the ban. Even if a court hadn’t ordered the removal of the ban, Turkish citizens would have found a way to voice their disapproval, and those who are trying to overthrow Erdogan would have used other means to instigate the public;
2) By reacting the way he did, Erdogan has solidified the fast-developing image of him being a dictator.
Sure, he won local elections, but people now know how desperate he is to hold on to power. All his rivals need to do is rile him by spreading rumours and he will set himself up for a fall by taking more regressive steps.
An unknown landscape
There are virtually no scholarly studies exploring the link between political change and the use of social media/twitter. As in all emerging technologies and scientific ideas, it is the defence and intelligence communities in different countries that are trying to make use of these “tools" in a case-by-case exploration. The history of the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the agency that began the creation of the Internet, shows how such experiments often lead in unexpected directions. Governments have always been interested in using new technologies/new media for political purposes. From the radio to TV to the Internet and now social media, much of the history of such attempts remains hidden. Some day when archives are opened globally for scholars, an interesting story will be unearthed.
For now, one can safely say that the stunt pulled by the US only validates the paranoia Erdogan and other would-be dictators have about those who try to undermine governments using social networks and the Internet. Freedom of speech is sacrosanct in any democracy, but the world has to be wary of attempts at turning that freedom on its head to create false narratives.
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