It's a beautiful dream - the dream that with enough voices there's nothing we can't do, there are no demons we can't defeat, no war criminals we can't capture and bring to justice.
It's a dream that an organisation called Invisible Children put a lot of time and expense into pedalling last week when its half-hour video went viral. In the video, it campaigned for everyone on social networks to make people aware of Joseph Kony, a Ugandan guerrilla group leader. The idea was that by bringing public attention to the atrocities he'd committed, we could all put pressure on the US government to do something to stop him.
In the real world there's no magic, there's no making a real difference by sitting behind your desk, and the damsel is not a helpless woman in a tower.
Tallulah Habib, social media activist, ITWeb
When I, like four million others, saw the Make Kony Famous video last Wednesday, I can't deny that a thrill of - what, inspiration? - ran through me. Here was a new purpose for social media, a noble one. Here were the possibilities I'd imagined when I saw the world come together over the (later proved fake) 7 New Wonders of the World campaign, when we all raised our voices and said we didn't need the bureaucrats to tell us what was a wonder and what wasn't. This was the democratising power of social media in action!
It's like a fairytale, really. Bad things happen to a damsel in distress and the stable boy is given magic powers which enable him to save her. He becomes the white knight, the hero. Everyone lives happily ever after. In this story, the damsel is the helpless Ugandan people, the stable boy is us - with no power or title - and the magic that enables us able to save the damsel is social media.
But in the real world there's no magic, there's no making a real difference by sitting behind your desk, and the damsel is not a helpless woman in a tower. The sooner we all learn this, the better.
Alarm bells
On Thursday, the great pendulum of Internet opinion began to swing back as various voices started to speak out against the over-simplistic nature of the Invisible Children video. A column in the Daily Maverick pointed out that the Ugandan military that the video was calling for us all to support was actually known to be corrupt and making a bad situation in Uganda much worse. The Mail & Guardian mentioned that Kony was not nearly the only villain operating in that area, nor one that anyone who could actually make a difference to the situation didn't already know and care about greatly. It was an article on CNN, however, that made possibly the most poignant point. Mareike Schomerus, director of the Justice and Security Research Programme, at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and author of several articles about Kony, labelled the campaign as “a worrying picture of a mass culture that easily falls for propaganda”.
Schomerus, who is very familiar with the situation in Uganda and all its complexities, revealed that Invisible Children had, in fact, witnessed initial peace talks in Uganda, but grew tired of the tedium of peace processes. Instead, it decided to call for immediate action, the use of violence and the vilification of a single individual. And we fell for it, because it was pretty and because there was a little kid and hopeful music.
Social media has been called a democratising force. The wonderful technology that enables us to communicate and share with each other has been praised for its ability to give a voice to the voiceless, give power to the powerless. No longer do we have to rely on the institution for our news; no longer can any one person in power tell us what to care about.
Except there's something worse than a single individual or organisation dictating what they believe we should care about and that's the masses doing so, the psychology of Group Think. Would any dictator have stayed in power if they didn't have throngs of people ready to stand up for them and spread their ideas? There is a reason that the propaganda machine has been so incredibly important to every totalitarian regime.
As South Africans, many of us have experienced a time when a government called for immediate action, the use of violence and the vilification of a single individual (or a single group of individuals) in living memory. There are differences, however. In this case the villain is a known scoundrel, and of course, no one is preventing the voices of the decent from speaking out.
But here's a thought: who needs to shut up the voices of dissent when you have SEO (search engine optimisation)?
There is no doubt, in this particular case, that Kony is a bad guy. There is also a great possibility that Invisible Children really has its heart in the right place and only wants to make a positive difference. The campaign has also, thankfully, done little damage. If anything, it's made the lives of those trying to negotiate peace a little harder, though at the same time it's made a whole bunch of Americans aware that there are human rights abuses happening outside of the Middle East, which can't be a bad thing.
But what about the next time?
There will be a next time. It's inevitable. The question is when social media gets used to spread propaganda about a government or a people that is less well-intentioned, about a cause that is more glamorous and more tempting, by a party that is less well-meaning, will we be ready? Will we all do our research and think critically about that which we're supporting?
Or will we raise our fists in the air and raise our voices in support?
It's a worrying thought and I think the time has come for us all to consider it.
Related story:
Ugandan warlord campaign goes viral
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