Have you heard of Gina Martin? She’s the person who changed the law on upskirting. Who helped her? Actually, the real question is ‘what helped her?’, because the greatest ally in her battle to make this a criminal offence was social media. After becoming a victim of upskirting, she posted her experience on Facebook and it went viral. She then launched an online petition on Facebook which received over 100,0000 signatures. From 12th April 2019, upskirting is now a crime in the UK. She described social media as an ‘incredible tool…to galvanise and motivate people’. This news story alone clearly highlights the influence of social media in politics.
Why is social media such a great platform to connect with people? The answer may seem obvious, but it’s important: you can get your message across to many people, and fast. Political campaigns go viral within minutes and the ‘share’ and ‘retweet’ buttons only escalate this. One post can do the trick,too. Take Taylor Swift’s historic post on Instagram, in which she endorsed two Democrats and urged people to vote. Vote.org reported that, within 24 hours of her announcement, nearly 65,000 Americans aged 18-29 had registered to vote. Just let that sink in.
Never underestimate the power of social media in political revolutions. When a country is going through a crisis, the state media may be biased or censored. This makes social media a useful platform for citizens to share their versions of the story, which may be far more accurate. Many people organise protests and online petitions in a bid to topple the government. The Arab Spring, a series of anti-government protests, was fuelled by social media. There were more than 3 million tweets that were about the political uprisings. In Egypt, tweets that mentioned revolution went from 2,300 to 230,000. When the government cut off access to the internet, involvement in the uprisings only increased.
All this goes to show that social media is a powerful tool in politics. If used correctly, it can have a massive impact that reverberates around the world. So, if there ever is a referendum on whether social media impacts politics, I’d vote yes.
An Insight Into Society 