Twitter really changed the world, and here are 5 examples to prove it

Will Twitter end up disappearing soon, as many web watchers announce? To be honest, though, we don’t know much about it Elon Musk, who bought the social network last October, continues to chain catastrophic decisions after catastrophic decisionsincluding the launch of a controversial paid subscription, thus threatening democracy according to top analysts.

Twitter really made history

Since then, many Internet users have decided to leave the platform permanently, fearing to witness an extinction as laborious as it is pathetic. Thus, waiting for the fall (or not) of the social network, it is fashionable to remember the happy days of the platform together, as is used when mourning a loved one.

To pay tribute to him, here is a brief chronological review of events showing that, despite the pans inflicted on it by Elon Musk, Twitter really made history.

The 2009 post-election uprising in Iran or the “Twitter Revolution”

In January 2009, an Internet user posted a photo of a plane in the Hudson, thus marking the beginning of a real media revolution. For the first time it is no longer the traditional press reporting a news story, but a simple Twitter user with just one possession, a smartphone. A crucial moment in the history of humanity.

However, it will take a few months to Twitter becomes a real tool of political protest and thus marks history. In reaction to the announcement of the re-election of the statesman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June of the same year, the power was accused of electoral fraud by the people, who massively supported the opposition embodied by Mir Hossein Moussavi. Iranians have thus expressed their anger by organizing numerous demonstrations in Tehran and in other major cities of the country, even in the world, all this only thanks to Twitter.

A riot later dubbed the “Twitter Revolution” due to the important role the social network has played in enabling protesters to organize themselves during these historic events.

Thirteen years later, Twitter, along with TikTok and Instagram, is better than ever a political tool of struggle for Iranian women and for all those who demonstrate. This is especially true in recent weeks with the many protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian student arrested by the morality police for violating the Islamic Republic’s dress code.

The Arab Spring, a moment of political denunciation

In the same register we can also mention the Arab Spring, which took place just a year later. We are talking this time about large-scale protests in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa since December 2010. Anti-government demonstrations in which, once again, Twitter has proven that it can be a powerful information and gathering toolsome of these regions of the world are completely devoid of freedom of the press.

It should be noted that during this period, the social network has not only allowed the sad reality behind these authoritarian governments to be exposed to the eyes of the world, but also to share information about the demonstrations among activists.

#MeToo, a movement for the liberation of women’s voices against gender-based and sexual violence

Originally, the term Me Too was first used in 2007 by Tarana Burke, an African-American social worker who wanted to report sexual assault. For 10 years, numerous awareness campaigns against gender-based and sexual violence have been carried out on social networks, without them really taking an important place in the public debate.

It will take 11 years, in October 2017, for Me Too to find a massive echo. A discussion that obviously started on Twitter, with the hashtag #MeToo. At the time of the keyword explosion, several American celebrities, mostly women, were taking turns making allegations of abuse against Harvey Weinstein, including under the hashtag #MyHarveyWeinstein. In this same period, the movement spread to France, where the hashtag #balancetonporc, launched on 13 October 2017 by journalist Sandra Muller and denouncing the vast majority of men in power, also found strong response from internet users.

As we all know, #MeToo has had an impact far beyond the Harvey Weinstein affair and the cultural and political world. Even today, the hashtag has become a real movement of expression, protest and solidarity, having opened an endless global conversation, during which women’s voices are gradually being released on the issue of gender-based and sexual violence. The latest case, in France, is that of the youtuber Norman who makes videos, placed in police custody on December 5 for rape and corruption of a minor.

While #MeToo obviously isn’t done talking about him, it goes without saying that within a few years the movement has given a different color to the public debate on the reporting of sexual abuse. A big step forward for feminist struggles, which probably wouldn’t have had so much resonance without Twitter.

Black Lives Matter for the fight against racism

It is difficult to think of social revolt and social networks without thinking of the Black Lives Matters movement, which has brought together hundreds of thousands of people around the planet, and this, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. At that time, when the world was confined to its homes, Twitter was an essential tool for gaining ground in the fight against racism, in the United States, but also around the world.

We recall that it was on the occasion of the murder of George Floyd by the police officer Derek Chauvin, later convicted of murder, that Twitter not only allowed this terrible injustice to be denounced by circulating a video of the crime committed by the American police officer, but also to highlight more generally systemic racism and the problem associated with police impunity despite the numerous racist crimes.

Thanks to the reach of the movement on Twitter, the leaders of #blacklivesmatter were thus able to set up numerous demonstrations around the worlddespite the unprecedented health crisis. Quite a feat that Twitter has made possible.

The Campidoglio revolt, a moment as lunar as it is historical

Barely two months after losing the November 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump, now the former president of the United States, simply asked his supporters of QAnon, a US conspiracy group, to join him in protesting alleged election fraud which, according to him, would lead him to lose this election.

While it never managed to stop the counting of votes, and thus challenge the vote of the American people, Capitol Hill was stormed in January 2021 by an astonishing angry mob dressed in some astounding accoutrements. . A historic event described by the media around the world as a real threat to American democracy.

A few hours after the incident, massively relaunched on social media, but also by the traditional press, Trump was finally banned from Twitter, the former US leader’s favorite social network. An unprecedented decision by Twitter, but one that nonetheless follows repeated warnings. The social network, now owned by Elon Musk, then intervened again by closing Kanye West’s Twitter account following yet another anti-Semitic intervention.

Cover image: Unsplash / Camilo Jimenez