Sunday, July 17, 2011

Facebook, Twitter and Democracy

A few months ago, the authoritarian governments in Tunisia and Egypt were overthrown by democratic people's movements in those countries.

The people in those countries, used social media like Facebook and Twitter to organize, coordinate and document their movement. Similar method has also been used now by the pro-democracy movements in Libya and Yemen.

The above successful use of Facebook and Twitter by pro-democracy movement has inspired Indonesian Minister of Information and Communication Tifatul Sembiring to control the use of Facebook and Twitter.

Carolina Rumuat of Global Voice Online quoted the Minister as saying that social media like Twitter and Facebook must be strictly controlled since they can be used to destabilize the government. He added that countries like Tunisia and Libya suffered from uprisings because their governments failed to control social media.

After being criticized in the media, the Minister changed his mind and made a statement through his Twitter saying that reporters have misquoted him. He also wrote on his Facebook page that his statement about social media control in front of public elementary school teachers was about the importance of adult supervision on children's internet browsing experience, language use decency and anti-pornography browsing.

I am very glad that Minister finally realized that Facebook and Twitter are friends of democracy, therefore should not be controlled.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

jaman sudah berubah, mereka tidak harus jadi dektator lagi.melalui fb dan twet informasi bisa mengalir dengan begitu cepat.dan biar media sosial fb dan twiter jadi kontrol.

Unknown said...

Hi Harry,
That was quite an about turn :)

Hopefully what is being said publicly is also in tandem behind close doors.I believe some monitoring has been in motion in some countries in the region...the success of social media in spearheading the uprising are making em nervous.

Thanks for sharing Harry.

terbaik Indonesia said...

sepertinya tampilan blog multibrand baru yah.lebih ringan skarang.. :)

ohy,, pemerintah kita skrg lebih sewot ganggu2 kesenangan masayrakat berselancar di dunia maya dibanding mengurusi koruptor2..

Unknown said...

@Wisata Murah,
Saya sependapat dengan anda mas.

@Umihoney,
I am very glad to read your comment again Umi.
Actually the social media should regimes in any country happy because it enable them to know what some of their people are saying.

@Terbaik Indonesia,
Seharusnya pemerintah senang dengan adanya FB, Twitter dll. karena mereka bisa tahu apa yang dikatakan sebagian rakyatnya.

TUKANG CoLoNG said...

kalo emang bener demokrasi, mustinya pemerintah ga perlu sewot akan adanya socmed

Unknown said...

@TUKANG CoLoNG,
Sebenarnya socmed bisa bermanfaat bagi pemerintah.

r10 said...

social media membuat rakyat berani berpendapat, dan itu yg membuat takut pemerintah

Unknown said...

@R10,
Padahal pemerintah bisa manfaatkan sosmed untuk sosialisasi policy kepada masyarakat sesuai U.U. Keterbukaan Publik.

Setyo-Utomo Said said...

It's a good news. Thanks for sharing.

Unknown said...

@Utomo,
Thank you for dropping by Pak.

Adira Asuransi Kendaraan Terbaik Indonesia said...

I usually use social media like Facebook and Twitter to optimasi my blog

Unknown said...

@Adira,
FB and Twitter can be used to optimize our blogging activity.