Here’s something I think is interesting in theory: a group of Turkish internet users has put together a Google map, which they are using as a venue to host a virtual protest march. The idea is to take a stand against internet censorship in Turkey, which isn’t as extreme as in some other countries, but still, slippery slope. According to the instructions, you’re supposed to put a marker on the map to represent yourself as a protester; when they reach a goal of one billion protesters (the actual map bears the typo “one trillion”— good luck with that), there’s going to be a pixel-by-pixel virtual march to the nation’s capital in Ankara.
While I agree that awareness is good, and that the internet is a great way to test things like this and get an idea of what sort of support is out there, in practical terms, exercises like this are futile unless they can be translated into real-life action. It’s this sort of lazy armchair activism, where people are happy to click on a link or change their Facebook status to the latest “support our cause” catchphrase, but if you ask people to put their money or their time where their mouse is, only a fraction would care enough to get out of their chairs and actually do something. Within a couple of days, everyone has forgotten again, so what exactly is the point?
I don’t think any of the policy-making bureaucracy in Ankara care in the least about an internet protest march, and to be honest most of them probably wouldn’t even understand what you were talking about if you tried to explain it. It just doesn’t affect them. Unless protest groups are willing to take the next step and move the protests off the screen and into the streets and voting booths, where lawmakers will actually have a chance of understanding what is happening, I’m afraid this is just wasted effort that could be put to better use. Link
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