World War 3 will be fought on the internet - that was the key takeaway for most students that took Kenneth Knapp’s Cyber Security course in my university.
Most of you probably saw and/took part in the heated debate some days ago on our platform on whether or not we should have posted a certain video ‘shaming’ a deceased gendarme officer. When we incorporate our personal feelings and our sociocultural norms into the matter, it can make for a very sensitive and complicated issue as it was for some. A lot could be learned from that incident and you all know learning is what we are all about here.
What I saw happening was attempts to censor our media by people whose progress has been stifled by the same phenomenon. Our media today has been strong armed into feeding us with distractions - constantly creating media candy to cover up the deliberate deletion of meaningful discourse on the things that really matter to us.
Despite the critical state of our society, you tune in on traditional media outlets and you can’t find one serious proposal about what to do about the severe problems of health, education, unemployment, white collar crime, soaring corruption, and deterioration of some of our major cities - the whole raft of problems. Government propagandist continue to divert the bewildered herd, because if they start noticing this they may not like it, since they're the ones suffering from it. Our government’s own propaganda machine functions on a whole other level of efficiency to the point where we actually notice but decide those who complain are the problem. We the sufferers have now teamed up with them to further distance our minds from thinking about our real problems and coming up with real solutions.
That is how in the midst of a regional crises, our president will invite runners up of the AFCON Women’s competition for a selfie taking parade without having said a word to the people whose lives have been disrupted because of a genuine cry for their voices to be heard.
We can all lay testament to the role social media played in ‘the struggle’ and we know fully well that it, was the key instrument in revolutions that we all watched happen in Tunisia and Egypt.
__________________________________________________________
“The rest of the population ought to be deprived of any form of organization, because organization just causes trouble. People have to be atomized and segregated and alone. They're not supposed to organize, because then they might be something beyond spectators of action.”
― Noam Chomsky, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda
____________________________________________________________
That is why they cut off the internet. Before Facebook, we and our ideas were isolated. Now I can write and connect with people who feel the same way across the country.
Some, like our Minister of communications, argue that social media is bad because it can be used to propagate false information, bla bla bla. Meanwhile that is true, also remember that it is the only place where many of us can ever get heard. We all saw the Minister threatening to close certain TV stations for granting audience to people the government doesn’t like. Those media houses are businesses and many families are dependent on them for their livelihood so it is easy for them to be bullied into obedience. So if those media houses shut their doors to the people that call out the misdeeds of the government or our societal ills, where do those people turn to?
Most of us come to social media to keep up with the Jone’s and get laughs but we should not let that overshadow the more meaningful things it can bring us. Finally, we have a place where we can be heard but most people have been censored into complete silence or distracted into using the platform to undermine the very conversations they should be having. That is why we see a plethora of people writing in all caps how much they hate long posts - because there is hardly any important subject matter that can be explored in less than 500 words. We talk about how we come to Facebook for entertainment…etc? So when do you have those conversations that matter? TELL ME.
SO!
WW3 will be fought on the internet.
Facebook will replace our courtrooms.
Social Media will help us with transparency.
Transparency is the weapon.
- Tino Foy