Iran, Facebook, and the Limits of Online Activism

The green movement's Internet leaders are learning the perils and pitfalls of online organizing -- the hard way.

BY CAMERON ABADI | FEBRUARY 12, 2010

A group of Iran's green movement activists had a grand and detailed vision for what was supposed to happen on Feb. 11. They called it a "Trojan Horse" strategy: Backers of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi, camouflaged in unassuming attire, would attend the official regime-backed rally commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Then, at a pre-arranged time, they would assemble in front of the cameras of the foreign news media, reveal themselves as enthusiasts of the green movement, and denounce the brutality of the government for all the world to see.

As we all know, however, there was no great reveal at the official rally: The plan didn't work, and Feb. 11 will be remembered by Iran's activists not as a triumph, but as a disappointment. And the scale of the setback, which has placed a significant damper on the movement's spirits, is closely tied to the specificity and grandiosity of the visions that were being cultivated in the preceding weeks via blogs, forwarded emails, and social networking sites.

Iranian activists have long reaped the benefits of Internet communication, but especially in the months since the June 12 election, they have also fallen prey to its pitfalls. Reassured by their own online echo chambers, activists and participants allowed their optimism to grow like a market bubble -- a bubble that, many say, was popped on Thursday.

Now, many of the greens are experiencing a sort of idealism hangover. Mohammad Sadeghi, the 27-year old Iranian-German who administers Mousavi's official Facebook page, admits that he doesn't know what comes next. He has always managed to be one step ahead of the manifold events of the past year, but now he's at a loss.

He created the Facebook page last January, before Mousavi had even officially declared his candidacy, back in the days when Facebook was still freely accessible to any Internet user in Iran. In the following months, after the page had attracted a small but devoted following, Mousavi's campaign reached out to him, expressing its desire to consult and cooperate with him in the run-up to the election.

After the election, Mousavi's Tehran-based campaign and his Germany-based Facebook site experienced diverging fates. Layers of campaign staff were hauled off to Iranian prisons, while the Facebook site saw an explosion in followers. Sadeghi decided that he had a responsibility to independently continue the campaign in Mousavi's name, to serve as a meeting place, conference room, and bulletin board for sympathizers and activists. By his account, the Facebook page played a key role in propagating the defiant nightly "Allahu Akbar" chant and organizing the protest schedule linked to major Iranian and Shiite holidays.

ATTA KENARE/BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images

 

MITHRIDATES

9:29 AM ET

February 14, 2010

Good ending

You're definitely right about this:

>They would do well, though, to remember that social movements on this scale are not a sprint, but a marathon.

Assuming it doesn't develop into a military dictatorship, I'm still only giving the situation up to four years to rectify itself. Even if Ahmadinejad and the rest manage to hold out over the second term there will eventually be another presidential election, and given the events in the last one the validity of the next election may be very difficult to spin. The world will also be watching the next one with much more interest, given how much about the political system even the casual follower of foreign events knows now. Since there were open debates last time, will they have them again? Street demonstrations were allowed last time; will they clamp down next time? If on top of all that there is record low turnout then how will the next president claim a mandate from the people?

 

SMCI60652

4:33 PM ET

February 16, 2010

What exactly to these folks want?

Can anyone recommend some translated literature from the leaders of the 'Green' movement that outlines specifically what the "ideal" government set-up would be?

I don't know any of the leaders of the Green Movement to have openly debated the role of the Supreme Gaurdian Council in the structure of the Islamic Republic. I've never seen Ayatollah Khatami or Rafsanjani or even Mousavi bring forth substantive differences in their interpretation of "Vilayet-e-Faqih."

Perhaps the youth of the Green Movement needs to gel or marinate a bit more... figure out what it actually stands for, other than simply the right to say what you want and be as naked as you want.

All I see in the Iranian regime is a socialist state that expresses itself through the verbage of Shi'ite Islam. Its economy is almost entirely state controlled or tied. Its regime's legitimacy is built on extensive entitlement programs permeating through to the deeply conservative masses of its lower class. And the presevation and prosperity of its military and clerical establishment are tied to the status quo.

So yes, Sadeghi is right. But it's not just a sprint or marathon, it's a drawn-out, uphill decathalon that the Green Movement faces. Something that surely is going to require much deeper thought and sacrifice than tweeting from abroad or befriending the Mousavi fan club on Facebook. (with deference to the brave souls who've ACTUALLY put their lives on the line on the ground)