Harnessing the Mobile Revolution as Iranian Government Bans Facebook

How often do you check your Facebook page? What if you tried to log on and Facebook was blocked?

If you live in Iran, that's exactly what has happened: the government has banned Facebook ahead of the June 12 election there. Why? Because opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, taking a page from Barack Obama's campaign playbook, has used the social networking site as well as blogs and other new media and tools to appeal to Iran's Millennial Generation. 

Last October, UC Berkeley's Tom Kalil, now Associate Director for Policy of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, wrote a truly compelling paper for NDN affilate, the New Policy Institute. The paper, entitled "Harnessing the Mobile Revolution," focused on how mobile devices and technology are improving health outcomes, enabling economic growth and fostering democracy in some of the world's most underdevloped countries. In his paper, Kalil wrote that the explosive growth of mobile usage, their increased performance and functionality and the role the Internet has played in allowing greater openess on mobile devices are all factors that have led to the trends mentioned above.

The section of Kalil's paper about how mobile devices can foster democracy is fascinating and illustrates exactly why Iran's repressive government has banned Facebook. From's Kalil's paper:

There are a growing number of examples of mobile communications being used to topple governments, improve election monitoring, report on human rights abuses,strengthen civil society, and democratize the flow of information. A few of the more prominent examples are described below. Of course, the spread of the Internet and mobile technology does not automatically result in democratization and the free flow of information. As documented by the OpenNet Initiative, more than three dozen states around the world “use various mechanisms of Internet filtering, targeting a broad range of websites addressing political and social topics as well as many Internet tools and technologies.” Authoritarian governments such as China’s are able to enlist global multinationals to help them. Leading Internet search companies engage in self-censorship to block politically sensitive information, and other leading IT companies have helped built China’s “Golden Shield Project” for Internet filtering and surveillance.

Second People Power Revolution

In January 2001, Philippine President Joseph Estrada was driven from office by hundreds of thousands of angry citizens mobilized by millions of text messages and e-petitions. After 11 pro-Estrada senators voted to block evidence of the corruption in an impeachment trial of the President (Estrada was taking money from an illegal numbers racket), citizens began to circulate messages like "The 11 senators are pigs! S&@t, Estrada is acquitted! Let's do People Power! Pls. pass.” Text messaging and cell phones become powerful tools for the people organizing demonstrations in the main thoroughfare of Manila, and one carrier reported that the daily volume of text messages increased from 45 million to 70 million. Estrada called it a “coup de text.”

Orange Revolution

In October 2004, the Ukrainian state used fraud and intimidation to move 2.8 million votes in the direction of Victor Yanukovych, the presidential candidate favored by his authoritarian predecessor Leonid Kuchma. This resulted in civil disobedience, sit-ins, and general strikes, with hundreds of thousands of orange-clad protestors gathering in the center of Kiev. Ukraine’s Supreme Court ordered a revote, and the opposition candidate Victor Yushchenko won the election. Analysts believe that the Internet and mobile phones played two important roles in the Orange Revolution. First, the Internet allowed an alternative media to flourish that was not subject to self-censorship or overt control by Kuchma and his allies. Second, prodemocracy activists were able to use mobile phones and the Internet to coordinate election monitoring and mass protests. Prior to the election, pro-democracy movements such as Pora (It’s Time) had created political networks throughout the country, including 150 groups responsible for spreading information and coordinating election monitoring, 72 regional centers, and 30,000 registered participants. This allowed Pora to mobilize protestors after widespread reports of electoral fraud.

NDN is doing more exciting work on the mobile technology front, so check back often. In the meantime, read Kalil's entire paper here, and if you're on Facebook, join NDN's Facebook page!