Twitter’s 15 Major Milestones in 2011

Much like any other year, 2011 experienced major events that shook the world, whether the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East or the worldwide protests led by Occupy Wall Street.

But in 2011, microblogging service Twitter was at the epicenter of these events, broadcasting minute-to-minute updates and firsthand experiences from users to the rest of the world.

For protesters, Twitter served as a primary communicator to connect with other protesters and civilians, organize meetings and post pictures and videos of uprisings. Unfortunately, hundreds of protesters who encouraged violence via social media, or who were photographed and filmed taking part in the violence, were prosecuted.

SEE ALSO: Top 16 Tweets-Per-Second Moments of 2011 | The 21 Most Memorable Tweets of 2011

Twitter also launched new upgrades and designs for its services and made several acquisitions, including web advertising company AdGrok, social analytics platform BackType and lists and interests-focused startup Bagcheck.

Unfortunately for Twitter, 2011 also brought a number of scams — from 11.6 hours to a beach body weight-loss product to the Tweeter Viewer, these scams targeted many user accounts.

Check out the gallery below to see more of Twitter’s major milestones in 2011.

1. Egypt Blocks Twitter As Protests Become Violent

January: After violence between anti-government protesters and police continued to erupt in Cairo, Egypt, the Egyptian government censored microblogging service Twitter as well as other websites.

Social media played a key role throughout Egypt's protests. First, the protests were organized through a Facebook Page, then protesters turned to Twitter to post photos, video feeds and other information about the protests, using several hashtags devoted to the revolution.

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Why 2011 Will Be Defined by Social Media Democracy

Image by Sean MacEntee via FlickrEkaterina Walter is a social media strategist at Intel. She is a part of Intel's Social Media Center of Excellence and is responsible for company-wide social media enablement and corporate social networking strategy. She was recently elected to serve on the board of directors of WOMMA. On Jan. 25, 2011 pictures and videos flooded out of Egypt as tens of thousands of anti-government protestors took to the streets in a "Day of Rage" protest over President Mubarak’s 30-year rule. Pro-democracy sympathizers across the world retweeted and shared the updates, even as the Egyptian government disabled cellphone towers and blocked Twitter in an attempt to censor the material. Reports indicated that households and businesses opened up their Wi-Fi networks to support the protesters and to allow the dissemination of information. The pictures and videos that continued to appear across YouTube and Facebook trended on Twitter worldwide, both inspiring and shocking international onlookers.
2011: The Year of Social Media Democracy
Social Media as a Tool of Change
Mob Rule: The Darker Side of Social MediaHuman Spirit Triumphs

Besides bank defaults and credit downgrades, 2011 will be remembered for the rise of social media democracy in countries traditionally ruled by autocratic governments — most notably, the Arab Spring. The wave of protests that began in Tunisia in December 2010 spread first to Egypt, then to Libya, Bahrain, Syria and Yeman, with protests of varying sizes across many more middle-Eastern countries.

In regions where official media has been heavily censored for years, the rise of personal access to the Internet and social networks has meant that populist movements now have a voice that can reach the outside world.

Before 2011, ad-hoc events organized by social media had largely been entertaining and quirky, often put together by arts groups such as Improv Everywhere, which staged flash mobs in Grand Central Station. And let's not forget the social media craze planking.Soon, however, Twitter hashtags, Facebook groups, YouTube videos and Flickr streams would be employed by the masses in countries where censorship had traditionally blocked anti-government voices. Representatives of populist discontent were able to adopt and adapt new methods of communication to reach each other and outside sympathizers, often at terrible risk to their own lives and the safety of their families. Social media democracy began to take on a new meaning; a collective voice was now able to document its struggle for the first time.

After opposition to Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi turned bloody, NATO intervened to lend rebels military support in the escalating civil war, and to help to protect civilians. On both sides of the struggle, the control of information became a major tool for encouraging or intimidating civilian uprisings. After Colonel Gadaffi's death, photographs flooded social media, a further triumph for social democracy and the fall of a despotic, censorious regime.

Yet Western issues of people-power and censorship would soon be tested, in what some viewed as the darker side of "mob rule." In Aug. 2011, London was rocked by four days of rioting. What started as a peaceful protest against the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan escalated into violence, arson and looting, mainly against the rioters' own communities, as well as against police. The violence soon detached itself from the original cause, and became an outlet for the tensions of an underclass hit hard by high unemployment and recent austerity measures. Rioting quickly spread to other towns.

Social media not only played a role in riot organization, but also in the prosecution of hundreds of participants who either incited violence via social media, or who were photographed and videoed taking part in such violence. Some in the UK government and press claimed social media had enabled the riots. However, people used the same tools to organize clean-up operations and to contribute community support.

As demonstrated by the countries affected by the Arab Spring and London riots, social media has been one of many important tools used by people to affect change. As with any strategy, social media lends itself to both moral and amoral uses – it is the intention behind it that matters. Social media cannot substitute for the incredible bravery and resilience of the people who stood up to oppressive regimes, at the risk and cost of their own lives. It was the passionate desire for change and human determination that drove the spirit of the uprisings, and what ultimately achieved success in overthrowing powerful military dictatorships. In the case of the Arab Spring, the rebels' adoption of new technologies such as social media gave voice to a powerful movement, despite the censorship of the official media. Ultimately, however, it was their courage and self-sacrifice that forced the change

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facebook/media/albums/Carlos Latuff/egypt's revolution ،2011

 Flickr, Hosni Mubarak, Protest, Riot control, Social media, Tahrir Square, Tear gas, Twitter, YouTube, Carlos Latuff, Brazil, Anti-Zionism, Toronto Star, Rio de Janeiro, Arab people, Zionism, Middle East

Carlos Latuff (born November 30, 1968) is a Brazilian freelance political cartoonist.^[1] His works deal with an array of themes, including anti-globalization, anti-capitalism, and anti-U.S. military intervention. Moreover, the issue that he is best known for, are his images depicting the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and, more recently, the Arab Spring events. Latuff himself has described his work as controversial.^[2]

Carlos Latuff Carlos Latuff Birth name Carlos Latuff Born November 30, 1968 (1968-11-30) (age 42) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Nationality Brazilian Field Political cartoons, Social commentary Movement Anti-globalization, anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, anti-Americanism, anti-Zionism, Marxism, socialism, indigenous rights

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Hosni Mubarak

Hosni Mubarak

Hosni Mubarak

Hosni Mubarak

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Indian Government Unhappy With RIM’s Solution For Spying On Blackberry Users

The ongoing struggle between RIM and data-hungry government surveillance programs is starting to look more like a soap opera than a political drama. After RIM caved to India and began offering a method to intercept Blackberry Messenger messages within that country, the government has decided that the tools they’ve been given aren’t good enough. “We have manual access to the messenger service. We want automated access and we are hopeful of getting it from January 1,” said G.K. Pillai, India’s home secretary. Apparently, and anyone who reads this site could have told Mr. Pillai this (and RIM did so), the communications they have been enabled to intercept are encrypted with keys RIM cannot provide, because it does not have them. They are attempting to squeeze blood from a stone.

As I noted back in August, it is up to the government (Saudi Arabia in that case, India here) to acquire the decryption keys, since they are the property of their own citizens, and if said keys really are important to national security (it’s not for me to say), then I’m sure they have ways to compel users to surrender them. In fact, they boasted some time ago that they had cracked the encryption, so such measures should be unnecessary — if they were telling the truth.

Meanwhile, as the New York Times reported last week, businesses have taken note of India’s troubling insistence on the ability to intercept confidential communications, and are going to be more unlikely to choose India for certain kinds of business in the future. Storage and analysis of medical records, for example, are highly confidential but would likely be “subject to search” under Indian law. So insurance and medical companies will simply choose a country that respects private communication in which to do business.

It’s certainly India’s prerogative to set security above privacy, as indeed we in the US have to some extent, but as a country so reliant on importing tech business, pursuing this course too far is unwise. They show no signs of reducing the pressure on RIM, however, so we’ll likely be hearing more about this over the three months leading up to the January 1st ultimatum date.

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