Are Online Protests Effective?

No takers? 😨

Well, what if someone *unsibals* your protest page? 😛 But practical examples of online protest, if you might accept is the Tulip revolution that China is said to have curbed through its Chinese Firewall or most popularly, the revolution in Middle East throwing over dictator ship of many countries beginning from Tunisia and the latest is Syria.

Seriously I don't get it how some e-trash could support anna, or help us from not being SIBALLISED! 😛 ;-)

Ha! Today I was about to create one!!! But yeah, making it go viral is a tough task. And even then, the creator is screwed! 😔

Praveen-KumarHa! Today I was about to create one!!! But yeah, making it go viral is a tough task. And even then, the creator is screwed! 😔

Oh but what did you wanted to support? Lokpal Bill? Against Corruption? (The hottest topics nowadays 😀)

They could be, you have a live example as Middle East. I read somewhere, all that fuss started on a facebook page only....😛. If it succeeded in throwing out a whole government, then i think they are quite effective.....😉

IssueOh but what did you wanted to support? Lokpal Bill? Against Corruption? (The hottest topics nowadays 😀)

Today the PM just crossed from one place to another, which is hardly 3 km... For that, the whole traffic for about 6 km was blocked and the block went for about 4 km!!! The saddest part was, two ambulance were blocked too!!! 😔

Revolution in Egypt was started on some social networking site. NOT sure 😀

I think online protests can be very effective, provided there is real protest with real people going on too.

The online version mobilizes people, giving them a reason and a motivation to go and join the real protests,
and it's easy to create awareness online than by other means.

However, if there is no real agitation or protest going on, which can use the boost given by the online version and grow,
then the online thing where one goes and joins a page or likes a page will mostly be meaningless.

And as people earlier have said, the power of the Internet and what it was capable of was shown by the protests in the Middle East,
in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya etc. But in all these cases, there were raging real world protests going on as well. That's why they garnered that much support
and could be that successful.

@SS: Point well taken. Online protests can aid in spreading the message and getting yourself heard. Because of the viral nature of the online protests, the message can be transmitted without getting edited or censored. However, unless people are on the streets; no one would take them seriously.

Middle East example is a typical example. I think CEan Maro will tell us better. Facebook helped in gathering the people on the streets. Had they stuck to FB to protest; the Government would simply have blocked FB access and get away with it.