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Why We Need to Swarm: Social activism and defending Internet Freedoms

by Deborah Martin

Imagine this. A protester, chained to a railing outside an embassy, is being hassled by police. He texts his friend, who places the news on Twitter, which then makes its way onto the online forum of the local civil liberties “cell”. Within thirty minutes, a “swarm” of a dozen people have arrived to defend the protester.

Implausible? Not if swarming were a way of life familiar to us. Yet before too long, a method of protest that we’ve never truly engaged in (and whose potential can only be imagined at), could be lost to us.

The internet is dying. Content is being restricted, net neutrality challenged, and hubs are decaying across virtual space like ghost towns.

Corporate internet providers are spending a fortune to promote their plan to turn the internet into a private network (similar to cable TV), with a few thousand carefully monitored websites replacing the hundreds of millions available today.

If the net as we know it disappears, then one of the most powerful tools for dissent we’ve ever underused will vanish alongside it. It’s as if we’ve had a sports car in our backyard for years, always intending to drive it at some point in the future. Then one day it’s stolen, and suddenly it’s too late. We’ve had the potential for mass internet coordinated protest at our fingertips, yet somehow we’ve been distracted.

Distracted uploading videos of ice-skating kittens onto YouTube. Distracted sending each other “virtual pints” on Facebook. Distracted discussing the relative merits of Lindsay Lohan’s haircut on celebrity forums. We were like toddlers being shown a colourful toy, while a nurse stabbed an injection into our arm (by the way, has anyone seen the YouTube clip of a giraffe marrying a hippo?).

Worst of all, we know our own potential, and the potential of the net. Since 2003, flash mobbing has demonstrated that the net can be a vehicle for organising rapid assembly, action and dispersal. We watched as hundreds of strangers gathered in cities for tea parties, or synchronised tap dances. The form was there, if not the content.

Then came the ‘Anonymous’ movement. For twelve months, Anonymous cells have been conducting masked protests outside Scientology churches worldwide. Protests are coordinated via the internet, and Scientology is suffering. Swarming works.

But this isn’t just about challenging one particular organisation. Swarming is a template for dissent that we can all use, for any issue we like. It’s free, it’s efficient and it’s easy to coordinate. It’s also criminal to neglect its potential, yet we do.

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On the odd occasion when we do decide to swarm, it’s to gather at train stations to sing Rick Astley songs en masse. This would be harmless if we were also engaging in genuine protest, but we’re not.

We have at our hands a tool that enables mass dissent, both virtual and physical. We can boycott websites, rally at embassies, and engage in civil disobedience in a way that is rapid, global and coordinated. We can sing from the same song sheet, even if the song is about how we reject the idea of singing from the same song sheet.

I’m not saying that swarming isn’t already taking place, it is – to a degree. But it isn’t happening often enough, there’s not enough of us involved, and half the time we don’t even know which issue to protest.

It’s simple -- start by saving the internet.

The first global swarming project, if there is to be one (and there has to be one), should be a net rescue operation. The logistics of the protest can be decided by the swarm, but time is short. Without the net as a vehicle for organising dissent, all of the other bogeymen – the destruction of Canadian national sovereignty, suppression of peaceful protest, RFID tagging -- could manifest much more quickly, with devastating results.

 

We need to learn how to swarm, and fast. We need to learn how to swarm at the right times, in the right places, and with the right agenda. Without swarming, we will lose the net.

Without the net, we are disarmed.

Once disarmed, ‘the net’ will be replaced by what I call ‘the hive’ - a plastic portal of corporate propaganda and control.

But in a way, that’s kind of appropriate. For isn’t a hive a place where obedient swarms gather to be enslaved?

Deborah Martin
 

About the Writer:

Deborah Martin is from Scotland, and has previously featured in the UK magazines Skinny, I-on and Midgie. Her main subject areas are the arts, culture, travel and politics. She is currently based in Vancouver.

Make comments about this article in The Canadian Blog.

 
   

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