My Take | Our social media warriors are reaching a dead end
- Facebook and Twitter helped fuel failed revolutions and the same will happen in Hong Kong thanks to the likes of Telegram and lihkg.com
Worldwide trends usually take a few years to reach Hong Kong. We are always behind the times. Our social media-driven revolution that has fuelled the current unrest is no exception.
The narcissism of many Hong Kong people makes them think they are special. Spontaneous, leaderless, and massive, they think their social movement is the greatest thing since teenage sex.
But those are the characteristics of movements driven by social media. They can’t translate protests into political capital or bargaining chips.
Because their protests encompass and amplify practically every major grievance people have about their government, society and China, it’s impossible to bridge disagreements and present a viable political programme. The only common denominator, the lowest, is that everyone hates China.
But hate cannot produce policy or legitimacy; disruption tears down but does not build. People should watch the 2015 TED Talk given by Wael Ghonim, the computer geek whose anonymous Facebook page helped trigger the mass rallies in Tahrir Square that caused the downfall of Hosni Mubarak.
“The euphoria soon faded … We failed to build consensus, and the political struggle led to intense polarisation,” he said. “Social media only amplified the polarisation by facilitating the spread of misinformation, rumours, echo chambers and hate speech. The environment was purely toxic. The online world became a battleground filled with trolls, lies, hate speech.”