Is Social Media Becoming the Most Powerful Force in Global Politics?

Is Social Media Becoming the Most Powerful Force in Global Politics?
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Is Social Media Becoming the Most Powerful Force in Global Politics?
Introduction
According to Sphor (2017) a number of people consume their news on a daily basis from social media with 62% of USA adults getting their news from social media and 66% of all Facebook users, use the platform to get their news. With billions of global population glued to social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram among other sites, social media has grown to become a powerful medium that alters global political force that alters the course of global events (Manjoo, 2016). The election of President Trump showcased how social Media (SM) have gutted and subsumed mainstream media and rewire fundamentally human society. Across the globe, social media has been used to establish social movements from the Iranian Green Revolution, North Africa and Middle East Revolutions in the Arab Spring, the movement of Occupy Wall Street, the Black Lives matter, and the Me Too Campaigns. The extent to which social media was used effectively by President Trump to win the 2016 elections, Rodrigo Duterte won presidential elections in Philippines, Islamic States recruits jihadists and terrorists, Brexit votes and creation of revolutionary movements, it is indeed a testament that social media is becoming the most powerful tool in global politics.
Social media has stumped authority as a leading force in global politics in its role on diplomacy and international relations amongst nation states. Social media has been used effectively by world leaders to shape the course of actions of their countries and how they view the actions of other states thus influencing their decisions on key issues. Social media have been used to shape the opinion of leaders by their supporters, or to influence other leaders on a matter of diplomacy and international relations. When the leader of North Korean Kim Jong Un declared that he had a nuclear button resting on his desk, and that the US main land was within range, he sparked a serious diplomatic crisis and heightened tensions between the two countries (Los Angeles Times, 2018). However, in unconventional manner, President Trump twitted in response by stating that he had a bigger and powerful nuclear button which works on his desk. Three months later, the two leader met for the first time in decades between the two nation states. They discussed matters of denuclearization and economic sanctions on North Korea in order to bring peace between the antagonists.
Moreover, social media was used in a diplomatic state between president Trump, China, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and the European Union. Trump sent rapid tweets on how his administration was planning to increase tariffs on steel and aluminum product imported to the US. Kelly (2019), contends that President Trump ignited trade war with China by increasing tariffs to $ 200 billion on imported Chinese goods and demanded China to remove tariffs on agricultural products from US. Through social media, Trump was able to mount pressure on the NATA members to pay their respective contributions to the organization. The US president used both his Twitter and Facebook pages to mobilize the mood around the July 2018 conference for member states to up their contributions and by the time the summit ended, indeed all member states agree to contribute to their obligations (The New York Times, 2018).
Furthermore, social media is becoming a formidable force in the global politics to the extent that it has been used by the global citizens to demand for democracy and accountability from their respective governments through demonstrations and revolutions. In Philippines, the president was under an impeachment trial and he had loyal supporters amongst the elected leaders. Word went round that the legislatures planned to vote to conceal evidence that would impeach the president. Within two hours of announcing the decision, citizens were mobilized in the streets of Manila through text messages and social media were used to rally and mobilize the people and within three days, President Joseph Estrada was impeached. In his speech later, he blamed the internet generation and a texting population for his ouster.
According to a political activist in Egypt, he state that they used Facebook to schedule protests and demonstrations, Twitter to coordinate such demonstrations and YouTube to tell the world what was happening in their country following suppressed media by the rogue regime (Wolfsfeld, et al., 2013). Social media was very critical in the facilitation of interaction and communication among the political protests participants through organizing, coordinating and monitoring demonstrations. Further, social media helped in raising global awareness on their activities hence mounting pressure on the local regimes through the international community and well wishes to relinquish power and entrench democracy. As such, the president of Tunisia Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted, President Mubarak of Egypt overthrown in the Arab Spring protests and the sectarian unrest and violence in Syria brought the world attention to the role of civilian journalism through social media.
Critical to mention, is the role of social median in shaping political debates and conversations in the country. More recently in Sudan, Presiden...