The Free Syrian Army's Main Media Channel... is Facebook

Over the weekend I heard an NPR segment on the armed uprising in Syria which contained a couple sentences that totally blew me away:

[T]here's one other thing that's happening here, and that is the FSA has said that it will eventually bring the fight to Damascus. It's all over Facebook pages, and the security services read those pages.

Yes: The Free Syrian Army uses Facebook to relay crucial announcements of international significance. This is surprising to me in itself, but even more surprising is this:

It's been going on at least since last November, and that the FSA doesn't just use Facebook as a awareness-raising or fundraising channel, but also, to make direct, operational statements and declarations directed at the Syrian government. The democratic uprising in Egypt was also fueled in large part by Facebook, but to my knowledge, this is the first time I'm aware of that armed insurrectionists have come to depend on the social network. What's also surprising is that this has been going on for so long, and the surreal strangeness isn't even commented on. And somehow, when we talk about Facebook, many still think it's only about updates of what people had for lunch and such. But as it turns out, there's also updates of what insurgents are doing by force of arms. On top of that, this is all probably happening in spite of Facebook's own policies, which forbid the use of pseudonyms, and I very much doubt anyone publicly involved with the FSA's Facebook page, is going by their real life names there.

Free advice for the Free Syrian Army: Create a Free Syria-ville game on Facebook which lets players buy virtual goods for Facebook Credits, and use that revenue to help finance the uprising. I'm not even kidding.

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Comments

[Argo]

This is surprising to you Hamlet? Mass communications technologies have always been of use to revolutionary and totalitarian movements. Bolshevik in the 1920's spread propaganda by early radio and by the Nazi prior to and during WWII. Both showed a certain genius and originality with what was then a new media. The 21st century will probably be no different and now we have interactive social media and personalized marketing driven by systems of hidden dossier to give you a flavor of what might be. I suggest anyone confused by my post should read Evgeny Morozov's book for a little background. So, today how many are citizens of facebookistan? They say it is nearing a billion.

[Iggy]

If I give $25 to the insurgents' Kickstarter fund, will they send me a tray of kibbeh?

[Rin Tae]

I can't see anything surprising there at all. Any revolution, war or other sort of armed struggle is as much about weapons as it is about communication and information. Those who rule the transfer of information win and it is the reason for why groups who struggle for power are usually extremly fast to adopt to new forms of media and use those that are existing in any way possible to get their messege to those they see as their target audience.
It is also the reason for why those who oppose those people try to block out media and fuel it with their information.

Propaganda, information and misinformation has always been a part in conflicts and since we now live in a world where media is all over the place, people can see things happening around the globe in real time and (unless one does not live under a rock or only look at some sort of propaganda chanell) get information about what is going on anywhere.

And with that the target audience for those involved in conflicts expands. It is not only the people in the region who are directly involved. The target audience becomes the world since it is in the interest of those sending out the messeges that it reaches everyone who lives in a country where they might pressure their own governments to put pressure on the regime they fight. To think that such conflicts are local and fought locally, or that media and the information flow does not need to be taken into any big account is a idea from the (far) past.

And with facebook offering a giant audience from all over the world and it being impossible to block by the regime it is only natural that it will be used this way. It not only is used to get information out but through the use of it for statements to the regime it might try to force it to reply on it. Forcing it to use the chanel the regime has not under control.

What they are doing is a part of the civil war in Syria played out on a different battlefield.

And you can be sure that it is has to be taken as much serious as anything else regarding this conflict. It is all about beating the regime on the information front and win the hearts and minds of the world. Facebook is just the chanel for it since it curretnly is the one that grants mass audience and is totally outside the regimes control.

The control of information is a powerful weapon.

Or why do you think countries like China are going to such great lengths to keep the flow of information under control or what the idea of embeded journalists is all about?

[R TEN CATE]

a MAN LIKE BASHAR AL ASSAD CANT LEAD THE SYRIAN FOLK TO HEALTY GROUNDS BECAUSE HE IS BLUE EYES THATS MEANS THAT HE LEAD THEM TO DIS HARMONIE FROM THEY ONE CULTURE HE DONT LEAD THEM TO JOY AND HARMONY WITH ALLAH BUT LEAD THEM TO SALT WATER AND TEARS IN THERE EYES SO Y HOPE THAT HE LEAVES VERY FAST FROM HIS POST AS SYRIAN PRESIDENT SO THAT THE FOLK CANT LIFE AGAIN IN PEACE AND HARMONIE AND ANOTHER LEADERS WILL GUIDE THEM TO HEALTY GRONDS AND CLEAN WATERS SO Y WISH THAT ALLAH WILL HELP US TO FREE SIRIA FROM THIS BLUE EYE PIG IN SHA ALLAH ALLAH AKBAR TO THE FREE SIRYAN ARMY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!