Twitter and Tear Gas. The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest
Open accessAbstract
A firsthand account and incisive analysis of modern protest, revealing internet-fueled social movements’ greatest strengths and frequent challenges. To understand a thwarted Turkish coup, an anti–Wall Street encampment, and a packed Tahrir Square, we must first comprehend the power and the weaknesses of using new technologies to mobilize large numbers of people. An incisive observer, writer, and participant in today’s social movements, Zeynep Tufekci explains in this accessible and compelling book the nuanced trajectories of modern protests—how they form, how they operate differently from past protests, and why they have difficulty persisting in their long-term quests for change. Tufekci speaks from direct experience, combining on-the-ground interviews with insightful analysis. She describes how the internet helped the Zapatista uprisings in Mexico, the necessity of remote Twitter users to organize medical supplies during Arab Spring, the refusal to use bullhorns in the Occupy Movement that started in New York, and the empowering effect of tear gas in Istanbul’s Gezi Park. These details from life inside social movements complete a moving investigation of authority, technology, and culture—and offer essential insights into the future of governance.
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During a blackout, momentum stalls, memories fragment, and the circulation of images and testimonies are suspended.
“During a blackout, momentum stalls, memories fragment, and the circulation of images and testimonies are suspended (Rydzak et al., 2020; Tufekci, 2017).”
From Internet blackouts and digital authoritarianism: Dissolving and reclaiming protest time and space (2025) · cites this paper as Tufekci, 2017
In the Introduction (p. xxii), Tufekci describes Egypt’s internet and cell-phone shutdown as futile and counterproductive: protesters bypassed the blockade within hours, kept their message circulating, and drew more people to Tahrir Square. The book does not address fragmented memories in the cited passages, but its account directly contradicts the claim that a blackout stalls momentum and suspends circulation. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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Cited by 527
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Michael L. Katz and Carl Shapiro, "Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility," American Economic Review 75, no. 3 (1985): 424–40; and Joseph von R. Farrell and Garth Saloner, Standardization, Compatibility and Innovation (Cambridge, Mass.: Deptartment of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1984). For more discussion in the context of the Internet, see Jona- than Zittrain, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008); and MacKinnon, Consent of the Networked.
- [13]Zeynep Tufekci, "As the Pirates Become CEOs: The Closing of the Open Inter- net," Daedalus 145, no. 1 (2016): 65–78; Ethan Zuckerman, "The Internet's Orig- inal Sin," Atlantic, August 14, 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/technology /archive/2014/08/advertising-is-the-internets-original-sin/376041/.
- Authors
- Tufekci, Z.
- Venue
- Yale University Press
- Publisher
- Yale University Press
- Published
- 2017
- OpenAlex
- W2798837625
- Cited by
- 527
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 98 · 2024: 51 · 2023: 69 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 67 · 2020: 73 · 2019: 63 · 2018: 54 · 2017: 7
- Type
- other
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- mediarep.org
- Licence
- Locations
- media/rep/ (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- MEDIAREP
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Political and Social Issues
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts
- Keywords
- social movements, internet and activism, Twitter, tear gas, Gezi Park protests, Zapatista uprising, Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, Tahrir Square, online mobilization, future of governance
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