Social Media, Social Movements and the Challenge of Democratic Governability

From Arab spring to Occupy movement, internet-mediated protests have overthrown governments or forced them to change policies. The speed and scale of this mobilization is unprecedented. A large volume of literature has explored the characteristics of these protests in the information age. Past research has pointed out that when channels of interaction between the public and government are blocked, the web can serve as an avenue for voicing dissatisfaction and, as a new technological medium, it has transformed the mode of interpersonal communication, which has led to changes in how social movements mobilize (Castells 2012; Anduiza, Jensen and Jorba 2012). Such movements are now able to launch large scale collective actions in a short time.