Columbia University, in partnership with the Department of State and some other organizations, including Google and AT&T, is convening a conference from 12/3-12/5 called “the Alliance of Youth Movement” to discuss the ways that Facebook and other social networking websites can provide a launching pad of sorts for nonviolent political resistance. DoS invited 17 organizations from around the world to go and discuss the different ways this kind of work happens and can be effective; one of the groups is Egyptian, one is Lebanese, one is Turkish…. the Middle East is well represented. Observers from countries where the online civil society movement is nascent – for example, Iraq and Afghanistan – will be able to listen and learn from those representing places where the Internet is a more pervasive social force. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James Glassman articulates the State Department's dominant interest in this field:
You know, during my confirmation hearings back in January, I made the comment that al-Qaida was eating our lunch on the internet. I actually think that that has changed and that the violent extremist groups that use the internet are using it in the old-fashioned way. They're using it to instruct, to exhort, basically tell people what to do.
We feel that around the world, young people are using the internet to push back against violence in a new way, using social networking, convening large groups to have conversations, basically, to share information. And this is something that al-Qaida and the violent extremist groups cannot stand. They cannot stand criticism. You know, sometimes they'll post videos on YouTube until YouTube takes them down, and they get tremendous amounts of critical comments. They don't want that. Their whole philosophy is based on trying to isolate potential members and keep them away from critical comment, from discussion. So we want to take exactly the opposite tack, and we think that the technology that exists today is on our side; it's not on the extremists' side.
This may be wishful thinking on the part of the State Department, but they certainly are not the only people making the argument that as the internet democratizes ideas, the way that young people expect to participate in movements and organizations has changed. Just this week (or maybe last week …) the Economist reviewed a book called Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott who makes a similar assertion about digital youth, purely outside the framework of terrorism/extremism/etc. Here's a brief summary:
Mr Tapscott identifies eight norms that define Net Geners, which he believes everyone should take on board to avoid being swept away by the sort of generational tsunami that helped Barack Obama beat John McCain. Net Geners value freedom and choice in everything they do. They love to customise and personalise. They scrutinise everything. They demand integrity and openness, including when deciding what to buy and where to work. They want entertainment and play in their work and education, as well as their social life. They love to collaborate. They expect everything to happen fast. And they expect constant innovation.
However, this doesn't mean that al Qaeda will be pushed off the internet. One would be hard pressed to find evidence that the State Department has outsmarted Islamic fundamentalists with respect to internet usage – the bureaucrats need to update their methods at least as much as would any terrorist organization. The fact that they are attempting to do so is a good sign, at least.
What's a little more curious, though, is the fact that while, when I read this, I think democracy of ideas – democracy as a political system. Glassman, when he announced this, followed the intellectual trajectory democracy of ideas – fight terrorists. Of course he made no comment excluding the possibility of using this sort of effort for more governance-oriented efforts, but I think it's noteworthy that he made that connection immediately. Hopefully the benefit of this networking initiative will extend beyond the war on terror. Here's a promising sign from Glassman that that will be the case:
I will say this, absolutely, that what we are doing in social networking, we in Public Diplomacy — and I don't want to speak for Sean, but I think this is also true in Public Affairs , involves more risk than the conventional approach which is isn't the United States wonderful, here's what we're doing, listen to us. And our feeling is in Public Diplomacy that that is an approach that has limited application in today's world. People want to talk, people want to debate. And we think ultimately that's a comparative advantage that we have over the bad guys. So we want them to talk, we want them to debate. And we are fully aware that the trail that they go down, while I don't think it's going to be violent, may be not exactly what we want to see as far as our policy is concerned. But we think that is well worth the risk.
