In A few months back, when youngsters in Cairo and elsewhere in Egypt,decided to display their disdain for President Hosni Mubarak and launch a movement to ouster the corrupt regime, it all started sureptiously on FaceBook & Twitter first. The mass gatherings at Tahrir Square and other places came later; in fact, they were merely an outpouring of a simmering feeling that had come to a tipping point on the cyberspace. Real life was merely copying the virtual one.
Ever since, the web has become a crucial cog in any revolutionary wheel, which is no different from Addis Ababa to Alexandria, from Doha to Delhi. Little wonder then, Anna Hazare, the Gandhian satyagrahi who has launched a crusade against corruption, is finding many found much support in cyberspace as well.
In the past three days, as the septuagenarian sat down for a fast-unto-death at Jantar Mantar, people from different walks of life are not only showing their support and concern for Anna's movement, but are acting as catalytic agents too. Social media is abuzz with Anna Hazare and Lokpal, with famous celebrities to the common man, tweeting and putting up status updates on the issue.
Undoubtedly, it is Facebook that tops when it comes to taking a lead in drumming up support for Anna and his revolution. In the past few days, scores and scores of groups, applications, pages, have emerged on the issue. While there is a disconnect at the moment in terms of the disparateness, yet, they are slowly and steadily catching the imagination of the online populace. For instance, there is a page on Anna Hazare that simply has text pasted from Wikipedia; yet some 15,000 people have liked it. Or another page, exhorting people to Join Anna Hazare's fast (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Join-Anna-Hazares-Fast-To-Bring-the-Jan-Lokpal-Bill/175586802490103), with some 7,800 people liking it. Yet, the most popular page so far is, India against corruption (https://www.facebook.com/IndiACor), with some 75,000 people showing their support for it. In fact, there is a page that invites users to travel to Jantar-Mantar and fast, Join Anna Hazare (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198421130191214); as of now, some 20,000 people like it. Another popular means on FaceBook is Pic Badges. At the moment, there are numerous of them available for users.
The popularity of FaceBook as a medium can be judged from the fact that according to Google Trends, the term "Anna Hazare FaceBook" is the number 2 ranked search term in India. Meanwhile, Twitter is no different, as scores of individuals, right from celebrities, keep beaming their 140 word thoughts in cyberspace. In fact, #Anna Hazare is the 6th popular spot today.
An interesting thing is that even a professional online network like LinkedIn has also been affected by the whole movement. Among the myriad groups that have come up, India Fighting Corruption, started by Basant Chaturvedi, Head IT, Perfetti Van Melle India, has been rapidly gaining support, with people from different walks exchanging notes and thoughts on the issue.
The online surge is also showing in the real world as well, with some 9 lakh missed calls received on the special number, 022-61550789. As of now, the fast and protests are being replicated in some 400 odd locations in varying degrees, from Mumbai to Munich.
Back in 2002, when the F-16s started bombing cities and villages in Afghanistan, in an all out display of 'shock and awe', a motley group of people in US came together to show their chagrin against the war, especially the justification that it was being carried out to safeguard American interests. Deemed as "Not in our name", the protests were the first one to effectively use the power of technology, web and SMSes to spread the word. The world has come much far from those days, and now revolutions first take place on the web and are later replicated in real life. The frail Anna Hazare can also draw much solace from the surge in support. There might not be many faces seen at Jantar-Mantar, but there are millions that are furtively displaying their support in the online space. Viva the new revolution! Nike React Element 55
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