Read the excerpt from "Social Media Made the Arab Spring, But Couldn't Save It" by Jessi Hempel. Today, governments take an aggressive hand in shutting down digital channels people use to organize against them. In Egypt, for example, where 26 million people are on Facebook (up from 4.7 million people in 2011), security forces arrested three people who administered nearly two dozen Facebook pages, according to Egyptian media reports. It also detained activists who had been involved in prior protests. And at the end of December, the government shut down Facebook's Free Basics service, which had offered free Internet services to Egyptians on mobile phones. More than 3 million people had signed up for the program in just two months, according to Facebook. Meanwhile Turkey has made 805 requests for tweets to be removed since 2012, according to Twitter's most recent transparency report; more than half were made last year. Which quotations from the excerpt provide evidence to support the claim that governments have responded to criticism delivered through social media? Select three options. “Security forces arrested three people who administered nearly two dozen Facebook pages.” “It [Egypt] also detained activists who had been involved in prior protests.” “Facebook’s Free Basics service . . . had offered free Internet services to Egyptians on mobile phones.” “More than 3 million people had signed up for the program in just two months.” “Meanwhile Turkey has made 805 requests for tweets to be removed since 2012.”
Answers
Answer:
The options are:
1. “Security forces…pages.”
2. “And at the end of December… on mobile phones.”
3. “Meanwhile Turkey… since 2012.”
Explanation:
In order to select the right quotations (from the excerpt), it is important to understand the connection between the quotations and the action that the government has taken. The correct options would be:
1. “Security forces…pages.”
The government ordered security personnel to carry out investigations and round up people who were the administrators of Facebook pages that evidently criticised the government. Thus, the government did respond to the criticism on social media, but not in a democratic manner. Their aim was to suppress the voice of rebellion and hence the three people were arrested.
2. “And at the end of December… on mobile phones.” (Please quote complete sentences, otherwise it changes the meaning of the original quote.)
Ideally, it is helpful for governments if the citizens have access to the internet. It is easier to keep them updated about government initiatives and policies and also helps the nation graduate to a ‘smart’ nation with emphasis on online transactions. However, in some nations, particularly the ones that do not have completely democratic governance, the internet is viewed as a tool of mass protest and rebellion, which brings the public together and challenges the people in power. That is why the government shut down Facebook’s Basic Services. This means that a lot of anti-government ideas were being circulated on social media which is why the government responded in an aggressive manner.
3. “Meanwhile Turkey… since 2012.”
In the case of Turkey, users posted anti- establishment tweets on Twitter. These tweets gained publicity not just within the nation but also got international attention. Since it was ‘bad publicity’ for Turkey, the nation approached Twitter officials to delete the tweets of those users. This is again the government’s response to the criticism on social media.
Unfortunately, in all three cases, the government’s response has not been positive. Instead, the response to criticism has been clamping down on freedom of expression.