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.
A “Security forces arrested three people who administered nearly two dozen Facebook pages.”
B “It [Egypt] also detained activists who had been involved in prior protests.”
C “Facebook’s Free Basics service . . . had offered free Internet services to Egyptians on mobile phones.”
D “More than 3 million people had signed up for the program in just two months.”
E “Meanwhile Turkey has made 805 requests for tweets to be removed since 2012.”
Answers
From the given five alternatives the following three quotations provide evidence to support how governments have been functioning as autocratic bodies to stop :-
(A) “Security forces arrested three people who administered nearly two dozen Facebook pages.”
(B) “It [Egypt] also detained activists who had been involved in prior protests.”
(E) “Meanwhile Turkey has made 805 requests for tweets to be removed since 2012.”
The above two excerpts exemplify the authoritative attitude of the governments to stifle the voices of people to blatantly criticise and bring forth the shortcomings of the politicians and ruling parties. While point (A) talks about the involvement of the military in these matters, point (B) states the detainment of activists in Egypt. Point (E) too talks about yet another infringement of the freedom of expression.
The reason why the other two points do not qualify for the same is because :-
1. Point (C) only talks about the Free Basics feature provided by Facebook, and the context has been omitted from the quoted lines
2. Point (D) only provides with the number of people who signed up for the Free Basics program.
Question
Which quotations from the excerpt provide evidence to support the claim that governments have responded to criticism delivered through social media? Select three options.
Answer:
- Selected Three Options are written below.
- A “Security forces arrested three people who administered nearly two dozen Facebook pages.”
- B “It [Egypt] also detained activists who had been involved in prior protests.”
- E “Meanwhile Turkey has made 805 requests for tweets to be removed since 2012.”
Explanation:
- Let's explain why above three options have been selected.
- According to the given excerpt the Governments has taken an aggressive hand in shutting down digital channels people use to organize against them. Because according to the Egyptian media reports three people who had two dozen Facebook pages and they had been involved in prior protests and according to Twitter's 805 requests were made by turkey to be removed.
- Therefore the above three options are correct to support the claim that governments have responded to criticism delivered through social media