IT Case Study solved by Group 12 Page 1

SOCIAL MEDIA IN POLITICAL UPRISING

Q1. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE USE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES FOR POLITICAL
CAMPAIGNS IN INDIA?
Ans1. Campaigns from the streets have moved to newspapers, radios, television and now even onto the
cyberspace. Campaigns can be of any type, social, NGO, political or marketing. Based on the demographics
that you want to reach, particular medium is chosen.The usage of social media by US politicians has been
very aggressive. The websites, twitter & facebook accounts are synced, maintained and updated frequently,
sometimes every hour.Apart from these standard social networking platforms, google hangouts are now used
to interact on a more personal basis.
With nearly 700 million people eligible to cast their votes, political parties are busy wooing first-time voters
and the country's tech-savvy middle class. Indian politicians have turned to YouTube, Facebook, Orkut,
podcasts, live chats, Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools, to reach out to the electorate.
This marks a shift in the political contest in India where campaigns have traditionally been built around the
70% of voters who live in rural areas without access to the Internet and little idea about Twitter. Catchy
campaign slogans and promises of freebies were the way to voters hearts.
But electoral gambits are now being made on social media in recognition of a burgeoning middle class and a
younger demographic with access to smartphones and who communicate on Facebook. Over 50% of Indians
are aged below 25.
A recent report by Mumbai-based research group the Iris Knowledge Foundation and Mumbai-based non-
profit, Internet and Mobile Association of India, said the countrys 78 million Facebook users will wield a
tremendous influence over 160 of Indias 543 directly-elected parliamentary seats.Social media is playing
an increasingly important role in the way campaigns are run and how elected officials govern. It allows
candidates and officeholders to not only communicate more effectively to a larger audience, but it creates a
two-way street for constituents to respond and interact with leaders. This dynamic exchange of information
and ideas makes for a healthier and more participative democracy. Some of the political campaigns on social
media are listed below:
In 2009 , Several parties including left-wing Communist Party of India (Marxist), as well as politicians such
as Advani and V. K. Malhotra, had created dedicated Web sites for their election campaign.The country's
largest opposition party, BJP had banner ads--spouting "Advani for PM" messages--running on a plethora of
Web sites.

Narendra Modi for PM campaign : With the Lok Sabha elections approaching, Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi's social media team has become hyper-active. And it is not just about cyber activists posting
their opinion and lavishing praise on Modi and taking on his critics. Many have even initiated community
web publications, compiling news and analysis published across media.
In July 2013, Mr. Modi appointed a new online campaign team headed by Indias Internet gurus Rajesh Jain
and BG Mahesh. Recently Mr.Narendra Modi,the Chief Minister of Gujarat had come to Mumbai to attend
an event being hosted by the diamond merchants in Bandra Kurla Complex.Before his visit his party
members had posted a banner on facebook inviting the residents of Mumbai to attend this event.

The BJP launched a digital campaign to prepare a dossier on the failures of the Congress-led government,
asking online users to send their grouses through tweets, audio clips, power point presentations and text
messages. The Indian government in turn recently announced plans to launch its own social media wing, and
Congress says it may hire a firm to handle its online campaign.A Facebook community page 'Narendra Modi
for PM' boasts of 9,37,692 likes, while his official Facebook page has been liked by 14,88,527 people.

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Anna Hazaare Fast:The 2011 Indian Anti-Corruption movement was a series of demonstrations and protests
across India.It was done by Anna Hazare,a social activist to establish strong legislation and enforcement
against perceived endemic political campaign.He and his followers made use of Facebook and Twitter to
spread awareness amongst the citizens of India regarding the issues which they were facing by the Indian
Government.

Raj Thackerays speeches : Raj Thackeray and his party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, state that Maharashtra
State, Marathi language and Marathi Manoos are subverted by the influence of Marathi politicians. And hence
Raj always makes it a point to make use of Facebook pages to spread his work.He has employed some
youngsters to specially keep track of the facebook pages being created by him.

Festivals with Political background-Some festivals like Dahi Handi,Diwali,Navratri are promoted on
Facebook and Twitter by many political parties.They invite people to take part in various programmes being
conducted by them during the period of these festivals.


The #feku campaign by congress : Congress supporters recently launched a website www.fekuexpress.com,
which features Mr. Modis cartoon and invites users to predict which of his earlier lies he will repeat,
offering the winner two free tickets for the Bollywood movie Chennai Express. After the site went live
recently, the hashtag #FekuExpress was trending on Twitter at the same time as Mr. Modi was addressing a
large rally in Hyderabad, in the south of India, earlier this month.Feku in Hindi refers to someone who
makes tall claims, or fibs. The name was conceived by Congress supporters during a speech given by Mr.
Modi to Indian corporates in April. Congress supporters use the name when referring to Mr. Modi in order to
expose what they say are his exaggerated and misleading claims about development and policy advancements
in Gujarat.


The Aam Aadmi Party is relying on social media and door-to-door canvassing for campaigning ahead of the
assembly elections in Delhi this November, giving the electronic and print media a go-by as it plans to stick
to the Election Commission's expenditure limit of Rs 14 lakh per candidate. The party depends entirely on
donations received from the public. The 'Sweep Delhi Clean' would be the mainstay of both door-to-door and
online campaigning. For its social media campaign, the party has volunteers in the US, the UK
and Australia as well who spend hours drumming up support on Facebook and other social networking sites.



Q2.DO YOU THINK GOVERNMENT IS FAIR IN BANNING SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES FOR
PUBLIC VIEWING IN A RIOT ENVIRONMENT?

Ans2. With the birth of social media people have become instantly connected to each other, and have been
able to gain access to news and information with incredible rapidity. That new access has given groups
unprecedented power to organize. On the dark side of all this is the use of these tools by rioters and looters to
coordinate their efforts.
Yet the use of social media is not confined to those who act within the rule of law. It can equally be used to
organise riots or violence where there are alternative methods of protesting.
Recently, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have come under fire for being used as
organizational tools for youth rioting in the streets of London, England and surrounding areas. Research in
Motion has also been in hot water for its popular messaging service BlackBerry Messenger, which was used
by rioters to organize violent attacks unbeknownst to the police.
Usually, social media is used for innocent things like staying in touch with friends. But amidst the chaos,
Prime Minister David Cameron considered instilling a social media ban, which would see Facebook, Twitter,
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and BBM shut down temporarily. Although these threats are extreme especially considering only a
fraction of the population are abusing these services temporary bans are not unheard of.
China has very strict laws on social networking sites, and during the revolts in Egypt earlier in the year,
cellphone and Internet services were shut down in hopes of dispelling the protesters. Most recently, San
Francisco cell phone service was temporarily shut down in four subway stations due to a protest that started
after police allegedly killed a homeless man. The protest grew quickly thanks to the use of smart phones, thus
prompting the short ban.
In its very nature, banning communication via the Internet and cell phone service seems against the publics
right of free speech, and brings forth thoughts of communist or fascist regimes. The idea that the government
could use this tactic at any moment is a bit unsettling. Using technology to organize protests doesnt seem to
present any issues. Before cell phones and the Internet, posters, pamphlets and word of mouth would have
been the foremost means of communicating cellphones seem to have just made communication simpler.
However the problem is complicated when these same technologies are used solely for the purpose of
organizing violent and destructive behaviour, bringing us back to the London riots.
This was an isolated incident of hooligans lashing out due to pent up anger and frustrations they held towards
their government and authorities.
Yet banning social media and cellphone use seems to be an extreme response, and doesnt seem to be a
logical solution. Its obviously not BBMs fault that youth revolted, and whether or not the service was shut
down the riots would have most likely continued, albeit slightly less organized.
Its unfortunate that social media and BBM were used as tools during the riot, but banning their usage, even
if only temporarily, isnt the answer. It sets a dangerous precedent, and if the youth were already angry at
officials in the UK, banning their means of communicating probably wont make them any happier.


Q3.WHAT ARE ILL EFFECTS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING VIA INTERNET AND MOBILE ON
GENERAL PEOPLE?
Ans 3: Social networking is the hottest online trend of the last few years. Not only do social media sites
provide a way to keep in contact with friends, but they can also offer opportunities for professional online
networking. Social networking could be advantageous but there are also disadvantages to consider for general
public.

A False Sense of Connection:
According to Cornell University's Steven Strogatz, social media sites can make it make it more difficult for
us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual
relationships formed through social media. By focusing so much of our time and psychic energy on these less
meaningful relationships, our most important connections, he fears, will weaken.

Cyber-bullying:

The immediacy provided by social media is available to predators as well as friends. Kids especially are
vulnerable to the practice of cyber-bullying in which the perpetrators, anonymously or even posing as people
their victims trust, terrorize individuals in front of their peers. The devastation of these online attacks can
leave deep mental scars. In several well-publicized cases, victims have even been driven to suicide. The
anonymity afforded online can bring out dark impulses that might otherwise be suppressed. Cyber-bullying
has spread widely among youth, with 42% reporting that they have been victims, according to a 2010 CBS
News report.A lot of people tend to say things on the internet they would never say face to face. They will
relentlessly bully someone saying horrible things that they would never have said in a face to face interaction.
Parents of bullied kids are often unaware of their kids predicament. Some parents find out when the situation
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has already escalated and its too late to help their kids. Social Media has given people a new platform to post
hateful comments and even threats. Discussions on some social sites can at times turn nasty, and in some
cases journalists, writers have been victimized and threatened due to their different views in controversial
topics.


Decreased Productivity of Employees/Students:

While many businesses use social networking sites to find and communicate with clients, the sites can also
prove a great distraction to employees who may show more interest in what their friends are posting than in
their work tasks. Wired.com posted two studies which demonstrated damage to productivity caused by social
networking: Nucleus Research reported that Facebook shaves 1.5% off office productivity while Morse
claimed that British companies lost 2.2 billion a year to the social phenomenon. New technology products
have become available that allow social networks to be blocked, but their effectiveness remains spotty.

Since most people have Whatsapp or other social networking sites, their emails and maybe instant messaging
constantly running in the background while they are carrying out other tasks.This distracts them a lot.
A Research has found that students who regularly use BBM n Whatsapp receive lower grades than their
fellow classmates who do not.

Privacy Issues:

Social networking sites encourage people to be more public about their personal lives. Because intimate
details of our lives can be posted so easily, users are prone to bypass the filters they might normally employ
when talking about their private lives. What's more, the things they post remain available indefinitely. While
at one moment a photo of friends doing shots at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less
attractive in the context of an employer doing a background check. While most sites allow their users to
control who sees the things they've posted, such limitations are often forgotten, can be difficult to control or
don't work as well as advertised.
BBM cannot be monitored in the way that Facebook and Twitter, It could be used for illegal activities like
Smuggling etc.BBM and Whatsapp can access all our phone records like call data ,our location, our e-mail
address,phone numbers which could be provided to marketing companies for a price n compromise our
privacy.

Encourages Stalking:
WhatsApp pulls all the people from the contact list and tells if they are on WhatsApp or not.Anyone can view
the picture and read the status update if he has the number of the other person. While the other person has no
clue that others have started to penetrate their life a little.So, there are chances of getting unknowingly
stalked.

Health Problems & Behavioural change:
Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter feed anxiety and make people feel inadequate, a study
has found.
A poll of those using the technology found more than half of those surveyed said the sites had changed their
behaviour - and half of those said their lives had been altered for the worse.
Most commonly, those who suffered a negative impact from social media said their confidence fell after
comparing their own achievements to those of friends online.
Two-thirds said they found it hard to relax completely or to sleep after spending time on the sites.
And one quarter of those polled said they had been left facing difficulties in their relationships or workplace
after becoming confrontational online.
In total, 298 people were polled by Salford Business School at the University of Salford, for the charity
Anxiety UK.
Of those, 53 per cent said the launch of social networking sites had changed their behaviour - and of those, 51
per cent said the impact had been negative.
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In our world today less and less people spend time actually interacting with one another face to face, in fact,
one of the most pronounced changes in the daily habits of citizens in particular is a reduction in the amount
of time in a day that they interact with one another.

More people are now increasingly working from home alone. Parents spend less time with their children and
Britain is recorded as having the lowest proportion of children in all of Europe that eat with their parents at
the dinner table, social isolation is on the increase.

In general, social isolation has profound effects on Morbidity (relative incidence of disease). Women with
fewer social relationships suffer strokes at more than twice the rate of those with more social ties. Loneliness
and having a number of close friends all influence blood pressure. People with the most types of social bonds
are the least susceptible, while those with fewer types of social relationships are over four times more likely
to develop a cold when exposed to the virus.
Children are now experiencing less social interaction and have fewer social connections during key stages of
their social development.
A study has found that children under 13 who overuse social sites on a daily basis are also more likely to be
prone to bouts of anxiety, depression, sleeping problems and stomach aches.Such students are also likely to
have behavioural problems and narcissistic tendencies from spending too much time logged on to such
sites.
Addiction:
A social networking addict could be considered someone who uses social media excessively to a point where
it interferes with other daily activities.A research has demonstrated the addictive powers of internet, with 55
per cent of people saying they felt "worried or uncomfortable" when they could not access their Facebook or
email accounts.More than 60 per cent of people said they felt compelled to turn off electronic gadgets in
order to have a break, with one in three of those surveyed saying they switched the devices off several times
each day.WhatsApp users has serious addiction issue, they are hypnotized and controlled by other users.
They are so in to it that they cannot help theme self without constantly chatting, replying and sharing all the
time, regardless of the scenario.
A research team headed by Wilhelm Hoffmann of Chicago University concluded in 2012 that twitter is
harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol. The team used Blackberrys to gauge the willpower of 205 people
aged between 18 and 85. The results showed that with each day the self-control dropped lower and lower
and concluded that between social media, cigarettes and alcohol, the self-control-failure rate was highest
with social media. Other researchers have also linked anxiety, sleep deprivation, depression and some
psychological disorders to people who spend too much time online.

Constant Comparison with others :
We all look at each others social networking sites, admiring clothes, lifestyles and even relationships.
More than often wishing that our lives were as great as others. But when it comes down to it, people
mostly tend to share only the glittering highlights from their lives, deliberately leaving out the dull ones.
We usually dont post about our boring nights at home, rocky relationships or lack of financial stability.
However this is not taken into consideration when people start comparing their lives to others and instead
end up feeling miserable which can at times even lead to low self-esteem, and depression.
Rumours :
Messages cannot be interpreted by any other person except the receiver, which can be missued
.BlackBerry automatically encrypts messages sent to another person's BlackBerry when using their PIN -
- this means that the messages cannot be intercepted by a government or mobile network. As such the
service has become very popular in the Middle East where it is used to criticise authorities, which
explains why Saudi Arabia and the UAE tried to block BBM and other functions.
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Personal vs Professional presentation :
Social networking sites encourage people to be more public about their personal lives. Because intimate
details of our lives can be posted so easily, users are prone to bypass the filters they might normally
employ when talking about their private lives. The things they post remain available indefinitely. While
at one moment a photo of friends doing shots at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less
attractive in the context of an employer doing a background check. While most sites allow their users to
control who sees the things they've posted, such limitations are often forgotten, can be difficult to control
or don't work as well as advertised.

Data Insecurity & Incorrect Utilization:
A large number of data is present on all the shared media sites. Eloquently and unknowingly we all are
pouring each and every information whether personal or not onto the online media platforms. This makes
an chance for the hackers to collect the secret information and use it in an unlawful style which is very
harmful to the innocent users .

Negative Publicity :
People really like to use social networking sites as a place to express their frustration and disapproval of
a business that they feel has wronged them in some way. Being on the receiving end of this negative
publicity can have dire consequences, so its important to keep your customers happy and respond
quickly to any issues that someone does publicize.



Q4. WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES THAT SOCIAL NETWORKING OFFERS YOU WHEN
THERE IS POLITICAL INSTABILITY IN THE COUNTRY.
Ans 4.Just as social media is used to organise people to negative effect, it's also used by the anti-riot
movement -- with BBM, Twitter and Facebook being used to warn and inform Londoners of places to
avoid and what to do if their neighbourhood is affected. Hashtags such as #riotcleanup and #riotwombles
have emerged on Twitter, and it won't be long before we'll see anti-riot messages emerge on BBM from
people -- young and old -- who disagree with the violence and looting and want to reclaim their
streets.Some of the advantages are :


1.Helps people to stay away from high risk areas

2.Knowing when to move out safely

3.Information regarding safety of loved ones

4.Knowing government actions in evacuation of civilians to safer locations.

5.Information about food n other basic necessities.

6.Information about emergency medicines available nearby.

The early detection of violent conflict is critical for early response.
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The spread of social media is forming a new nervous system for our planet. This nervous system can
help to identify early signs of conflict. Monitoring a conflict situation in real time is also important to
inform appropriate and timely interventions. To be sure, social media (big data) can help us capture the
pulse of our planet in ways that were inconceivable only five years ago. Social media can also provide
real-time feedback on what interventions may or may not be working. This means that social media can
potentially serve as a complementary channel of information for impact evaluation
Finally, social media can facilitate self-organization for early response. Social media can provide
situational awareness and more importantly shared situational awareness. The capacity to self-organize
also renders conflict prevention networks more resilient. In other words, social media can be used to
power civil resistance in nonviolent movements that seek to end oppression and bloodshed. As one
Egyptian activist reported during the revolution, We use Facebook to schedule our protests, Twitter to
coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world. Social media can be similarly leveraged to facilitate a
resilient people-cantered approach to conflict prevention.
There are a number of ways social media can be harnessed to monitor and manage violent conflict. By
studying how information and behaviours propagate through social networks, researchers and formal
response organizations might gain advance warning of emerging threats. They also could use social
media to collect on-the-ground situational awareness, issue alerts and warnings, and coordinate efforts, as
a growing number of disaster responders are doing.