Padgett (2017) mentioned how the Zapatista’s turned words into weapons and delivered their voices in 1994 in order to achieve their own autonomy and freedom where they used online and offline media strategies and tactics to overcome the oppression of the Mexican government which they did.
Furthermore, Tawil-Souri and Aouragh (2014) discussed the structural constraints that faced Palestinians in their internet activism where they discussed the term digital colonialism since the Israelis had massive control over online platforms and then controlling and restricting the content published by the Palestinian activists or citizens. They also mentioned the materiality of internet as a limitation by introducing the physical factor of internet that it is constituted of wires. The authors, in addition, highlighted the frustrations of digital activism introduced by cyber activists where they said that online activism is crucial but is never enough to defeat occupation as online work should be accompanied with practical on the ground activism to be sufficient. The huge number of accounts speaking about the same topic may also cause fragmentation and thus distracting people from the specific purpose that should be introduced.
References:
Padgett, R. (2017, February 25). Radical Legacy of the Zapatista’s Media Strategy.
Intifada! Retrieved from: http://www.svllywood.com/intifadaessays/radicalmedia
Tawil-Souri, H., and Aouragh, M. (2014). Intifada 3.0? Cyber colonialism and Palestinian
resistance. The Arab Studies Journal, 22(1): 102-133 (read excerpts pp. 102-106, 119-126
of PDF). Retrieved from:
http://www.arabstudiesjournal.org/store/p390/Intifada_3.0%3F_Cyber_Colonialism_and
_Palestinian_Resistance.html
Xiaoyue Zhang 