Internet activism in Ghana
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2014-04
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Abstract
If you ask me what comes to mind when I think about the Internet,
the first thing I would conceive is, “information.” It is a world of
information- billions and billions of information. There is really no limit to
the information available on the Internet. Today, it is very easy to find
answers to questions on subjects you have little knowledge of by simply
running a search on the Internet. To me, another word closely tied to
information is “power.” Knowledge, they say is power. Indeed, knowledge
finds its roots in information. One writer, Bruce Coville, in speaking about
information says, “Withholding information is the essence of tyranny.
Control of the flow of information is the tool of dictatorship.” One may
argue about the validity of this statement, however, I point it out here
because it depicts that there is a correlation between information and
power. This being said, I can dare to say that the Internet is power.
Indeed, many people have identified and used this power nature of
the Internet to their advantage. Armies around the world rely heavily on
the Internet for information and security purposes. Huge amounts of
money are transferred daily around the globe via Internet connections
without actual movement of physical cash. The Internet plays a vital role
in the smooth running of the world’s stock markets. Some of the biggest
companies in the world have their foundations laid on the Internet. A less
desirable example of the power of the Internet is that some of the biggest
bank robberies in history have been cyber robberies. In February 2013,
seven hackers were arrested for robbing a New York bank of forty-five
million dollars. An even bigger heist, which would have been the biggest
in history if the hackers had succeeded, is the Sumitomo Mitsui Bank Heist in 2007. BBC reported that these men carried out the heist via the
Internet and Internet-powered software. If they had succeeded in
transferring the stolen money into offshore accounts, they would have
walked away with three hundred million U.S. Dollars.
All the examples above are just a minute fragment of stories that
reveal the power of the Internet. This study is going to look into another
way Internet power is used that is relatively less dramatic compared to
cyber robberies. Notwithstanding, it has proven to be a powerful tool in
addressing some of the problems we face in our world today. Over the
past few years, we have seen an increase in how much the Internet is
being used as a tool to foster change in the lives of people around the
world. We can see evidences of this feature of the Internet in major
revolutionary movements like the Arab Spring. Since 2011, there have
been several research studies into the role of the Internet and social
media in the Arab Spring. Many academics, journalists and politicians
around the world have attributed the effectiveness of the Arab Spring to
the Internet and social media. The major role the Internet played in
revolutions around the world led to the birth of the saying, “Democracy is
just a tweet away.” Also, another famous saying created by Egyptian
Google executive Wael Ghonim asserts, “If you want to liberate a society,
just give them the Internet”(Storck 2012). The goal of this paper is to
research into how the Internet has been used and can be used for
activism, especially in Ghana.
Description
Thesis submitted to the Department of Computer Science, Ashesi University College, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems, April 2014
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Keywords
Ghana, digital activism, mobile app