We’ve covered multiple international protests that have been initiated on Facebook. While there haven’t been many protests to speak of over the past week, we continue to be on the lookout for upcoming political events initiated on the site. One country which I’ve been wondering about increasingly is Venezuela after watching Frontline’s “The Hugo Chavez Show“, something that I think everybody should take the time to watch.
The show highlights how much control Hugo Chavez has over the Venezuelan media, hosting his own weekly show which often goes on for hours. During the show he essentially lectures the country on his ideals and spends time placing blame on his advisors to are required to attend the show every week. With the rapid increase in poverty and crime, one has to wonder how much longer the country will support their leader.
Clearly not everybody in the country supports Chavez. The country is highly polarized, effectively highlighted by the 2004 recall referendum submitted by the National Electoral Council. Hundreds of thousands of protesters filled the streets of downtown Caracas as illustrated in the photo below, found on Wikipedia.
With around 10 percent of the country’s population on Facebook (Venezuela Facebook statistics, one has to wonder if Facebook or other social platforms could soon be the center for an uprising. One group started on Facebook aimed to find 1,000 members who were not in support of Hugo Chavez. That group has now attracted over 55 thousand members.
While the state of affairs in Venezuela is clearly complex, it appears that social technology would be the perfect tool for building an anti-Chavez movement. Do you think this is something that might occur? Do you think the Frontline documentary paints an accurate portrait of the state of Venezuela?
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The group you have mentioned has now 55 thousand members, and not 55 millions
Comment by Omar — January 2, 2009 @ 8:01 am
Do you have other examples of protests initiated with Facebook? And it might be harder now to launch this kind of things as FB will be increasingly monitored.
Comment by Guillaume — January 2, 2009 @ 11:02 am
And if this occurs will it be a democratic movement?
Could it be considered at the same level as the grassroot movement that supported Obama?
I mean, we can expect the American population to be fairly represented given the reach of Internet in the states (72%) but what about Venezuelans?
The penetration of Internet in Venezuela is around 22% and I doubt those are the poors that are actually making most of Chavez supporters.
Comment by Claude Vedovini — January 2, 2009 @ 2:21 pm
'over 55 million members' – that sure would be astonishing, yet it seems you've added a few zeros. It currently sits at 55,028 members.
Still…. there is a powerful potential stored in these social links.
Comment by Simon Plashkes — January 2, 2009 @ 6:47 pm
There is a big mistake in your article. there are only 55.000 and not 55 million members in that group. That it is a huge difference. The rest of the article is pure speculation. I am not a fan of Chavez governing stile, but he has done many good things to improve health, eduction and also the distribution of wealth and technologies. I have heard both sides of the of the conflict quite often. While I believe he is an egomaniac, it does not appear to me that he really controls the media. So this show you recommend is just part of propaganda too.
From my opinion Venezuela is suffering from polarisation. Chavez may be part of this problem, but others too. An uprising of one side would not change this. What I wonder is if Facebook could be a platform to mediate a conflict, to bring people together, to find a common ground. That would be innovative.
Comment by Mark — January 2, 2009 @ 7:36 pm
chavez loves his country and people. but dosn´t come across right.
Comment by linda — December 13, 2009 @ 8:53 am
I'm guessing that you are responding to links, as the above article denotes 55 thousand. I've read and reread, nothing about millions.
Comment by CJ Avery — December 20, 2010 @ 12:21 am
I've read and reread the article. The article reports 55,000; aka Fifty-Five THOUSAND, not Million. If you don't know the difference between "thousand" and "million", you need to get a better translator. Or, you can apply for a position with Obama on his budget committee (as if such a thing exists). Also, if you decide to flee to America, here's your first English lesson – when you have a numeric representation leading an alpha expression, the alpha expression is singular. However, I understand the mistake, as our 111th congress also confuses the proper use of numbers vs. words.
Comment by Paige Avery — December 20, 2010 @ 12:35 am