For seven weeks a popular uprising against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been raging. Emboldened by successful movements to topple dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, frustrated young Syrians began organizing protests online and then took them to the streets.
Despite periodic cuts in the Internet and mobile network, young Syrian activists have been working their computers and mobile phones for weeks, updating Facebook pages, sending out messages over Twitter, uploading videos onto YouTube rift gold and speaking to human rights campaigners, journalists and others outside their country. They try to tell the world what is happening, as most foreign reporters have been banned.
Activists say tools such as Facebook and Twitter were not widely known in Syria until just a few months ago. As the Arab Spring spread across North Africa and the Middle East, Syrian youth began learning about the role of social media in it. Now thousands engage in social media.
Youth movement
Activist Rami Nakhle, who has been living in Lebanon for the last few months to avoid arrest in his native Syria,rift gold said the uprising began on the Internet with the youth, but then moved to the streets drawing people of all ages.
"It is a completely, completely spontaneous revolution. That's what I would call it.…. but absolutely, it is led by young people. If young people did not call for protest, the old people would just stay in their homes," said Nakhle. "But old people, when they saw protests in the mosque, they will join; when they saw huge protest pass in front of their houses, they will join. It's like this. But who is organizing it? Who is planning it? They are the young people."
Protesters demanded that an oppressive emergency law banning protests be lifted. They also called for the legalization of political parties and the removal of corrupt officials.
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