Freedom technologists and the new protest movements

• Published in: Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies
• Main Author: Postill, John
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2014
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); Communication; Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1354856514541350; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1354856514541350; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1354856514541350

In this article, I draw from anthropological fieldwork in Spain and secondary research on Tunisia and Iceland to explore the connection between Internet freedom activism and post-2008 protest movements. I introduce two new concepts: ‘freedom technologists’ and ‘protest formulas’. I use the term freedom technologists to refer to those social agents who combine technological and political skills to pursue greater Internet and democratic freedoms, which they regard as being inextricably entwined. Far from being techno-utopians or deluded ‘slacktivists’ (Morozov, 2013, Skoric, 2012), I argue that most freedom technologists are in fact techno-pragmatists, that is, people who take a very practical view of the limits and possibilities of new technologies for political change. I also differentiate among freedom technologists, singling out three main specialists for their strong contribution to the new movements, namely hackers/geeks, tech lawyers and online journalists. The second new coinage I develop is protest formulas. This term refers to the unique compound of societal forces and outcomes that characterizes each protest movement – as well as each phase or initiative within a movement. In this article, I track the influence of freedom technologists on emerging protest movements as they interact with other agents within these political compounds.