Several months ago, a Facebook page was launched, calling for a third Palestinian Intifadah against the Israeli occupation. The Israeli response was immediate. Messages begun circulating amongst Israeli users asking of them to e-mail Facebook and demand that the Intifadah page be removed as it is a "hate page". While this spontaneous reaction by users may have had an affect on Facebook's policy, it has been speculated that the hate page was ultimately removed following an official request by the Israeli government. Yuli Edelstien, Israel's minister of Public Diplomacy, sent a letter to Mark Zukeberg, in which he demanded that this page be removed as it calls for violence against the state of Israel.
Direct negotiations between the Israeli government minister and the almighty CEO of the world's largest social network immediately raise the question to what purpose does Facebook need to create its own diplomatic core, designed – as the company recently announced – to serve as its official representative in numerous countries spanning the globe?
The answer indicates how far Zukerberg's innocent initiative has expanded. Facebook is not merely a communication platform, nor is it a profit oriented advertisement business. Facebook is becoming a political entity, representing a virtual nation which already consists of more than 600 million citizens and its President is competing with traditional governments. Zukerberg's diplomats will negotiate with governments over legislature, lobby on behalf of his interests, coordinate all communication with local press and establish ties with local businesses. The significance of ambassadors to the protection of the interests of an imaginary political entity has a precedent. Darth Vader's first question upon boarding Princess Lea's ship was: "if this is a consular ship where is the ambassador?" If the evilest of all empires could grasp the importance of negotiating, why not the nerd Zukerberg?
Facebook has refuted many of the theories that accompanied the internet in its first days. John Perry Barlow, who published the Declaration of the Independence of cyberspace (February 1996), imagined the virtual world as one that is detached from the "real world". The norms, regulations and governments of the physical world would cease to exist in the virtual one.
However, the characteristics of this social network have proven that cyberspace is not a detached world or even one that exists in parallel to the real world. Facebook is the expression of the "real world" by virtual means. This has never been more evident then in the past few months as the winds of change have swept through the Middle East. Facebook has evolved into something much more profound then a place where friends can interact. It has become the new "Radio Free Europe".
Facebook is the world's most awesome promoter of free speech. The ideas that lead to the revolt in Cairo's Tahrier square were first articulated on users' profiles. The "fear factor", which prevented people from demanding the most basic democratic civil rights, was obliterated in the new home of the mind. Facebook is now a tool for mobilizing the troops of freedom. But who knows what kind of troops it will move in the future?
This begs the question, had Facebook stationed ambassadors in Egypt prior to the uprising, would they have continued to allow users to rally against the regime using the social network or would they have succumb to the pressure of the local government and sacrificed the right of free speech in the name or free trade? Will we "like" or "dislike" the new Facebook ambassador?
As it marches towards statehood, Facebook will have to define the values it holds dear to heart. The assumption that it will regard the value of the dollar as superior to all other is not unfounded. After all, Facebook was initiated as a business, not an activist. Thus, should we not expect to see the reincarnation the dollar diplomacy ?
Perhaps, it has already happened.
Today, Syrians are standing in front of tanks yelling Patrick Henry's famous speech :"give me liberty or give me death". No one will give them this liberty, but Facebook might enable them to take it. That is as long as their ambassador is not summoned to the Minister of Foreign Affairs where he is scolded by a furious Bashar Assad.
If diplomacy is indeed "the art of compromise", one must wonder just what Facebook will be willing to compromise.
Ilan Manor |