Facebook — the Future of Political Activism?

So, after much prodding, I have officially joined Facebook. I even have three friends — which means that I’m only 229,997 behind a Facebook group that recently organized world-wide protest against FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia:

What began as a group of young people venting their rage at the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Facebook, an Internet social-networking site, has ballooned into an international event called “One Million Voices Against FARC.”

“We expected the idea to resound with a lot of people but not so much and not so quickly,” says Oscar Morales, who started the Facebook group against the FARC, which now has 230,000 members. Organizers are expecting marches in 185 cities around the world.

The event is another example of how technology – such as text messaging on cellphones – can be used to rally large numbers of people to a cause. Some observers say it’s less a response to the FARC’s ideology than it is global public outrage over kidnapping as a weapon.

Facebook has obviously come a long way from its early days as an Ivy League social networking site. In addition to focusing attention on FARC, Facebook has been used to support Buddhist monks protesting the repressive Burmese government, to pressure a multinational bank to change its overdraft policies, to demonstrate against Musharraf’s emergency rule in Pakistan, and to combat censorship in Iran. The power of Facebook as an organizing tool, moreover, has not been lost on authoritarian regimes: the site has been banned in Syria, Burma, Bhutan, the UAE, and Iran.

Not all uses of Facebook, however, are so progressive. The site may make it easier for rights groups to organize protests, but it also makes it easier for extremist groups to recruit new members. Such is the nature of social-networking technology: it makes our politics more effective, but it doesn’t tell us what our politics should be. Facebook is thus just as likely to magnify political differences as it is to overcome them — something the anti-FARC organizers quickly discovered:

While few Colombians support the Marxist insurgent army that has been fighting the Colombian state for more than 40 years, many people are uncomfortable with the message of Monday’s rally. They would prefer a broader slogan against kidnapping and in favor of peace and of negotiations between the government and the rebels to exchange hostages for jailed rebels. The leftist Polo Democratico Party said it will hold a rally in Bogotá in favor of a negotiation but would not march. Some senators say they will march against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, and other participants say they will be marching in favor of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

Consuelo González de Perdomo, one of the two women released by the FARC on Jan. 10 said she would not be marching at all.

The families of the 45 remaining FARC hostages will not march either. “The way the march was called aims to polarize the country,” says Deyanira Ortiz, whose husband, Orlando Beltrán Cuéllar, has been held by the FARC for six years. “It’s not for the freedom of the hostages but against the FARC. And that doesn’t serve any purpose.”

No, the medium isn’t the message. But it’s a fascinating medium nonetheless.