Syria has recently become one of the hottest spots on earth and an object of attention of the entire world community. Constant riots and armed conflicts have not subsided since March 2011. However, it has not become the first country to have a wave of mass violence. First protests swept Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and other Arab countries. This phenomenon has even got a term of “the Arab Spring”. In all countries, “the Spring” began in much the same manner: large-scale protests in the streets, supposedly signifying the dissatisfaction of the people with the existing regime. But how was it possible to collect again and again so many people under strict control over mass media?
In today’s world where the Internet is no longer a privilege and is affordable to almost everyone, a new powerful tool for influencing the population has appeared - social networks. You can even find the term “tweeter revolutions”. Now, when the audience of the American Facebook and Twitter networks accounts for 800 million people, it is very convenient to use this channel to impose the right views, critics of disliked regimes, to organize mass rallies. Communicating in social networks, people often fondly think of the published information, and any rumor instantly acquires details and spreads among users already as an undeniable fact. In essence, each user becomes a participant in “cyber warfare”. A military expert from the U.S. administration, R. Clark has given his opinion on the matter as follows: “Cyber warfare is the actions of one nation state penetrating into computers or networks of another nation state for the purpose of causing it damage or destruction.” Senior ranks of the Pentagon designated at the doctrinal level the cyberspace as a new area for military operations, along with land, sea and air. Moreover, a special Cyber Command is being created, whose head was appointed the National Security Agency director General Keith Alexander. Political processes in the countries of Asia, Africa and the Middle East have shown the importance of social network service in the organization of disturbances, which have already resulted in the resignation of presidents of Tunisia and Egypt, the death of Muammar Gaddafi.
It all started with the fact that in Tunisia on the popular among Arab youth Facebook and Twitter, anti-government slogans were put, protest actions were coordinated. The Tunisian revolution was supported in Europe, as a result of which Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was eventually forced to leave the country.
The overthrow of the government of Tunisia has become a tentative move that allowed external forces to continue working in other countries of the region. Next was Egypt. In the Facebook “the April 6 Movement” is being created, (in solidarity with the workers of the city of El-Mahalla El-Kubra, who held protest demonstrations on April 6, 2008, and were dispersed by the government), where slogans and calls for protests are put. The civil unrest has escalated into a popular uprising, as a result of which on February 11, 2011, Hosni Mubarak resigned as president and handed power to the Supreme Military Council.
Using social networks, the West was able to organize disorders even in the most financially secure country in North Africa - Libya. It will be remembered what situation emerged in the country before the coup.
Once in power, Muammar Gaddafi expelled multinational corporations from the country. He closed NATO military bases. GDP per capita was $14,192. The state pays as much as $1,000 grants a year for each family member. Unemployment benefit is $730. A nurse’s salary is $1,000. For every newborn $7,000 are paid. Newlyweds are given $64,000 to buy an apartment. One time financial assistance for the opening a personal business is $20,000. Major taxes and extortion are prohibited. Education and medicine are free. Education and study placement abroad are publicly funded. There are chain stores for large families with symbolic prices for basic foods. Large fines and detention by police are imposed for selling the aged products. Part of pharmacies dispenses drugs free of charge. The penalty for counterfeiting medicines is death. No rent and charge for electricity usage for the population. The sale and consumption of alcohol are prohibited – a dry law. Auto and apartment loans are interest free. Real estate services are prohibited. A car purchase is 50% paid by the state, and for militia fighters it is 65% paid. Petrol is cheaper than water (1 liter of petrol costs $0.14).
Only under Gaddafi the Negroes from Libyan south obtained human rights. Over forty years of his government, the country’s population has tripled. Infant mortality decreased by 9 times. The life expectancy increased from 51.5 to 74.5 years. Gaddafi made a decision to withdraw Libya from the global banking system and another 12 Arab countries wanted to follow his example.
Yet nevertheless the Western propagandists were able with the use of information resources to organize an uprising in Libya. However, Muammar Gaddafi has displayed determination, and disorders escalated into civil war, which resulted in the forcible overthrow of the regime and the death of the leader of Libya.
About a month before the riots in Syria, a new Facebook group, “the Syrian Revolution 2011” appeared, calling to the “Day of Wrath” in the cities of Syria against the president of this country Bashar al-Assad. The calls for protest appeared. By the early February 2011 the group consisted of more than 13 thousand people. However, most of the Syrian network activists lived outside the country, and on the appointed day, the demonstration at the walls of Parliament proved to be small. The success was achieved on March 15, 2011, when several hundred people responded to the messages and took the streets of Damascus and Daraa. Along with internal disturbances, to increase the influence on the government of Syria, Washington introduces new sanctions and actively opposes Bashar al-Assad in the UN Security Council
After the uprising the Facebook administration blocked pages of the incumbent president supporters. However, the pages of regime opponents continued their work, and the events in Syria were reported on them in the light favorable to the opposition and the West, without capturing the true essence of what is happening, and in most cases - distorting the reality.
However, the West’s idea to use the global information network has counted against the instigators themselves. For example, a group of concerned young people demonstrates using the Internet the real picture of Syrian cities, on whose streets peaceful opposition marches are supposedly dispersed. The photographs put by the Syrian students on the Internet show the government troops to be opposed to well-armed militants but not civilians. In addition to Russia’s and China’s tough stance on a peaceful solution of the problem, and blocking the UN Security Council resolutions meaning a new military intervention, these photos made the car of Western propaganda start skidding.
