2019: A year of protests

Photo: AP

While thousands of miles apart, some protests have taken inspiration from each other on how to advance their goals.

From the streets of Hong Kong to La Paz, Port-au-Prince, Quito, Barcelona, Beirut and Santiago, a huge wave of people have taken to the streets exercising their right to protest and demanding change from those in power.

Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, and Albania have also all seen major demonstrations. So have the UK, against Brexit, France, with its yellow vest movement, and Spain, in the region of Catalonia. In South America: Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela have experienced popular unrest.

“The data shows that the amount of protests is increasing and is as high as the roaring 60s, and has been since about 2009,” Jacquelien van Stekelenburg, a professor who studies social change and conflict at Vrije University in Amsterdam, told the Guardian.

In places like Hong Kong, the protests have lasted over a long period of time despite police crackdowns, whereas in other countries demonstrations were quickly repressed through tactics such as mass arrests. In Egypt, more than 2,300 people were detained for taking part in demonstrations this September.

In this context, social media is reordering hierarchies of communication. Authorities can fight back with surveillance regimes or with digital blackouts of the kind India recently imposed in disputed Kashmir.

Sources: Amnesty International, The Guardian.

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