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Social media vital for revolutions: Tony Blair

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair addressed the RSA Conference in San Francisco last week, using the speech as a chance to explain how technology has changed the world and how social media impacts governments all over the world when its citizens rise up.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair addressed the RSA Conference in San Francisco last week, using the speech as a chance to explain how technology has changed the world and how social media impacts governments all over the world when its citizens rise up.

Tony Blair

Tony Blair
(Credit: Blair image by Matthew Yglesias, CC BY-SA 2.0)

"We live in an era of uniquely low predictability," said Blair, speaking on the final day of the 2012 RSA Conference on Friday afternoon.

Explaining how technology has changed the way in which we work and live, as well as serving as a fundamental source for economic and political change worldwide, Blair posed the question, "the 20th century belonged to us, but will the 21st century belong to someone else?"

He answered by asserting that no matter how many changes there are in the world, those changes do not alter one thing: our way of life and our values. He added that these are "still the right values to guide the 21st century".

Blair described the role of social media in political revolutions in particular as "absolutely fundamental".

"[Social media] creates situations that governments — particularly governments that have been there a long time — don't understand, and don't have the capacity to cope with," Blair said.

"It's a tremendous instrument for protest, but it's not an instrument of government."

Indeed, social media presented itself as a key tool in some of 2011's most pivotal and sometimes violent protests.

Social media services like Twitter and Facebook were used by protesters in the London riots in August last year, while in Egypt, social media has been credited as one of the primary sparks that incited the uprising that led to a dramatic change of government.

Luke Hopewell contributed to this report.

Via ZDNet US

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