Did Twitter Help to Revolutionise the Occupy Movement?

The Occupy movement has built up tremendous momentum across the US, in fact right across the globe. I often find myself asking; ‘how did this all happen so quickly?’. I am aware that traditional media has had its part to play, but there’s no doubt in my mind that one of the main reasons for the bush-fire like speed is Twitter.

Occupy started on Wall Street on September 17th 2011. Whilst this may have been the official beginning of what can only be described as a revolution, the concept of the masses versus the elitists has existed for thousands of years.

But what makes the Occupy movement so appealing and why has it grown so quickly? Especially, because the way I understand it, the movement doesn’t have a specific demand (as most movements do). Rather it has a general view; a view that says 99 per cent of the population should be heard by the one per cent that have the power, the money and the capacity to make decisions that can change the world.

The general thinking behind Occupy seems to be that the wealthiest 1 per cent is corrupt, greedy and self-serving. One of the most cited example, are Wall Street and Square Mile Bankers. Most receive multi-million dollar bonuses even when their funds have lost money for everyone else – doesn’t really seem right does it?

To try and make themselves heard, the Occupy movement has employed a range of tactics, many of which were based on the Arab Spring scenarios. In that scenario, protesters within Syria, Libya and Egypt rose up against the one per cent and forced a change in Government. We are yet to see what the end result of this change will be, or if it will be long lasting. However, it is still a change none the less, and an achievement for the masses.

What is remarkable is how quickly these movements and this concept grew. What started out as only a handful of protestors, quickly grew to hundreds, then thousands and then tens of thousands. The speed it took to act and create a unified voice is what has really given these movements momentum. So back to my original theory, Twitter!

When a large group of people come together with a passion as strong as Occupy, they inspire others to spread the word. Occupy has been trending in the top ten on Twitter since September and rarely leaves the front pages of online newspapers. Every online newspaper worth its salt has a ‘tweet’ button, and so the word spreads until there is no one out there with an Internet connection that is not aware of the Occupy movement.

While it can be argued that the idea behind the Occupy movement is one that the majority of the world can relate to and could have grown regardless of technology, the role Twitter played definitely sped up the process significantly.

Twitter as a social media platform is instant, and operates virally. A message sent out to a few followers, quickly gets sent on to friends of other followers and so on. The end result is much like the snowball effect. The fact that many users have Twitter on their mobile devices also means that messages can be sent from “the front line” asking for others to come and support the cause.

The role that Twitter played was so large, that leaders of countries involved in Arab Spring did everything in their power to ban access to the site.

Whilst the Occupy Movement would have progressed naturally, it would have taken twice the time to do so through traditional media. It is for those reasons that I tip my hat to all those with a Twitter account who help to spread the word on a daily basis, there is nothing more moving or more powerful than solidarity…retweet!

Matt Beswick runs a London based digital agency, amongst his clients are a travel company that operate airport lounges in Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted

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