Malcolm Gladwell defined the SNS activity as weak ties and low level organization structure, and put forward that the social relations constructed through the Internet is very difficult to translate into collective action.
[5] Thirdly, as the restrictions of the technical and social capital, minority voices are easy to be ignored, and thus, the discourse right of ordinary audience was again put on the agenda.
It challenges the traditional relationship between political authorities and popular, allowing the powerless to "collaborate, coordinate, and give voice to their concerns".
[3] During the 2009–2010 Iranian election protests, Twitter and other similar websites succeeded in spreading the information and let people know around the world what was going on in Iran, while the mainstream, western media such as CNN failed to cover the news.
According to Evgeny Morozov, a scholar at Stanford and a blogger for Foreign Policy magazine, the widespread belief that Twitter was the major platform of Iranian youth to plan mass scale protests online lacks sufficient supporting evidence, because in this way the authorities would be able to monitor and suppress the movement.
[7] Here, Twitter had played a role beyond its intended function as social media where people get connected to their acquaintances and friends online.
"Without Twitter the people of Iran would not have felt empowered and confident to stand up for freedom and democracy", Mark Pfeifle, a former national-security adviser wrote.
[8] The Iranian government also chose to block websites Facebook and Twitter roughly a month prior the June 12 presidential elections.
This journalist argues that activists who were opposed to the main political power tended to use Internet sources like text messages, email, and blog posts for communication in organizing of protest actions.
[19] Moreover, Twitter was applied to communicate with the audience outside Egypt to "globalized the movement and win international support to protect and sustain the uprising".
[20] In Egypt, Twitter was furthermore used to launch movements and volunteer groups hoping to have a positive effect on the community during a volatile time.
After president Viktor Yanukovich rejected the signing of the EU–Ukraine agreement on November 21, 2013, a mass protest took place on the Independence square in Kyiv.
[24] On the 27th of January, 2014 a 'Twitterstorm' was launched in order to attract global attention to the protest itself and to initiate sanctions towards the then president Viktor Yanukovich.
"The protest was driven by the suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi, an unemployed street vendor whose informal vegetable stall was shuttered by the police.
Prior to the revolution most of the respondents stated that they were using social media to exchange information, stay in contact with family, and receive uncensored news.