On April 18, in Washington, DC, Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson told an audience that social media can play a key role in supporting democratic change in repressive societies. 

Reflecting upon the recent changes in North Africa, Carlsson began by describing how social media has facilitated citizens in the region as they work to change their futures through peaceful means. She described how citizens in both Egypt and Tunisia used social media to help rid themselves of authoritarian regimes without external support and in a largely bloodless fashion.   In Tunisia alone, she noted that 18.6% of the young population used Facebook, an important factor in understanding the success of the revolution there.  With the number of worldwide internet users doubling between 2005 and 2010 alone, Carlsson suggested Europe now needed to adapt to this changing dynamic and do more in the digital domain to encourage and facilitate democratization movements.

In describing how social media fosters democracy, Carlsson said that better access to the internet increases government transparency, empowers local communities, and better integrates the diaspora population. As such, she said that information and communications technologies could be understood as now representing “liberation technologies.” With the advent of modern communications technologies, she added that the time had passed when a people’s quest for justice and welfare could be halted simply through blocking their freedom of expression or assembly.

Having outlined the importance of encouraging internet usage and communications through social media tools, Carlsson went on to explain the steps Sweden was now taking in this area. To complement existing democracy building efforts, she said that the Swedish government had recently launched a special initiative to promote freedom of expression that supported activists in a new and direct way. Part of this program is designed to educate activists on how to better encrypt their data, detailing the steps they can take to avoid unwarranted monitoring and surveillance. In addition, Carlsson told the audience of a recent conference her office had organized in Stockholm aimed specifically at raising support and awareness for digital democratization efforts.

Following her presentation, Carlsson took a number of questions on a wide range of issues: how social media users could overcome language barriers in countries with a plurality of languages, how to better improve access to communications technology in the developing world, and the role that social media continues to play in the development of democracy in both Egypt and Tunisia.