After Tunisia and Egypt, most Mideastern strongmen worry that social media will help their subjects dislodge them from power. One of them wants it to help him hang in there. Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, isn’t known for being a technophile. He’s more famous for being an indicted war criminal, owing to his role in the Darfur genocide. But like his northern neighbor Hosni Mubarak, he’s endured two weeks of protests by youths banding together through social networks and text messages. So now Bashir wants to beat them at their own game.
According to the official Sudanese news agency, Bashir today instructed his government to expand rural electrification efforts “so that the younger citizens can use computers and Internet to combat opposition through social networking sites such as Facebook.” (Hat tip: The Awl.) Where Bashir’s legion of Facebook warriors will come from is something of a mystery. But if Hosni Mubarak’s friends can troll anti-regime Facebook pages, then maybe Bashir’s onto something. This up-with-Sudan Facebook page hosts Bashir’s image, for instance.
Except his connectivity efforts will have to happen rapidly. Only about 10 percent of Sudan’s 41 million people have Internet access. The protests Bashir faces aren’t as massive as those in Egypt, and his goons have arrested opposition figures after texting them anonymously to lure them into traps.
Bashir isn’t the only dictator to embrace social media so it doesn’t strangle him. Today, Syria’s Bashir al-Assad reversed a four-year ban on Facebook and YouTube. These might be hollow efforts to show online activists that they’re not fearful of losing power, but they’ll still have the effect of expanding access to technologies that regional reformers are using to stir unrest.
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