The politics of Facebook

Online community is not only another new marketing buzzword heavily used in almost every industry from food to telecommunications. These communities really work.






And, as already proven by the egg campaign against ČSSD leader Jiří Paroubek, they seem to work quite well especially in political campaigns in the Czech Republic. U.S. President Barack Obama was admired for his sense for using trendy Internet communication tools in his presidential campaign. Czech political parties are also picking up on the trend and putting a lot of stock in them.

Facebook, still quite a new phenomenon to the Czech market, has already become a strong political tool in Czech political culture. It’s not only exploited by political parties themselves, but it’s being more and more used by voters, especially in organizing protests. Very shortly after the successful Paroubek egging campaign, young voters started to fight for the deferral of the new state high school graduation exams and guess what: politicians have realized the strength of Facebook and even before the official protest took the place, they almost instantly agreed with this Facebook community and swept the state graduation away. This is something that would just a year ago be absolutely unimaginable. And we can just ask why. Is it because Facebook after the egg campaign is currently “in” in Czech politics? Or is it just because 18- and 19-year-old people involved in the upcoming state exams are the new voters who might significantly affect the upcoming October elections?

Facebook has become a strong tool to influence thousands of Czech young people in a very short time and in a very strong manner. The simple fact that one of your Facebook friends believes in something, and makes that belief public by becoming a fan or a member of some Facebook group, makes you think about things that you didn’t care about before. That’s the reason why establishing any group declaring any strong political statement or point of view brings you several thousand sympathizers in a few days. And these sympathizers, unlike in other situations, are unafraid of showing their opinion not only in the virtual world,but in the real one, too. This means that the upcoming elections will be extraordinary not only in their term, but also in the tools that will be used by political parties.