Digital media fuel global protests but can be used against them

THE MOB that rampaged through the Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 6th would acknowledge little in common with the pro-democracy activists who invaded Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo) in July 2019. They were trying to overturn a free and fair democratic election—which was precisely what the Hong Kong protesters wanted to be granted. But the two sets of malcontents were similar in at least one way, which they shared with most of the protest movements that swept the world in 2019 and early 2020: they relied heavily on digital media for organisation, publicity and communication; and that reliance has made them easier to trace as the authorities seek retribution.