Social networks played major role in Armenian protests

YEREVAN, May 7. /ARKA/. Social networking services, like Facebook, played a major role in coordinating the actions of protesters and the rapid development of political events in Armenia, according to cyber security expert Samvel Martirosyan.

“It is hard to say how they would have unfolded without social networking services and online broadcasts, which were instrumental in making the processes quite fast, which would not have happened with the old traditional information channels," Martirosyan told reporters on Monday.

According to the expert, live broadcasts ensured not only rapid dissemination of information, but also excluded the possibility of mediators' influence on this information.
In his words, live broadcasts were instrumental in avoiding heightened emotions and aggressiveness of the opposing political forces towards each other. ‘The wave of aggression swept the social networks only in the evening of May 1, but not for long," Martirosyan said.

In his opinion, aggression and serious battles in social networks were avoided due to the fact that in recent years, users basically removed from the list of their subscribers or friends people with opposing political views.

"Each of the users of social networks tried to share the latest news without going deeper into the reliability of the information, which was often appeared to be gossip. People were afraid that certain events could affect the situation, and tried to prevent something, and, therefore, unintentionally disseminated misinformation," Martirosyan said.

According to Martirosyan, it was also remarkable that reports in those days about increased tension at the border were actually ignored. He said that was due to the neutral position of the army.

The media expert believes that the political processes taking place in Armenia are not yet perceived by the media community as a revolution, since it is unclear what will happen next.

"Even the hashtags changed during these days, but it must be stated that everything that happened was unique not only for Armenia," Martirosyan said.
Weeks of antigovernment protests led by Pashinyan forced two-time former president Serzh Sargsyan to resign as prime minister just days after he was elected to the position by the parliament, controlled by his Republican Party of Armenia.

Pashinyan, nominated by the opposition parliamentary bloc Yelk for the post of prime minister, secured the backing of 41 lawmakers in the 105-seat parliament, not enough to win the vote. To date he is the only candidate for the post in a repeat vote on May 8.

The Republican Party that thwarted Pashinyan’s first attempt to become prime minister said later it would not nominate its candidate for the post and would support Pashinyan’s candidacy. -0-

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17:38 05/07/2018