Online Mediation of Minority Dissent

Historical Motivations

A long history of minoritization from social, economic, and political fronts and their previously limited access to outlets of expression and fair representation in traditional media have encouraged these groups to value the availability of online spaces through which they can communicate their struggles strategically to a broader audience that other media forms they use for communicating resistance (i.e. local radio, newsletters) could not reach. The historical experience of marginalization and othering inspired the groups to be careful of how they constructed themselves and their struggle in online space. They believe that what they put online contributes to the construction of their activist identity, as articulated by a CPA leader, ‘Our website is us—our organization, our struggle, what we aspire for. The website represents us!’ At the same time, they are minorities, and therefore have a particular way of representing themselves, ‘This is who we are. That is what we are not … This kind of information we can say public, these ones are ritual-based and should not come out’ (Indigenous leader, Personal communication May 2010; see also Soriano 2012). These considerations make them cautious at the backstage, in the process of deciding what words, symbols and meanings would constitute them and the struggle. Similarly, the MILF Web team narrated that the Luwaran website banner carries photographs of past and present MILF leaders, including those who have passed away, as these communicate the long history of the struggle and inspire feelings of support from their Islamist supporters.

Clearly, the groups were not only concerned about expression: voicing out their dissent, frustrations or anticipated futures, but took into consideration a target audience, what an audience might make of their articulations, and what the audience could do with their online utterances and productions. Their exposure to issues of imperialism and global capitalism, which played an important role in the devastation of their lands (indigenous groups) or minoritization from a place they previously ruled (Moros), made them cautious that similar forces could potentially affect their online initiatives. For CPA and the MILF, their distrust of the state motivated them to invest in more secure Internet hosting facilities and exercise caution in their website articulations. Ladlad is also conscious of homo- and trans-phobic entities lurking in the online space and has imposed rules that discourage anonymity amongst the members participating in its social networking sites and e-groups.

Further, online media engagement is influenced by enabling and constraining structures, which have historically evolved to shape minorities’ meaning-making of this communicative space. Historical linkages with international actors and entities influenced the connections they sought to build through their online activities. The Moros’ experiences with colonization and continued armed conflict with the state have encouraged them to seek support from the international community, which has historical involvement in the conflict in Mindanao. These include Islamic supporters and philanthropists from the Middle East, international entities monitoring the peace and conflict situation in Mindanao such as the International Monitoring Team and the United States. ⁸ A strong network of indigenous organizations globally, on the other hand, and the availability of globally linked indigenous initiatives and advocacies have inspired and sustained the indigenous group’s use of online spaces not only to document its internal activities but to exchange developments and initiatives with indigenous groups in other parts of the world. These groups’ reflection and awareness of the history of their minoritization and their relationships with the state and other international actors, suggest a purposive appropriation of technology.

The cases of online political mobilization by minority groups represent cases of technological engagement from within. This differentiates minority groups’ online political mobilization from certain ICT for development (ICT for D) interventions for marginalized communities where the purposes and rules of use are developed from the ‘top’ (i.e. policymakers, technology providers) and imposed upon the ‘bottom’ (grassroots community of users). The lure of technological promises to development and project funds attracts marginalized communities to take in ICT for development projects. However, some technology interventions may not necessarily have relevance to the communities’ everyday lives and struggles. In contrast to many ICT for development interventions, where technology and purpose are imported from national governments or international development agencies to the communities, the experiences of new technology appropriation explored in this study emanate from the minority groups’ exploration of how to make use of available communication tools to advance their historically minoritized positions and find support and solutions to their struggles. The organizations reported that launching online spaces was attractive to them because an online space serves as a communicative space that they could build and own, ‘without the mediation or control of others’ and which was accessible to them despite their limited resources. Purposive and strategic uses of online media emanated from a drive to use available technological tools for emancipation and weave them into existing activist and resistance goals of the organizations. Although technology is introduced through external sources (i.e. other organizations or partners/funders), the objective, purpose and design of online spaces developed internally. Their activist roots, prolonged immersion into community causes and anti-capitalist views from decades of experience of marginalization yielded a more careful appropriation of technology.

Power Dynamics Within Minority Grouping

As power and influence may be at play in terms of who gains access to technology within a grouping, an analysis of power dynamics within the community or larger minority grouping, and how the organizations being studied are positioned in this dynamics, are important conditions in the understanding of minority engagements of online media and its larger implications. How organizational elements: leadership, membership, skills, resources, as well as the interplay of elements of power and control within the organization are also important aspects that can enable or constrain the organization’s use of online media. The decision-making process of how identity, local knowledge, the struggle, and the organization are to be represented in a virtual stage can represent an intense negotiation of local cultural values and the opportunities and risks presented by technology to these groups.

It is important to note that most of the organizations studied in this article have relatively more resources in comparison with other minority organizations in the Philippines. Limitation in terms of financial resources is compensated by educated and activist leaders who have some background on the use of computers and Internet, and who have linkages with local and global actors and organizations. CPA, Ladlad and the MILF are broad-based organizations in the Philippine context, which represent a number of members, member-organizations and networks.

As online engagement entails material and skill requirements, the groups’ purposes were driven by the reality of Internet access of their communities and members. For example, CPA’s website is predominantly written in English, thus privileging a particular target audience. CPA explained that indigenous groups in the Cordillera are also not homogeneous and belong to different ethno-linguistic groups. However, limited resources do not allow them to provide multiple translations. CPA explained that those who have access to the online space in the Cordillera are usually also the ones capable of reading and writing in English, while most printed materials and local radio programmes they maintain are provided in the commercial lingua franca of Cordillera, which is Ilokano (Soriano, 2012, p. 39).

As most communities represented by the indigenous and Moro organizations do not have Internet access and the skills to use the Internet, the online spaces are targeted towards the external community of supporters, while traditional forms of communication and mobilization are maintained for their grassroots communities. For these groups, the Internet is seen as most useful for publicity, credibility-building, and networking with like-minded and Internet-connected local and international organizations. In interactions with their local networks and members that are mostly grassroots-based, they still rely on face-to-face communication and other relevant media such as print, radio and telephone communication. This implies that minority groups are conscious of the appropriate media to reach particular audiences. Although the case studies have shown how the groups retain enclaves of local and grassroots support through offline forms of communication, their online articulations still raise challenges concerning the representation of the communities they claim to speak for. On the other hand, because Ladlad has a critical mass of LGBT Internet users to mobilize online, they capitalized on their social networking sites where queers actively participated in to campaign and mobilize themselves as a political force.

It would be wrong to perceive that the online strategies are free of the domination imposed by class, gender or religion. As Foucault argued, when subjects participate in any social practices, they are immediately caught up within the relationships of power struggle (Foucault 1980). Amongst the Moro activists and members of the Web Team, for example, the men significantly outnumber the women. The important leadership positions assigned to those who make important decisions on online content and production, are occupied by men. For Ladlad, having balanced representations from its diverse membership is also a challenge. The organization would have to manage the predominant representations by gay males and potential overshadowing of issues of other groupings (i.e. lesbians, transgenders, transsexuals and bisexuals). Also, within these minority groupings are further sub-groupings that add layers to the extent of minoritization. For example, a leader of Ladlad emphasized the difficulties experienced in mobilizing LGBT members from the Muslim community, not only because many of them do not have access to the Internet but because they face more stringent societal and religious norms that prevent them from coming out as members of the queer community. In terms of its political campaigning and spreading the reach of their advocacies, Ladlad also recognizes the huge income divide among the community, which implies that their online spaces merely complement their caravans and door-to-door campaigning. Although several members of the LGBT community have access to the Internet, a significant percentage of the LGBT community still live in detrimental conditions and are unable to secure jobs.

Nations Real and Imagined

The distribution of communicative spaces and the opportunities to participate in these spaces are unequally distributed, with increasing gaps in access to communicative infrastructures between the dominant and minority groups. National minorities are often neglected or marginalized from state policies and programmes and over the years some of them have developed hostile relationships with the state. Yet, although minority groups seek connection with international actors to solicit alternative audience and support, the nation remains an important frame of reference, especially as the state still takes on a crucial role in the creation and regulation of the media network (Appadurai 1993).

Although Internet penetration in the Philippines (ITU 2011) remains at approximately 29 per cent of the population ⁹ and still biased in more urban areas, minority groups have begun to gain substantial online presence in websites, blogs and other social media. The call centre industry has expanded beyond the capital Metro Manila and into Philippine provinces and has fast tracked the establishment of Internet and telecommunications services in some geographically remote areas (De Chavez, R., Bolinget, W., & Anongos, A., Personal communication, April and May, 2010). This was accompanied by a national Community Telecentre Programme as well as the rise of local enterprises such as cybercafés, which facilitated access to the Internet in smaller towns. International and local development organizations have also embarked on projects to assist minority communities in using new media technologies.

But despite the availability of access to the Internet, the use of the Internet for electronic surveillance and monitoring by national governments is well-documented (OpenNet Initiative 2009). In fact, some scholars have shown that despite its potential for linking activists from the margins of the global South to larger organizations in other parts of the world, telecommunication systems are being increasingly regulated in the national and global arenas which control the infrastructure or context of communication (Kelly & Etling 2008; York 2011). Nonetheless, studies have also shown how smaller activists have used Internet facilities to undermine government controls and link with counterparts in other parts of the world despite restrictive conditions (Dutta & Pal 2007; Franklin 2005; Oo 2003; Rodgers 2003, p. 12). The OpenNet Initiative reported that there is no evidence of national filtering of the Internet in the Philippines (OpenNet Initiative 2009). However, these same technologies are used by the military to monitor the so-called enemies of the state, and use the same information for counter-intelligence operations (Magno 2009).

Although minority groups might consider themselves members of sub-national or transnational communities, the nation remains to be the primary context for everyday lives and imaginations and those who produce media and their audiences. Further, the global relations of a nation often supersede the global connections of minority groups (Ginsburg et al. 2002, p. 11). However, how the concept of ‘nation’ is altered with the use of online technology for national minorities, and how the use of online media challenges the relevance of the nation-state for the struggle of minority groups, are interesting areas that can be explored. Here I bring in Benedict Anderson’s (1991) notion of ‘imagined communities’, where the media and the imagined attachments and relations created by the media, play crucial roles in producing nations and creating national imaginaries. How does online media engagement create new perceptions or alter existing notions of nation and belonging to minority groups?

All the three minority groupings, connected to their position as subordinated cultures, have complex relationships with the state. The Moro group, given its secessionist roots and armed conflict with the military, encounters the greatest animosity in terms of state relations despite being involved in continued peace negotiations. It is because of these conflicting relations with the state that they need to manage multiple online representations and use symbolic forms of political messages. As they continue to participate in peace negotiations and bargain for an acceptable political settlement, they need to project a diplomatic stance in their official website pages, especially as international actors monitor the peace talks and movements of Muslim revolutionary actors under counter-terrorism (Soriano & Sreekumar, 2012).

The Moro group also showed how imaginations of an Islamic ‘nation’ have inspired them to seek support and solidarity with Islamic communities outside the Philippines. Anderson’s (1991) concept of an ‘imagined community’ argues that media plays a crucial role in producing nations and shaping national imaginaries. The Muslim minority’s use of online media can be seen as a mode of reconfiguration of a Bangsamoro nation (Islamic Republic separate from the Philippine state) that has well-established ties with international actors of similar experience. The use of an Islamic version of the website created a sense of belonging with other Islamic communities, as the MILF was able to find an audience and generate support from Muslim activists, intelligentsia, philanthropists and supporters, as well as fundamentalists.

However, the organization’s location within the boundaries of the Philippine nation and the hosting of its websites in the United States implies that the political uses and controls of cyberspace by national or international structures also figure in the MILF’s actualization of its goals in the use of online media. Constraints in terms of national resources, infrastructure and skills that are connected to the Moro’s position as national minorities also determine the reality of the reach of the message to the grassroots, and raises questions about issues of representation and ‘speaking for’ the rest of the Moro community. Also, while MILF’s websites reached their target Islamic supporters both for moral and financial support, the sites also attracted extremists offering support and encouraging the MILF to shift from its ‘diplomatic’ approach to ‘more radical’ directions (for a detailed discussion, see Soriano & Sreekumar 2012). The indigenous group CPA, which has a more leftist orientation, also expressed concern over the radical posts it articulates in its website, but nonetheless argued that they need to report and provide opinion even on sensitive issues such as abductions, land grabbing and adverse effects of ‘development projects’ towards indigenous communities.

For the LGBT group, a close analysis of Ladlad’s online spaces manifests a complex arena of online engagement that operates within cultural orientations dictated by national norms. Ladlad stands as a national organization existing within a divergence of ideologies carried by its members, including those whose self-concepts are heavily influenced by the teachings of the Catholic Church, which wields a strong influence in Philippine society as moral authority (Soriano, 2014). The reality of religious influence over Philippine culture shows that setting up rules for public, political talk and private talk, and negotiating the issues that it advances in its online spaces is necessary in order to advance an agenda in Philippine society, because extremely radical approaches can be immediately nullified or censored.

While minority activists widen their repertoires of contention, states are still the drivers of technology and maintain control over its development. While minorities are able to build international alliances through their online presence, these international entities still recognize state institutions over activists; and even though the groups are able to reach out to potential networks beyond the nation state, their struggles still require nation-state attention. The actual outcomes of their online political mobilization to solicit support from international actors are dependent on how the support generated could translate into influence on state positions and expedited action towards their grievances and claims.

Global/Transnational Networks of Solidarity

The global character of online media implies the internationalization of a local struggle, where the limits of local capabilities can be enhanced through global connections with similar activists and supporters. However, whether the minority group’s purpose is to simply inform or create awareness of the struggle or draw concrete support from and build connections with international actors, the use of online media by some minority groups may be attached to this dependence over the international community in addressing some claims made at the national or local level. Putting the struggle online also necessarily ‘globalizes’ the reach of the struggle, thereby having implications on ownership and control of information and knowledge, as well as the intricacies of managing and constructing minority activist identity amidst a ‘global’ target audience. Issues of activist spaces’ exposure and intermingling with the forces of commercialism in the Internet have been raised in previous studies (Dilevko 2002 on development NGOs; Ginsburg et al. 2002 on indigenous movements). Minorities’ uses of global media have also been feared to lead to greater marginalization (Bailey & Harindranath 2006; Sardar 1996), ‘strategic essentialism’ and commercialization (Campbell 2010; Himpele 2008) and ‘objectification’ (Ginsburg et al. 2002; Landzelius 2006) even as it creates a window for expression and emancipation for some (Bakardjieva 2003; Campbell 2005; Siapera 2005).

Despite concerns that minority online engagement may lead to further marginalization, the Internet’s global character allows minorities to share common experiences, struggles, and strategies with people who face similar cases of minoritization around the world. Given the limits of opportunities provided to minorities at the nation-state level, minorities globally have sought connections and networks with similar communities in other parts of the world. It is within this global networking that formal and informal international organizations of minorities have been established.

For the Moro and indigenous groups, it is this connection and the possibilities of expanding their network of supporters that motivated the groups to embark on the creation of online spaces. For the case of the MILF, this includes the perception that obtaining the international community’s support (i.e. the United States, International Monitoring Group and Organization of Islamic Countries) would influence the Philippine state in taking more seriously their political demands. The group needs to attract the support of the United States which has played a role in the annexation of Moro communities in Philippine history and in the process needs to show its support for counter-terrorism operations. MILF believes that such networks and negotiations project an image of commitment to peace and cooperation, which could help fast track the enactment of political resolutions to the conflict. The group also ensures that documentation of their meetings with representatives of international organizations are posted in their website to support this ‘anti-terrorism’ position. Considering that the Muslims are often treated as a homogeneous entity in Philippine discourses, this effort is also undertaken, they argue to differentiate themselves from the extremist organization, the Abu Sayyaf Group. On the other hand, the MILF also maintains its networks with Islamist supporters with different levels of politico-ideological ends (Soriano & Sreekumar 2012).

Similarly for the indigenous group, the internationalization of the indigenous rights discourse stemmed from the collective work of indigenous communities in different parts of the world. Given the commonalities of struggle of many indigenous communities globally, international solidarity had been strengthened over the years. The passing of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which CPA participated in, is an example of international solidarity building that motivates a local organization to participate within global discourses. Likewise, the intervention of the international community on national issues of forced disappearances, mining, and climate change that impact on communities’ ancestral domain give prominence to the importance of these networks for smaller indigenous communities locally. CPA narrated an instance when their online networks helped in obtaining the attention of the government regarding a case on ‘forced disappearances’ of some of its members,

… For example, our campaign against destructive mining has reached the international community and therefore generated much support. The same for our human rights campaign against extra-judicial killings, we used our website to target the international community’s support: NGOs, civil society organizations, parliamentarians, and multilateral bodies like UN agencies or European Union. They received it quickly and their response was fast… . So for that issue on extra-judicial killings, regarding our hitlist [‘deathlist’ of CPA members], the forced disappearance of James Balao [CPA member], they all sent a barrage to Malacanang [seat of Philippine Presidency] about the issue. We were able to call Malacanang’s attention and the issue got popularized in mainstream media.

These strategies reflect the transnational context by which such minority activists craft their purpose and strategies of online political mobilization. It also shows that nation-states as the sole defining basis for political interaction is undermined by online media use. It was surprising that the same was not apparent for Ladlad, despite the level of online activity of many queer groups and their activism in other parts of the world. Although Ladlad cited instances of LGBT movements or cases of discrimination in other parts of the world, the online spaces were built primarily to convene a local movement and collective rather than to reach out to a global audience. Because a critical mass of its members have access to the Internet, Ladlad focuses its online efforts to mobilize its organization as a viable political force, while attracting Filipino LGBTs located in other parts of the world. Given that the political voice (i.e. seat in Congressional policy-making) sought by Ladlad is determined through national elections, the group perceives that it first needs to prioritize the generation of support from its membership. By doing so, they will have sufficient capacity to penetrate the state and alter policy.

The indigenous and Moro groups aspire to internationalize the struggle in response to government’s shortcomings in protecting their interests, whether from corporate greed or oppressive ‘development projects’. The solidarity built with other groups globally, the information, resources and strategies exchanged, and feeling of finding a broader audience is valued by these groups. However, while minority groups’ uses of new media can be construed as purposive, the transnational circuits surrounding online new media render these spaces not fully controllable by the minority groups. Therefore, while we see emergent strategies of creative appropriation and the benefits for reaching out to a wider, international audience, minority struggles can also be threatened by the same transnational nature of the online space. Media flow is much too dynamic to be controlled, but the minority groups attempt to manage their online expositions through a discernment of the risks accompanying the publishing of content and the construction of their identities and struggle. Further, while the groups strategize their online engagement so that they serve the purpose of broadening support towards the struggle, there is no effective gauge over how such ‘international linkages and connections’ can contribute to a resolution of the struggles in the way envisioned by the groups (Soriano & Sreekumar, 2012). Online articulations and connections increased the exposure of the groups’ struggles and provided alternative discourses that challenge dominant frames, but the role of mainstream media and intellectuals that make these alternative online productions, statements of opposition and alternative histories accessible to the mainstream and public majority is relevant. For example, the Facebook characteristics of tagging and sharing of resources helped the queer groups in expanding the reach of their campaigns to non-queers, as it allows inadvertent exposure to content not normally sought by a user.

Logic of Technology

Online media’s capacity for bringing in dispersed minorities together to discuss common issues, express fears or provide advice had been particularly useful for these minority groups, where public and offline articulation is limited by available spaces for physical gatherings and articulating political claims. The many-to-many reach of Internet technology allowed these minorities to penetrate the scene of politics. The absence of mass-media style editorial control also opens up possibilities for new forms of political engagement, giving minorities the opportunity to create new informational resources about their grievances, aspirations and struggles.

Online spaces afforded the flexibility of secluding group articulations into cocoons of solidarity and support on the one hand, while simultaneously enjoining the support of external communities and countering prejudist remarks in these spaces. Specifically, the case of Ladlad reflected that this flexibility works for minority groups who need spaces where they can build a community while challenging misrepresentations and prejudices. Ladlad members explained that unlike their everyday offline interactions in a heteronormative society such as the Philippines, the online space enables them to shield themselves from discrimination by moderating their online spaces and blocking haters. The organization makes an effort to delete derogatory comments in their Facebook pages, because ‘these taint the credibility of the organization as a political party’.

Nonetheless, the Web remains a site of diverse voices and interests and continues to cater to prejudice and hate speech. The circuits, reach, and interpretations of online messages are also unpredictable, and the posts can easily be used by antagonists to reinforce prejudices, further segregate minorities and nullify the seriousness of their demands. Further, uncontrolled exchanges can expose the organizations’ competing ideologies, covert operations, or internal conflicts and cast a shadow of doubt over their capacity to speak for and manage the rest of their community. These dilemmas represent the challenges of venturing into an interactive virtual realm and the difficulties of maintaining control over organizational image and representation. Still, their online articulations provide an important challenge to hegemonic discourses of normalcy and democracy and contribute to the disruption of the structures of prejudice and discrimination. These then provide an entry point for new or alternative political articulations and voices. These sites of solidarity-building and political mobilization can serve as basis for the germination of louder and broader forms of resistance.