Abstract

With the mass adoption of social media, much has been said about the robustness and the inclusiveness of the online space as a sustainable public sphere. This involves a reinvention of political deliberation and participation, reflecting a shift and negotiation of power between the state and citizens, and participants moving back and forth between online and offline media environments. In social media, opinion expression can also be closely followed by political action, and activities in one country can affect similar protests elsewhere. For instance, the mobilisation of people for civic or political causes as in the case of social media and the protest in Tahrir Square (Tufekci & Wilson 2012) can lead to eventual motivation and mobilisation of people to support the White Paper protest in Singapore (Pang & Goh 2014).