Thirteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

In this paper, I address February 20 Movement (F20M) narratives of the digital activists who provide the motives that drove them to adopt and believe in various social media as mobilizing factors, the techniques they used to diffuse their messages, and the communication strategies they utilized to convince, argue, and shape their demands online. This paper presents the steps F20M activists followed in order to structure their movement’s discussion and demands within the online borders. Using a qualitative research method, this study reveals how F20M has effectively created a mass movement from the ground up that managed to voice and shape national discourses regarding the social and political change necessary for a country like Morocco. In fact, the participation of the Moroccan activists online defied the mainstream narratives propagated by the national media and managed to spread their calls not only in the urban well-connected areas, but also to disenfranchised areas in rural Morocco.