Social Media as a Core Device of Tactical Innovation in Authoritarian Morocco

On the 24th February 2017, in the Moroccan city of Al Hoceima, Nasser Zefzafi, the leading figure of the Hirak movement, which have been conducting protests for several months in the Rif region, urged the population of the town to join him as quickly as possible in a strategic avenue. He broadcasted his message via a Facebook live video. A few minutes after, thousands of participants gathered around him and marched through the streets. A new performance is born: the chen-ten (which can be translated by « real quick »). The use of such a surprise tactic was a way to overcome the repression of all public gatherings by security forces. Rather than adopting a spontaneist approach, we should bear in mind that hours before the video broadcasting, some activists announced to their friendship and neighboring networks that “there is something”. If the very start of the action depends on live broadcasting on citizen journalism Facebook pages, it should not be separated from mechanisms of face-to-face communication and interpersonal networks. Our reflection arises then the relationship between social media and contentious repertoires. Literature has tendentially not tackled enough the relationship between social media and contentious performances. We can notice the work of Mattoni (2013) who stresses the interrelation between the choice of a contentious performance and activist media practices as part of a reflection on the conceptualization of repertoires of communication in social movements. The research of Jarvenpaa and Selander (2016) has dealt with the effects of the introduction of digital action repertoires on social movement organizations, pointing out to challenges in adherences to the organization values as well as deepening of members’ commitments. Analyzing how internet is reshaping the repertoire of collective action of social movements, Van Aelst and Van Laer (2010) suggest that it permits activists to reach more people more rapidly and easily, and to reconnect with young and ordinary citizens. For its part, Lin (2017) suggests replacing contentious episodes in authoritarian China into everyday digital practices that may sustain or influence them. We suggest focusing on the concrete making of new performances, in which social media are a core device, and inscribe them in activists’ careers, calculations, everyday interactions and more broadly in practices of mobilization in an authoritarian regime. How the uses of social media can contribute to the emergence of new performances? In which way social media practices are inscribed in activists’ stories, everyday interactions and strategic decisions? How social media practices of mobilization intertwine with face-to-face mechanisms of mobilization? We draw on Fillieule’s interpretation of Tilly’s notion of performance by paying attention to sequences of interaction, exchanges of blows and protesters’ perceptions in situated actions (Fillieule, 2010). Evidence is drawn from our current PhD research on the Hirak movement, with a theoretical interest for the question of tactical innovations. We mobilize extensively lives videos downloaded from Facebook and interviews with activists behind the cameras, and those playing key roles in neighborhood-based activities of mobilization.