Facebook pages and public spaces: Guatemala's 2015 movement and the years that followed

Abstract

Guatemala’s 2015 Summer demonstrations were the largest public protest in the country since the Guatemalan Spring in 1944. These demonstrations were organized rapidly via social media, with Facebook Pages in particular playing a vital role, making them comparable to other digital mediated social movements and new forms of social protest in Latin America. The aims of this study are to explore the role of Facebook Pages in this historic moment, through an approach that considers both the cultural and political impacts of new technologies. Since the 1960s an emerging discourse around “New Social Movements” emphasizes the communicative and ideological nature of social movements, in contrast to social movements that seek purely political aims. This research found that while the Facebook Page should be understood as a Public Space where cultural forms are challenged and reshaped, it is also a highly political technology with real world effects.