Facebook vs. FARC
By Aaron Mannes
The massive rallies against the FARC earlier this week (between 500,000 and two million people rallied in Bogota, along with parallel rallies worldwide) were a watershed in many ways. It was an indication of how low the FARC's standing has fallen. Whatever legitimacy their critique of the Colombian government may have had in past decades has been decimated by their own brutality. Insurgencies feed off their causes, but the FARC is without cause.
It also shows the maturation of Colombia's democracy. Democracies need internal consensus about core issues and broad rejection of violence as a means of settling political disputes. Again, whatever the merit of FARC's initial cause (Colombia - like much of Latin America - continues to suffer from massive wealth inequality), the people of Colombia recognize that armed revolution is not the response.
But, after hearing for several years how effectively terrorists use the Internet, these rallies were a profound example of how the Internet can be a potent counter-terror tool.