Gen Z protests coupled with social media is becoming a powerful force for change

The Gen Z protests across the developing world are becoming 2025's Arab Spring.

In a bunch of countries, from Nepal to the Philippines to Peru, Indonesia, Madagascar, Bulgaria and Morocco, young people have been leveraging social media to foment what can only be described as revolution. And very successful they have been too.

In Nepal, in response to government corruption, wealth inequality, and a clampdown on social media, young people took to the streets, organizing through platforms like Discord, Reddit, TikTok and Instagram. The protests turned violent after some poor decisions by security forces, but ultimately the social media ban was overturned, the unpopular prime minister resigned, and the young people got to choose his replacement through a poll on Discord (a popular gaming platform). Extraordinary scenes, indeed.

Just a few days later, young people in Madagascar protested against chronic water and power shortages, high unemployment, and underfunded universities. Once again, the protests turned violent and several people were killed. But, in the end, the unpopular president fled, and the military took control of the country. This may not play out quite so well for the protestors, but the power of young voices amplified by social media is undeniable.

Elsewhere, Gen Zers have been galvanized against different local problems - parliamentary salaries, corruption and a police crackdown in Indonesia; pension plans, extortion and crime in Peru; public services, unemployment and government spending decisions in Morocco; flood control projects and corruption in the Philippines; corruption, taxes and social sevices contributions in Bulgaria. But many of the protest strategies are similar, and many of them have even taken to using a common symbol - a pirate with a toothy grin and straw hat, taken from a Japanese manga series. 

The protests are a weird mix of the playful and the deadly earnest, but they have been undeniably effective. However, whether these young people know what they want now (as opposed to what they don't want from before) is an open question.