Alliance for Youth Movements

The Alliance for Youth Movements (AYM) is an organisation, funded by US media companies and the US State Department, which states that it is "dedicated to promoting, connecting, and supporting digital activists from around the world". The Alliance for Youth Movements operates the site Movements.org which acts as a hub for selected social media campaigns and movements, and provides information on successful digital activism. The AYM promotes a number of activist and advocacy groups throughout the world who have a digital element to their activities, it also organises annual summits which bring together activists from these groups, people from the technology and social media industry, and representatives of the US State Department..

Background

The AYM was founded in 2008 and has since primarily operated through Movements.org and it's annual summits to acting as a meeting, and breeding ground for digital activists and those from government and the tech industry that could form beneficial collaborations. The genesis for the AYM can be seen in the US State Department's "Public Diplomacy 2.0" initiative, which is described in a speech at the New America Foundation by Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James Glassman as a new phase in the "war of ideas" between the US and "violent extremism". Yet the AYM goes beyond mainstream notions of "violent extremism" in this speech Glassman equates the violence of Al Qaeda with that of the FARC, Movements.org promotes groups which are anti-extremist and anti-violence but also ones which are political in nature - such as Venezuelan anti-Chávez group No Más Chávez and others which fit US foreign policy interests. The AYM can be seen as part of a push in State Department policy to try and harness the power of the internet to gain influence in youth and opposition movements globally under the flag of opposing "violence and extremism". The use of initiatives like the AYM for political ends is explicit in Glassman's speech, he says that "everything we do in public diplomacy must be strategic. We have to keep our eyes on the prize, which is the clearly defined national interest –the reduction of threats and the promotion of freedom, goals that are linked" .

Summits

The inaugural AYM summit took place in 2008 in New York City. The event was organised by the US State Department partnered with MTV, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Howcast, AT&T, Jet Blue, Gen-Next, Access360Media and Columbia Law School. The stated aim was to encourage young people from around the world to use various digital mediums to voice their concerns over global issues such as oppression and censorship.

The AYM Summit is now an annual event, most recently being held in London on March 2010, after Mexico City hosted in 2009.

New York City 2008 Summit

The founding AYM Summit took place in New York City on December 3-5 2008.

There were seventeen leaders in attendance from their respective organisations;
Burma Global Action Network;
CAMBIO/Día de Solidaridad con Cuba;
Fight-Back;
Genocide Intervention Network;
Illuminemos México;
Invisible Children;
No Más Chávez;
One Million People Against Crime in South Africa;
One Million Voices Against the FARC;
The People's March Against Knife Crime;
Raíces de Esperanza;
Saudi Women Petitioning the Government for Driving Rights;
Save Darfur Coalition;
To Write Love on Her Arms;
Genç Siviller- Young Civilians;
Youth for Tolerance.

The Summit featured a variety of high-profile keynote speakers, including two of the AYM co-founders, Jason Liebman and Roman Tsunder. Also present were Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, James K. Glassman, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs,and Actress Whoopi Goldberg.

Among the topics and issues raised were "Building a Movement Against Terrorism", "Building a Global Movement", "How to Be an Effective Dissident", " Addressing Violence at Home" and "Mobilizing in a Challenging Environment".

Mexico City 2009 Summit

Due to the success of the original AYM Summit, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, organised a second AYM summit to be held in Mexico City the following year.

Clinton gave her support in Mexico City just six months prior to the Summit: "Young people around the world are poised to lead this kind of innovative citizen empowerment, which is why the United States is supporting a summit here in Mexico of Alliance of Youth Movements, to connect up young people working to end to end violence throughout Latin America, whether it’s domestic violence or dating violence or lawlessness in the streets of your community, we must all take a stand against violence. And this is a new tool that will help."

The event raised awareness to humanitarian issues present in Mexico, as well as highlighting success stories from the previous AYM Summit.

However, the main goal of this conference was to encourage the use of Social Networking to "Effect Change", with particular emphasis put on Twitter, Facebook and viral video websites such as Howcast.

Hillary Clinton reinforced her endorsement of the AYM, when she addressed the 2009 Summit via a video message. She said:“Young people around the world are poised to lead this kind of innovative citizen empowerment – which is why the United States is supporting a summit here in Mexico of Alliance for Youth Movements – to connect up young people working to end violence throughout Latin America – whether it’s domestic violence or dating violence or lawlessness in the streets of your community, we must all take a stand against violence. And this is a new tool that will help."

London 2010 Summit

AYM held its third annual Summit in London, UK between March 9-11 2010. Following the success of the previous Summit in 2009, which was endorsed by Hillary Clinton, this third Summit proved to be the most established and media-followed yet.

Just like the two previous Summits, several high-profile supporters from the private-sector attended, such as "Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP, Scott Heiferman of MeetUp, as well as top delegates from Google, YouTube and the World Bank."

Some of the most striking topics discussed in London were issues such as "Tech Solutions to Repressive Regimes", "Turning Video into Tangible Action", "Turning Social Networks into Real Community" and "How to Create Content and Conversation that Drives Action".

AYM Website Launch

Movements.org is AYM's official website, launching in June 2010, almost two years after the organisation's formation. Previously they used a dedicated page on the Jason Liebman's HowCast website as their primary home page. The new website is still in testing mode with parts of the site still under development, however most of the page is working in full functionality. Users are given access to news stories relevant to digital activism straight from the home page. Blogs are consistently posted to the page as well, the main contributers being Susannah Vila and Brannon Cullum. All the records and resources from each of the three AYM Summits are available on the site also.


'Wordcloud' of Alliance for Youth Movements website

People

Team

Jason Liebman Co-Founder and Board Member
Roman Tsunder Co-Founder and Board Member
Jared Cohen Co-Founder and Board Member
Susannah Vila Director of Content and Outreach
Rachel Silver Development and Corporate Partnership Manager

Funding

Funding for the organisation comes in from various parties, in order for it to maintain its massive worldwide network and communities. Major contributors include both the UK and U.S governments, with Hilary Clinton vocally giving her, and the states, support and endorsement of the second Alliance for Youth movements annual summit,held on the 14 - 16 October 2009 in Mexico City. Clinton was joined at the sumit by three other anti-Chavez activists. The State Department has funded journalists and private media in Venezuela with $4 million from 2007 to 2010, part of an annual $40 million funding of anti-Chavez groups . The US funds are channelled through three US agencies: Panamerican Development Foundation (PADF), Freedom House and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the PADF claim it is "dedicated to 'enhancing media freedom and democratic institutions' and training workshops for journalists in the development and use of 'innovative media technologies', due to the alleged 'threats to freedom of expression' and 'the climate of intimidation and self-censorship among journalists and the media'" . " Other programs run by the State Department have selected Venezuelan students and youth to receive training in the use of these new media technologies in order to create what they call a "network of cyber-dissidents" against the Venezuelan Government" , this can be connected to the work endorsed by the AYM in Venezuela. The Alliance for Youth movements also makes the most of its corporate sponsorships in generating funds with numerous corporate organisations supporting and sponsoring the movement. Named on the movements website are all of its partners, which include;Howcast, Edelman, Google, MTV, MeetUp, Pepsi, CBS News, MobileAccord, YouTube, Facebook, MSNBC, National Geographic, Omnicom and Access 360 Media.

Affiliated Groups

The AYM invited members of the following organisations to their most recent summit in London 2010, and works with and endorses the following activities :

AccessNow.org: Formed after the 2009 Iranian election, an objective is to create a team of global activists and work to provide access to areas in which internet access is denied.
B'Tselem: who intend to "monitor, document and advocate an improvement in the Human Rights in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."
Center for American Progress: a think-tank designed to stimulate national debate.
Digital Democracy: work with people who feel abused or neglected in South and South-East Asia.
Enough: works in countries where an abuse of Human Rights or genocide occurs.
Ethnomedia and Development: use the media to promote values like Human Rights and justice.
Frontline SMS: allows people to network via phones which are used as communication hubs.
Genc Siviller: founded in Turkey in 2006. Online youth culture formed as it aims to establish liberal democracy with 2 million members on Facebook.
Genocide Intervention Network: formed 2005 with aim to aid those at risk from genocide.
Halafire Media, LLC: privately-held media company based in California. Networks affluent global Muslim communities; with 27 million page views and over 7.5 million unique annual visitors. The website properties attract those with disposable income and want to spend and can market to them in an industry worth 170 million dollars in the US alone.
Interfaith Youth Care: allows millions of young religious people to interact frequently.
Kiwanja.net: provides access to technology for NGO's in the developing world. 70% of mobile phone users form third world countries. Organisation has worked in Egypt, Ethiopia, Congo and Cambodia.
MEPEACE.org: network for peacemakers; more than a million page visits and active in 170 countries and 6000 cities.
MidEastYouth.com: combat oppression in the Middle East and North Africa.
OneVoice: works in Israel and Palestine; 650,000 members and have trained 2000 youth leaders.
Pakistan Youth Alliance: allows young people to affect change.
Sisters Against Violent Extremism/Women Without Borders: global lobbying organisation for women.
Save Darfur Coalition: Fouded in 2004; 180 religious, humanitarian and political organisations work to deal with Darfur crisis.
Un Million de Voces Fundacion: A Facebook group created in January 4 2008 and demanded a march a month later. 500,000 members joined in a month alone and 12 million connected via social netowrking to protest in 200 cities in 40 countries against the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces).
Youngsters Foundation International: provides social network for African youths to discuss worldwide issues.

Controversies

Although there is seemingly widespread support for the AYM throughout the Western world, some of their activities, and more specifically, some of their alliegances have caused concern for controversy over the last three years.

Anti-Chávez Groups

AYM's support of the Venezuelan anti-presidential movement 'No Más Chávez' is considered to be a disguise of the U.S. State Department's opposition to Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela and critic of American Neoliberalism. The State Department has reportedly funded over $4 million to the Venezuelan private media over the last three years. They use the reason of the right to free speech to defend their actions. They say their objective is to "strengthen independent journalists by providing them with training, technical assistance, materials and greater access to innovative internet-based technologies that expand media coverage and increase their capacity to inform the public on a timely basis about the most critical policy issues impacting Venezuela." However, in Venezuela, there is little evidence of censorship within the media. In fact, there is a wide and fierce anti-Chávez element within the Venezuelan press. However, following the arrest of the president of a TV station opposed to Chávez the pressure, as well as support, has intensified from the U.S. Nonetheless, AYM's support of a movement opposed to Chávez, who support economic alliegance with the US, questions their goals of promoting democracy and freedom, as Hugo Chávez is a democratically elected president.

Digital Diplomacy - a contested issue

Digital Diplomacy is a growing area in foreign policy in a number of governments, and the UK Foreign Office and US State Department are particularly active in this field. It the simplest terms it is "solving foreign policy through the internet". Digital Diplomacy is being driven by the increase in social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other sites. In the United States, this has been a crucial area of the foreign policy of the Obama Administration. Led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the US State Department has coined the term "21st Century Statecraft" to describe its digital diplomacy efforts and is central to the diplomatic strategy of the State Department. One crucial part of the digital diplomacy strategy is the freedom of the internet around the world. In a speech on internet freedom, Secretary Clinton said that "freedom to connect" was important to stop governments from preventing citizens from viewing websites. The State Department in implementing this policy are harnessing the knowledge of leaders in the internet and social networking arena such as Eric Schmidt, Google CEO as well as Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Jason Liebman of Howcast and the Alliance for Youth Movements as well as many others. One of the crucial underpinnings of "21st Century Statecraft" is the idea that through these networking opportunities, the individual at street level will be empowered. We have seen examples of this when Oscar Morales started a Facebook campaign against Colombian rebel group the FARC. This is an example used by US policy makers of digital diplomacy in action, as Morales is using Facebook to harness and express an anti-FARC sentiment and send a message towards that organisation. Senator Richard Lugar has pointed out that governments theoretically will not be able to control the messages the people will hear if the internet is open and accessible to all fully which means people will become "empowered" by this type of interaction. Through the 'empowerment' of people through the internet it is possible that alternate histories will be available to contrast those that are the officially governmentally sanctioned accounts. It is argued that this will empower people through the internet as they should be able to make a balanced judgement of what has happened in the history of their nation. This type of diplomacy, it is hoped, in the words of Secretary Clinton will "advance democracy and human rights, fight climate change and epidemics, build global support for President Obama's goal of a world without nuclear weapons, and encourage sustainable economic development". . However the involvement of governments, and particularly the US government, in the complex world of online debate and activism is not without criticism. There has been much criticism of the conflicting messages that America itself gives out on the issue of internet freedom. For example, the US Government's reaction to the release of thousands of diplomatic cables by Wikileaks, and their contentious exertion of legal and diplomatic pressure, has highlighted contradictions in the State Department's 'net freedom' discourse and policies, showing their limits and political nature (for full analysis see "Wikileaks and 21st Century Statecraft". The way in which America also looks at internet freedom in other countries is also a key way to look at how seriously America take the idea and ideals of free internet. Evgeny Morozov, who is a prominent critic of the "21st Century Statecraft", has asked if America are actually trying to create a new "Cyber" Cold War. Morozov makes this point through illustrating to the repeated references that Secretary Clinton makes in her speech on internet freedom on the Cold War, such as references to the Berlin Wall. Morozov also points to the descrepancies in American policing of internet freedom. Morozov points to what he calls "soft touch" on Chinese leaders in Clinton's speech while the American administration takes a fairly hard-line stance against countries such as Iran who have been restricting internet access. While taking a neutral stance during the 2009 Iranian elections, Alliance for Youth Movements co-founder and at the time State Department staffer Jared Cohen contacted Twitter to stop a planned maintenance to keep Iran 'twittering' during that period. While this could be seen as a contradiction of the stance that the Obama Administration were planning on taking, Cohen was not cautioned by his superiors (see Jared Cohen for further details), this shows an immediate contradiction at the heart of the American policy. There has also been significant investment in attempting to go around firewalls in countries such as China by Western nations to free up internet access for those in countries like China.

In America itself, there have been legislative attempts to make it easier for government agencies to get around encryption online to support their counter-terrorism efforts. This would seem a contradiction at the heart of the idea of freeing up the internet to increase the spread of information. While in no way questioning the importance of counter-terrorism operations, it surely undermines the ideal of full internet freedom for everyone if the government have the ability to use a form of 'wiretapping' online which will increase the government's ability to 'snoop' on citizens which in the long-term harm internet freedom.

Finally, the funding by the government of programmes such as the Alliance for Youth Movements (which has received funding from both British and American governments ) undermines the credibilty of these programmes. This is because they could be seen as a mere expansion of the power of these nations which again undermines the ideal of full internet freedom. It would just seem that a process of hegemony was taking place through the internet and digital diplomacy. Of course the links that digital diplomacy and "21st Century Statecraft" seem to have very old methods attached to them. As Morozov points out, many of the tactics being employed to increase the freedom of the internet are grounded in traditional lobbying methods that have been in use for decades. This could be proof that it is merely the interests of big business - in this case the internet - that are being advanced through digital diplomacy. Secretary Clinton herself as had meetings with the movers and shakers of the internet such as Eric Schmidt, Jack Dorsey and Jason Liebman. This is possibly the most potent criticism of digital diplomacy as it links in with the over-reaching idea of this type of diplomacy merely being used to further the position of Western ideas and the companies that they originate in. It must though also be said that this could be used in exactly the same way by other countries out with the major powers to improve their position in the international community. This criticism is not then merely a criticism of the debate through a Western view but one in which there are many different layers in this complex debate.

Contact

Alliance for Youth Movements Website