Is Collective Social Action through Weak Facebook Ties Feasible

Social media is currently a rapidly expanding area, the uses for which are quickly moving beyond the strictest sense of the word “social” with companies, products, and causes all interacting in the social media sphere. A Facebook application launched last year attempted to motivate broad groups of people by allowing users to develop an idea for an ultimatum to enact while setting a “tipping point” and tracking pledged support. Once that critical mass of support has been pledged, the collective group will follow-through on the designated action. For instance, the article below provides the example that if a million people pledge support for a call for Walmart to provide healthcare benefits, all million people will boycott the company if the demand is not met.

While the desire to empower others and to work for social change is honorable, the effectiveness of this new tool is questionable when seen through the eyes of game theory, with two major concerns coming to the surface. The first point of contention lies in the use of ultimatums. Ultimatums are in essence a form of threats, a common game theory technique for “changing” the rules of the game in one’s favor. However, to have proper effect, threats must be credible. The Facebook application as a behavioral motivator has not yet earned a reputation for upholding collectively pledged actions; similarly, as any one person can become the instigator of an ultimatum in this application, that person’s individual qualifications as a leader are also not established. Therefore, the targeted organizations may not respond to the threat; thus, requiring the group to perform the designated action. 

Inspiring collective action amongst as diverse a group of people as are on Facebook also has serious flaws through the lens of game theory. In the Walmart example, employees of the store or friends of employees may sign up; however, when the million supporter level is reached for the boycott, there is no enforcement mechanism to ensure compliance. Therefore, individuals are faced with the choice of contributing or assuming that the other 999,999 people will continue and the importance of that individual’s level of action is minimal. The following game table I developed explores this idea:

		Everyone Else
		Contribute	Don’t Contribute
Me	Contribute	5,5	-5, 0
	Don’t Contribute	6,5	0,0

 

In this case, “me” has a greater payout if “everyone else” does all the work and “me” reaps the benefit. “Me has a dominant strategy of not contributing; and “everyone else” has a dominant strategy of contributing anyway providing “me” with the incentive not to act. However, if every individual signed up for the ultimatum uses this game table view, everyone will adopt a policy of not acting because they assume everyone else will and carrying out the ultimatum will fail.

Therefore, while the intentions of this application are honorable, the credibility of threats issued by Facebook users is questionable. At the time of writing this post, I could no longer find this application available on Facebook, but have no details as to what led to its removal.

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http://www.wired.com/underwire/2008/02/group-activism/

New Facebook App Lets Groups Issue Ultimatums

By Jenna Wortham  February 27, 2008  |  2:33 pm  |  Categories: Uncategorized

A new Facebook app called Ultimatums lets users float an idea, set an arbitrary "tipping point" and track group members’ commitment to their common goal. Once a critical mass of people has pledged support, a predetermined action — like a boycott of Ford Motor Company or plans to only use nickels to purchase  public transit fares — is taken.

The app, launched Tuesday by Andrew Mason, founder of consumer activism site The Point, could help mobilize the group potential of Facebook’s 66 million users.

"People think their efforts will be wasted, that their contribution doesn’t make a difference," said Mason, who dropped out of graduate school to pursue his online, grass-roots push for social change. "But here, each campaign is a success in progress."

From rallying support for war-torn countries like Darfur to organizing student protests and flash-mob-style mass purchases of vegetables, Facebook groups have been used to instigate all kinds of social action. But unlike Facebook application Causes, which lets users donate money to a favorite nonprofit, Ultimatums goes beyond uniform models.

Instead of abstract ideas (like Facebook group Make Poverty History),
Ultimatums lets users set concrete goals. The end result is a straightforward app designed to transform a vibrant online community into a vehicle for specific social change. For example, one group calls for Wal-Mart to provide health care benefits for its employees. If a million users sign up, all million pledge to boycott the company if the demand isn’t met.

Each ultimatum is an online petition created by users that requires a tipping point of participants to induce action. Participants are committed to act only when enough other individuals agree to the same, so support for each cause is bound by the group commitment. Mason says he hopes this will eliminate a common downside of collective action — the feeling that one person can’t effect change.

Since launching the Facebook component, Mason estimates 100 new ultimatums have been created, calling for everything from the humane treatment of animals by fast food corporations to DRM-free music and an end to late fees for video rentals.

The service is still in it’s nascent stages; most of the petitions have yet to break 100. And most successes have been on a smaller scale:
raising money for small sports tournaments or a Nicaraguan farm collective. But Mason says he remains hopeful that with each ultimatum, the potential for large-scale change looms closer.

"If we can get just enough people involved, we can force change," he said.