ABSTRACT
This chapter examines activists beliefs in the efficacy and potential of social networking sites and online versus offline collective action. It talks about activists from throughout Latin America who are using digital tools, particularly social networking sites, and analyzes how they use them and to what end. Online social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are increasingly linked to bouts of collective action, whether the protests during the Arab Spring, the Occupy Wall Street Movement in the USA, or the Indignados movement in Spain. Part of the disillusion with the Internets potential for activism and social change stems from the fact that the bulk of the world is excluded from using the Internet because of the proverbial digital divide. World over, the growth of the Internet has given rise to new ways of communicating and acting so that anything from a conversation to a meeting can occur solely in the virtual realm.
