HOW TO THINK ABOUT IT

Protesters of the world, unite. On Thursday, Hong Kong protesters hit the streets again – but this time waving Catalan flags and urging for “a fight for freedom together.” While some urged caution via social media, arguing that the provocation could hurt their international support, others emphasized the need for solidarity. In India, Instagram account @withKashmir — which aims to amplify voices from Kashmir while the region is under de facto military siege — posted a picture of a joyously profane sign from the Lebanon protests that quickly went viral across India.

Turning it off. As social media acts as a glue, governments across the world have also started using internet blackouts as a way to stop protests. In Kashmir, the internet has been turned off for weeks, while protests in Iraq earlier this month demanding government reforms were met with an internet shutdown. Some also worry that Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam will attempt to block the internet there in a bid to quash long-running independence protests.

Out in the open. Public spaces in Lebanon are few and far between, but in recent days protesters there have reclaimed old spaces and created new ones. In the southern city of Tyre, demonstrators burst into a coastline resort — a symbolic move since most of Lebanon’s coastline has been bought up by political elites — while sidewalks in Beirut have been transformed into mini street cafes. The conscious effort to reclaim city spaces in Lebanon comes two months after Hong Kong protesters occupied an airport, prompting the city to cancel incoming flights.

The long arm of the law. Threatened by the massive movements, some cities and countries are pushing back on the very notion of protest. London banned climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion from demonstrating earlier this month (which didn’t stop members of the group from blocking underground trains and scaling scaffolding on Big Ben), while demonstrators in Hong Kong defied a police ban to march this past weekend and have continued to wear face masks despite prohibitions on them enacted via colonial-era laws.

WHAT TO READ

Protesters Worldwide Are United by Something Other Than Politics, by Tyler Cowen at Bloomberg
“Protests are not an especially salutary form of egalitarian pressure, so the underlying problems are unlikely to improve very much, which in turn could worsen the political pressures.”

Do Today’s Global Protests Have Anything in Common, on the BBC
“Catalan protesters have also been distributing infographics made in Hong Kong that detail how demonstrators can protect themselves from police water cannon and tear gas.”

WHAT TO WATCH