Capturing Planned Protests from Open Source Indicators

events) are common occurrences in both democracies and in authoritarian regimes. Although we typically associate civil unrest with disruptions and instability, social scientists believe that civil unrest reflects the democratic process by which citizens communicate their views and preferences to those in authority. The advent of social media has afforded the citizenry new mechanisms for organization and mobilization, and online news sources and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can provide a window into civil unrest happenings in a particular country (see figure 1). Articles