Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, argues that a newly emergent force is rattling the world’s established powers. This force has no state and wields no weapons. He calls it the Fifth Estate.
In October, Mr Zuckerberg said in a speech at Georgetown University that online social networks were enabling billions of people to air their views and mobilise support at unprecedented scale and speed, giving voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless.
“People having the power to express themselves at scale is a new kind of force in the world — a Fifth Estate alongside the other power structures of society,” he said. “People no longer have to rely on traditional gatekeepers in politics or media to make their voices heard.”