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How can one compare the pro-democracy activists who invaded Hong Kong’s Legislative Council in July 2019 with the mob that rampaged through the Capitol in Washington, D.C.? While Hong Kong protesters fought for a free and fair democratic election, the Capitol mob tried to overturn one. Yet the two sets of malcontents were similar in at least one way. In fact, they share this very similarity with most of the protest movements that swept the world in 2019 and 2020: digital media was used to organise, publicize and communicate. Certainly, protests around the world have had different catalysts and ambitions. But lately, they have often been leaderless, horizontally structured and heavily reliant on digital media. In many places, they even share another similarity: they are struggling to sustain momentum as coronavirus restrictions continue to constrain activism and as governments are able to better counter the 21st-century digital tools used by protesters. In many ways, social media have opened new horizons for protesters and have transformed street activism. Young Hong Kong protesters communicated on encrypted apps, avoiding the immobile sit-ins of the past. They confounded authorities with their flash-mob tactics, rapidly mobilising in thousands to shut down the city airport. In Britain, during their climate protests, the environmental group Extinction Rebellion used similar techniques to bring cities to a halt. While typically dominated by the young, these movements have been multi-generational, multi-class and multi-ethnic and usually lacked obvious leaders. This has enabled them to survive despite the arrest of prominent campaigners. Digital dexterity also provided protesters with a degree of protection. Warnings can be pinged instantly to thousands. In Hong Kong, a digital map tracked the real-time movement of police, vehicles and tear-gas through crowdsourced data. However, in 2020, the global wave of protests crashed into two big barriers. One was covid-19. Social-distancing measures helped governments squash the huge street demonstrations of 2019. The second barrier, more enduring and more fundamental, is the concerted resistance of many of the targets of protest. They often use the activists’ own tools and deploy them with ever-increasing sophistication. During the Hong Kong protests, for example, China allegedly tried to create division between non-violent and radical protestors, diffusing propaganda in an attempt to accuse protesters of being rioters or puppets of foreign powers. In August 2019, Facebook and Twitter blocked hundreds of accounts they said were connected to China’s state-backed misinformation campaigns. Curbing online access is also a common tactic. In Belarus, for instance, mobile signal was cut off for a few days during the widespread protests after the presidential election. Likewise, internet access was severed during demonstrations in 2019 in India, Iran and Egypt. Like protesters, authoritarian regimes learn from each other and duplicate each other's tool kits. Thus, while twenty-first-century protesters may be technologically adept and globally connected, and therefore hard to repress, governments, too, are increasingly run by digital natives, and they have resources and manpower the embattled protesters do not. As a result, while some movements persisted, others were launched, such as in Belarus. Demonstrators have found innovative ways to stay connected despite internet and app shutdowns. They are not ready to back down, even if it does not appear to be an even match.