The President of Turkey addresses citizens through an iPhone.
Burak Kara, Getty Images
If all else fails, grab a smartphone.
When the Turkish military reportedly began shutting down inteet services like Facebook and Google during an alleged coup Friday, the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, tried a different way to call for help. He held a phone in front of his face and, using Apple's FaceTime video-chat software, gave an interview to a local news station and implored citizens to fill the streets and support the democratically elected govement.
"I urge the Turkish people to convene at public squares and airports," Erdoğan said through his iPhone's screen. "There is no power higher than the power of the people. Let them do what they will at public squares and airports."
For billions of people, smartphones have already become the remote controls for our lives. Now they're becoming a tool for politicians and protesters to get their message out too, helping shape key moments in mode history.
Just consider the events of the past few weeks.
When Democrat politicians in Washington, DC, attempted to protest gun legislation on the floor of the House of Representatives one late June day, the cameras installed in the chambers were ordered tued off by the opposition. But thanks to Twitter's Periscope and Facebook Live, the Democrats were able to broadcast their sit-in to the country. Even broadcast news networks began republishing their video.
In each case, the videos were the central way people leaed what happened. But more importantly, their personal nature -- often shot from a phone just inches from a person's face -- made them more human and visceral.
"The images we've seen this week are graphic and heartbreaking," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a statement that week. "It reminds us why coming together to build a more open and connected world is so important -- and how far we still have to go."