A lot of us look up to figures like Katniss Everdeen and Luke Skywalker because they break the rules. We also admire real-life people like the Founding Fathers for challenging what was considered normal in their time.
Every era has seen protests against injustice. People have gathered to rebel against their governments since the beginning of civilization. But today, our era has seen more protests and movements than ever before.
According to the Global Protest Tracker from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, political protests have recently grown in both size and number. In the past year alone, there were 142 anti-government protests in 68 countries—including 24 in nations where people aren’t free to speak out. By Sept. 1, 2025, there had already been 30 major protests. These numbers highlight that demonstrations remain a powerful force for positive change.
Protests have always been part of history, but today, young people and college students are often the ones leading the way. This continues the long tradition of youth-driven movements that have shaped the world.
For example, the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 raised awareness of racism and police brutality, much like the March on Washington in 1963 helped push forward major civil rights legislation. Some argue that the civil rights movement was more powerful, but both were equally important for advancing racial justice in America.
According to Britannica, about 250,000 people attended the 1963 march—a number that doubled in 2020.
People aren’t afraid to protest. In fact, the trend seems to be the opposite.
The No Kings movement drew a record number of protesters on October 18, 2025, at 2,700 sites across America, surpassing its previous record set in June 2025. These protests are among the largest single-day demonstrations in US history.
One major factor contributing to this surge of protests is that young people everywhere now have access to modern technology.
The World Wide Web and social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, and X, have transformed how protests are initiated and executed. Thanks to a highly digitalized world, protest leaders can quickly reach and inspire large groups of people, something that was much harder before.
“As social media continues to evolve, so too does its role in shaping the future of protests,” said Ida Thomas, a reporter for The Boston Journal.
“Digital platforms have become indispensable tools for modern activism.”
Sanwal Hussain, a reporter from MSN News, has also noted increased participation from younger generations, especially in countries like Indonesia, Nepal, Peru, Madagascar and Morocco.
When governments suppress dissent, protest movements often grow stronger. Hashtag campaigns and online communities amplify awareness, turning censorship into motivation.
Nepal is a prime example. According to Phanindra Dahal, a journalist at BBC Nepali, youth-led protests erupted after the government imposed social media restrictions amid political corruption and economic stagnation. Widespread unrest ultimately contributed to the fall of the Kathmandu government.
While past protests helped end colonization, slavery, and wars, they were often local or national in scope. Today’s movements, however, transcend borders.
Today, protests can happen anywhere and aren’t limited by boundaries or borders.
On Aug 10. 2025, Al Jazeera reported that anti-Israel protests spanned multiple continents as pro-Palestinian demonstrators demanded an end to the war in Gaza. The number of protesters reached into the hundreds of thousands worldwide.
In the end, when people see injustice, they act. Around the world, democracies are witnessing record numbers of demonstrations—proof that the will to create change is alive and well.
Our era isn’t marked by hesitation. It’s marked by action. And if history tells us anything, protests remain one of humanity’s most powerful pathways to progress.
