One of the most interesting cross-connetion between social media and Finnish democratic system has been the Kansalaisaloite.fi -internet-service (http://www.kansalaisaloite.fi), which gives people the possibility to participate in the democratic law making process by proposing new laws & regulations and changes in the old ones – via the Internet.
The service was launched in 2013 and the idea is that if one creates a law proposal that gathers more than 50 000 supporters in the service, that new proposition has to be discussed in the Parliament of Finland in the form of official early regulation discussion (engl. lähetekeskustelu). This means that it starts the official law proposal process in the Finnish parliament.
To this date there are only a few propositions that have reached the needed 50 000 supporters, but the ones that have, have been mainly pushed forward via different social networks such as Twitter or Facebook. In this case, these platforms have been enabling people to be home alone together in social media, and at the same time have a really concrete effect in our parliamentary process. Without social media and social promotions from friend to friend it would have been much harder to reach these kind of audiences all putting their virtual vote for the same cause.
Interistingly the latest successful law proposal was about the (mainly digital) copyright laws in Finland, which some internet activists thought to be too strict. The proposition gathered 51 974 “votes” via social media and it was passed to the process of Finnish Parliament on 26 h of November 2013. (https://www.kansalaisaloite.fi/fi/aloite/70)
Why I Heart My Media 