Can we really draw a link between Nepal and Madagascar? Bangladesh and Peru? Indonesia and Morocco? Why are waves of defiance sweeping nations that are oceans apart? That defiance now bears a name: Gen Z protests. The generation born after 1997 has had its fill of corrupt elders clinging to power – and their offspring flaunting excess on social media. There too, new hashtags have taken root: nepo babies and nepo kids. The contempt of the ruling classes is as old as French queens quipping, “let them eat cake”. So what is it about the digital age that seems to rub it particularly hard in young people’s faces – or rather, on their screens? Back in 2011, when the Arab Spring erupted, leaderless movements in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere were often branded “Facebook revolutions”. What’s changed now that young people have migrated to Instagram, TikTok and Discord? And what happens to leaderless movements today? Just ask the citizens of Madagascar, whose Gen Z movement led to Tuesday’s toppling of a president – and to a military coup. More broadly, how do we meet the aspirations of a generation that has moved to the cities, paid its dues in underfunded schools, endured blackouts and inadequate hospitals – and has finally had enough? Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Daniel Whittington, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

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