In Ukraine, the pro-European protests of 2013 were led at first by students and young people, those who had the most to lose if Europe was out of reach. After the students were beaten by riot police, the journalist Mustafa Nayyem summoned people to Kyiv’s Independence Square, known as the Maidan. Nayyem closed his Facebook post with the words “Likes don’t count”—only living bodies count, only the Leib counts. He was using the machine for an unintended purpose. The rule of law and human dignity would be protected, in the last instance, by the assembly of human bodies in a public place.
