As protests broke out in Moldova protesting the country’s Communist leadership, news agencies such as the Telegraph (’Students use Twitter to storm presidency in Moldov‘) and New York Times (‘Protests in Moldova Explode, With Help of Twitter’) emphasized the popular Twitter service as a key tool for organizing the movement. However, the Frontline Club, a champion of independent journalism, quickly reported on ‘The Myth of the Moldova ‘Twitter Revolution‘ and argues that “What happened, and is still happening, in Moldova is a protest organized using social media.” Ivan Boothe of Rootwork also reports that Twitter was one of many tools and that it did not in fact play that big a role in organizing the protests.
Protestors in Moldova
While we can debate the role of each service, the basic facts are true – the Social Web was and is being used to report, organize and influence protests against the Communists in Moldova.
Vitalie Eşanu provided some interesting lessons from the front lines, stating that they used McDonald’s free wifi as cellphones were being blocked. He also commented on the organization of the protests stating:
Initial organization, was spread over twitter and Facebook, and expected only few persons. Later we agree to create #pman to spread about this event over the world, and use Facebook for photos, and Youtube for videos
Twitter is still being used actively to report on events in Moldova and you can follow the twitter stream using the hashtag #pman. Watching this stream you can read the real-time reports of protesters as well as insights and advice being provided on how to respond.
Now, while many will argue the exact utility and role of services like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Flickr in these protests, I am concerned with the more basic issue of access. In many cases the protesters were unable to communicate or organize via the social web or phones because services were turned off or blocked. This is not a new phenomenon – governments have shut down and restricted printing presses, radios, television, cellular and internet services in the past. Given today’s technology we should start thinking about how we can provide rapidly deployable internet and cellular service when the time comes for the US to support movements such as these. I’m not arguing that Moldova is a place we should intervene, but I am saying we should analyze this event and think to the near future.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
The degree to which twitter was used can be debated all day. It was likely used in the title of the article to solely to give the article a boost. Twitter itself is a meme in the media today and one of the oldest tricks in the book to getting traction in an article is to tie it in to hot topics in the press.
If the reporter had said they were using friendster instead of twitter to organize the article wouldn’t have gone near as far.
da best. Keep it going! Thank you
The photo “protestors in moldova” is fantastic! Can you tell me where you got it? I’d like to try to get permission to use it on a website.
hahaahahahahahahahahha
lol twiter started an revolution