Receive posts by Email
Entries (RSS)
Tactic: Keeping demonstrators up to date using Twitter
Written by Simon on May 17, 2008 – 5:32 pm -
Description: A German group used the microblogging service Twitter to inform protesters during the traditional May 1 demonstrations in Hamburg, Germany.
Organizer: The Freie Sender Kombinat (FSK), “Free Channels Conglomerate”, a Hamburg-based independent radio station.
Purpose of Action: To inform leftist protesters about the progress of both their own and a neo-nazi counter-demonstration.
Organizing Tools: Twitter, cell phones.
Outcome: About 360 people followed the FSK’s Twitter account and were subsequently informed about the ongoing of both demonstrations, but the organizers failed to study whether their broadcasting had any effect on the protesters’ behavior. Using Twitter instead of regular SMS broadcasting saved the FSK about 650 € (~1000 $) of SMS costs.
Ease of Replication: Twitter is one of the new minimalist and easy-to-use web 2.0 technologies. Updates can be received via the service’s website, RSS feed, instant messenger (XMPP / Jabber) or specialized Twitter clients.
Reporting from a demonstration via Twitter is by far easier to handle than most alternatives, i.e. live radio broadcasting, and highly cost effective. Problems could arise through a lack of phone connection or data security.
Some days after the rally critic arose about the FSK’s use of Twitter. On the one hand it was criticized that every participant had to create a Twitter account to follow the FSK’s updates. On the other hand, and far more problematically, all followers of the FSK’s Twitter account could be publicly seen.
The lack of data security, especially the lack of anonymity, is one of the major problems in the use of Twitter during rallies. To help them to avoid being identified by the police the FSK urged their followers to use a fake Twitter account registered with a disposable email address as well as non-registered cell phones and prepaid cards, which are unusual to be sold in Germany.
Still, popular net politics blog netzpolitik.org asked for a better and really anonymously usable solution, suggesting amongst others RSS feeds and the decentralized instant messenger Jabber.
via netzpolitik.org
Tags: cell phones, demonstrations, Germany, twitter
Posted in Blogs, Europe, Mobile Phones, Tactics |