DigiActive.org

Campaign: S. Korean bloggers say no to FTA

Description: KORUS FTA, a newly drafted but yet to be signed free trade agreement, is considered the most important milestone in U.S.-South Korean relations since the 1953 military accord, and America’s second largest FTA behind NAFTA . While some, including South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, support the FTA for its economic prospects, many South Koreans are unhappy about potentially importing meat tainted with Mad Cow disease. In a unprecedented move, South Korean teens are taking their outrage to the blogosphere in what is being called the “digital” Gwangju Democratization Movement.

Tools Being Used: blogs

What are they doing: The teen cyber-activists are excited about being part of a new revolution by comparing the current protest with the democratization movement of nearly 30 years ago, while others are organizing candlelight vigils and demonstration meetings and posting photos of rallies on their blogs.

“Our society is so noisy due to mad cow disease,” said one blogger. “The government says it is an unscientific rumor, criticizes that there is an anti-American group at the rear, and blames the untrustworthy internet. Conservative newspapers complain that someone is spreading ghost stories utilizing emotional equipment, the Internet. But what we have to realize this time is not about fear from ghost stories. Why does the government try to cover our anger and sigh under the pretext of anti-American groups or unscientific rumor? The government should face the reasons why we’re mad and shouldn’t ignore our anger.”

Campaign: Blogging for Land Rights in China

Chinese Translator’s note: I have submitted the following blog post on behalf of Digiactive.org’s China correspondent, Zola Zhou. The Chinese text from Zola’s original post is displayed in the image below the translation. Additions to the original text are marked in brackets.

After the Reform and Opening policy began to dramatically alter China’s economy at the end of the 1970s and early 1980s, the country has undergone an almost unfathomable transformation. One of the most striking areas of change has been in real estate development. Old neighborhoods have been razed to make way for office towers and seemingly endless rows of high rise apartment buildings.

Many of China’s booming middle class citizens, who still remain in the minority on a national scale, have eagerly taken residence in 21st century China’s urban comfort. This onslaught of development has also caused hardship for countless families and individuals that have been left behind or pushed aside to make way for “progress.”

Knocking down a house in Sipingfang, to the left, officials are beating up a young girl and child (red circle).

Description: In the town of Sipingfang, in China’s Hunan Province, residents have found Zhou Shu Guang [the author], who has helped them establish a website to preserve their rights: www.sifangping.com. Moreover, Zhou provided two days of in-home instruction to teach them how to use the blog process to publish articles that introduce their circumstances. Residents of Sifangping hope that this website can become a bargaining chip in negotiations with the government to acquire reasonable compensation rates.

Digital activism tool: Blog

How These Tools Are Being Used: Given that domestic Chinese media never provides coverage on issues of residence demolitions and relocation, citizens affected by these activities frequently have no way to appeal to higher authorities in a court setting to acquire reasonable compensation [for land appropriated by the government]. Therefore, they are left with no other choice but to publish their stories online. They hope that this website will be viewed by more people, and that they can become model resisters against forced relocation. This web site has an international domain name and the mainframe is located in America, thus the Chinese government is unable to delete it.

Outcome: [No word yet on whether the blog is helping the residents of Sipingfang gain better compensation for appropriated land.]

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Tactic: Facebook and blogs highlight cyclone relief in Burma

Burmese refugees made homeless by the cyclone

Description: International aid is beginning to arrive in Burma, following last week’s devastating Cyclone Nargis, which is believed to have killed at least 22,000 people. Another 41, 000 people are currently unaccounted for. Internet activists go online to blame Burma’s military regime for the slow response and use social media to get aid to victims.

Tools Used: Facebook, blogs

What They Are Doing: Burma Global Action Network (BGAN) created a facebook page to act as a clearing house for Internet users to find and make much needed donations to relief organizations working on the ground. Users are also being asked to upload and view photos, videos and personal stories about the damages Cyclone Nargis has created. Many bloggers have also started to circulate BGAN director Sophie Lwin’s call to action and her disgust with Burma’s government on their blogs.

“I am not going to be sleeping much at all over the next 48 hours, right now their (sic) are people in Burma struggling to save their homes and find food and the regime is in total disarray,” said Lwin. “They need us.”

photo credit: AFP

Tactic: using MSN Chat logo to show China pride

Description: Users of MSN chat in China are adding a red heart to their MSN names (see image left) to demonstrate their support for China and the Olympics.

Organizer: Unknown but has official support from Microsoft. Appeal asking “Chinese people worldwide to use the red heart to express their love for China and to support Beijing’s Olympic Games” appeared on the Chinese MSN homepage.

Purpose of Action: Many Chinese feel under attack from France and CNN because the West “supports” Tibetan independence and is “anti-China” and “anti-Olympics.”

Organizing tools used: instant messaging (MSN chat)

Outcome: 7,000,000 people have added the little red heart to their MSN names over the past week.

Ease of Replication: Adding a logo to your MSN chat is very easy. GChat also allows using to add their own image/logo.

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Tactic: Temporary Posting to Avoid Censorship

IMPORTANT NOTE: The security situation is each country is unique. Please consider the specific security environment in your own country when deciding whether to use the advice in this section.

Threat: Bloggers who publish content critical of the government risk having their blogs blocked by the government if they live in a country with limited freedom of expression.

Way to Protect Yourself: To make it more difficult for the censors to find sensitive content on your blog, only post the content for a few hours and then take it down. This temporary posting gives the censor a smaller window of time to find this content on your site and thus makes it less likely that you will be blocked, while also giving readers enough time to copy and paste the information from your blog onto bulletin board systems and chat rooms for wider discussion.

How Activists Are Using This Technique: When news of the Tibet protests broke, Bei Feng, editor of one of “China’s ten most influential” web portals, only posted information about the protests on his blog for a few hours, which gave his readers enough time to copy the information onto other sites but prevented his blog from being blocked. This is a strategy that “he commonly uses for sensitive issues, posting a story about it on his blog and then taking it off after only a few hours to avoid being shut down by censors.” (source: openDemocracy)

Tactics: Tibetans Get the News Out Despite Media Censorship

Description: Last week hundreds of Tibetan monks took to the streets in and near the Tibetan capital of Lhasa to protest Chinese rule. Although the heavily censored Chinese media refused to cover the story, both Tibetans and foreign tourists used the Internet to get the news out. According to the Vancouver Sun, “Amateur cellphone photos and video clips showing what were described as confrontations between police and Tibetans protesting Chinese rule poured onto websites big and small, including those for major news media, Tibetan rights groups and tourist blogs.”

Organizer: unclear

Purpose of Action: To protest Chinese rule of Tibet.

Organizing Tools: e-mail, digital photos, mainstream media sites that accept user-generated content (like BBC), web sites of sympathetic NGOs, travel blogs of tourists, cell phone video uploaded to YouTube.com,

Outcome: Bringing global attention to protests that the Chinese government would prefer to silence.

Ease of Replication: Unless the government shuts down the Internet, as occurred during the recent protests in Burma, using individual e-mail accounts, cell phones, and blogs to distribute information and images is an effective way to get around domestic media censorship.

cell phone image of protests published on the site of a Tibetan rights NGO based in India

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Tactic: Colombians Organize with Facebook

Description: Four Colombian uses of Facebook created the group Un Millon de Voces Contra las FARC (a Million Voices Against the FARC) and used the page to organize a day of worldwide protests against the Colombian rebel group on Monday, February 4.

Organizer: Carlos Andres Santiago and 3 other Colombian Facebook users.

Purpose of Action: To oppose the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - Ejército del Pueblo), a guerrilla organization guilty of human rights abuses.

Organizing Tools: Facebook (the mainstream media, as well as business and civic organizations picked up on the Facebook protest and helped to promote it, which was critical to its success.)

Outcome: The rally in Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, drew 2 million participants and was the largest rally in Colombia’s history. Rallies were organized in 185 cities around the world.

Ease of Replication: Creating a Facebook group is free and extremely easy. Carrying out a global protest is more difficult. In order to succeed, your event must catch the public imagination so that other people and groups, particularly the mainstream media, help you in promoting the protest.

anti-FARC protest in Hong Kong, part on the worldwide day of action on Feb 4.

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Tool: SMS

Tool Description: SMS (short message service) is the technical name for text messaging - notes sent between mobile phone users. Think of it as e-mail for mobile phones.

Activist Application: There are so many activist applications for SMS that we’ve put most of them after the jump. Here they are in brief: organize a protest in minutes, evade censorship by using SMS for communication that you cannot speak or e-mail (only true is some countries), election monitoring, activist security (”If I don’t text you every 2 hours, it means something is wrong), citizen journalism, and more to come….

Ease of Use: Easy. All mobile phones now have SMS built in. Just choose a phone number to send the message to, type the message, and press send. Pricing varies by country and carrier.

thousands of phones, thousands of uses for activists

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Campaign: Shanghai’s Middle Class vs. the Maglev

Description of Campaign: Citizens of Shanghai are organizing to prevent the cities maglev train from being extended into their residential neighborhood.

Digital Activism Tools: digital photographs, digital video, blogs, community bulletin boards

How These Tools are Being Used: Digital photos and video are taken at protests, then unploaded onto blogs and community message boards to increase awareness of the protests, which are referred to using the euphemism “strolls.”

source: Washington Post

Tool: GTalk

Tool Description: GTalk is Googles version of Internet telephony. I allows you to talk online for free with other people that use GTalk.
Activist Application: Burmese democracy activists used GTalk to tell people around the world what was happening in their country. According to Maung Maung, a Burmese activist and trade unionist, “There are about 50 Internet cafes all over Burma, and young people were able to log into GTalk and say to the rest of the world, ‘Here’s what is happening on this corner; here’s what is happening on that corner.’ Quite a lot of young activists have been trained in how to use Gmail. It is extremely helpful to the movement.” GTalk is available in Burmese (see below) and many other world languages.
Ease of Use: Easy. You can download it here or use it without downloading it by clicking here. You do need a Gmail account and a microphone to use GTalk.