DigiActive.org

Images for Advocacy: Green Dam Girl

Green Dam Girl: “That unhealthy information is so gross; I’m a girl worth 40 million”
Mud Grass Horse: “I’m just an alpaca.”  (source: Danwei)

Background: Using pop culture references in an advocacy campaign is an effective way to get non-activists involved.  It’s also a way to subtly push a political agenda in a country where overt political messages are censored or where posting or passing on political messages can endanger the activist.

Because of the Chinese government’s limitations on freedom of speech and persecution of dissidents, Chinese activists have become masters of satire and symbolism.  The image above is a prime example of their techniques.  Originally published by Chinese blogger Hecaitou, this drawing uses on the visual language of Japanese anime while bringing together some of the greatest hits in Chinese political satire: behold…Green Dam Girl.

Tool:  satiric images spread online

How it’s being used: Green Dam Girl is a cartoon avatar for Green Dam, a piece of self-censoring software which will be mandatory on all computers sold in China starting July 1.  She’s also holding a rabbit, which is the software’s logo.  (Read a review of the software from the OpenNet Initiative.)  On her cap is an image of the river crab, a homonym for the word “harmony” in Chinese and a dig at the Chinese government which calls censorship harmonization.  (Read more on river crab from China expert Rebecca MacKinnon.)   Green Dam Girl is carrying a bucket of paint (or maybe soy sauce) to cover up all the filth on the Internet.

Finally, the animal she has chained up is an infamous mud grass horse.  Another great Chinese homonym, mud grass horse sounds just like “f— your mother” in Chinese and is another dig at censors.  A few months ago there was a group of very funny and popular videos with children singing ever so innocently about the exploits of mud grass horse… and sounding completely filthy!  (Read more about mud grass horse here.)   Of course, mud grass horse has been chained up because he’s part of the Internet filth that Green Dam Girl has been sent to destroy, but he says he’s been falsely accused - he’s just an alpaca!

Lessons:  1) Funny travels further than Angry, especially to engage an audience of non-activists.  (The Free Kareem campaign also uses cartoons to get their message across.)

2) Symbols and language tricks are a great way to get around censors and mock them at the same time.

3) Digital activism campaigns need the skills of people who do not have digital skills.  Someone who is good at drawing can help a campaign create great a poster, graphic, or logo and then all you need is a scanner to get it online.

Discussion: What if Tiananmen Square happened today?

Description: This week commemorations are occurring worldwide in observance of the Tiananmen Square protests and massacres of 1989. With the rise of Flickr and Twitter used for social justice, many digital activists wonder out loud if the now famed events would have transpired differently had social media tools been around twenty years ago. Clearly, the Chinese government knows the power of cyber-activism, as they have blocked most Internet social networks and foreign newspapers in the country ahead of the anniversary. Although there is an online blackout in China, activists still find ways to get their messages of protest out.

Digital Tools Being Used: various tools

What Are They Doing: Twitter has been blocked for the last two days, nonetheless, users worldwide have been using the hashtag #fuckGFW (Great FireWall of China) to express their outrage at the online blocking. Chinese blogger Xavier Lur said on his website TechXav that the Chinese officials created the drastic blockade to not only protect national security and prevent anti-government content from being seen, but it may have also been economics.

He says:

Without blocking Google, Baidu cannot success. Without blocking Wikipedia, Hoodong cannot success. Without blocking Blogger, Blogcn cannot success. Without blocking YouTube, Youku cannot success. These huge International Internet Companies do not pay taxes to China Government, but the Internet Companies in China do pay taxes. The Chinese government wants to make more bucks, so and to boost their GDP. Also, they want to “protect” China websites and hence blocking successful International websites.

What is the potential Impact: “Ellen” (she asked to not have her real name used) is a Chinese college student and blogger who was only a toddler twenty years ago. She says that as much as the Chinese government tries to block the Internet, they will eventually realize that censorship will increasingly be hard to regulate as more people get connected.

“The revolution is happening in cyberspace,” she said in an e-mail message. “If Tiananmen happened today, the government wouldn’t be able to suppress anger towards them around the globe. I might not see YouTube or read blogs in Beijing, but someone else can in Singapore, in Cairo, in Nairobi, in Rio, in London, in New York. My country is fighting an uphill battle, and it needs to put up their white flag.”

Tactic: Homelessness highlighted in video

Description: The current economic downturn continues to take its toll in both industrialized and developing countries. According to a report from UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Miloon Kothari, nearly one billion people around the world lack adequate housing, and approximately 100 million people have no housing of any kind. Recently, there have been efforts to spotlight the plight of society’s most vulnerable members.

Digital Tools Being Used: Video, Blog, Twitter, Text Messaging

What Are They Doing: TakePart.com is a cause-related site designed to help explore today’s pressing issues using video, images and audio, and added actions to make a difference such as signing a petition or educating the community. Their latest video is called Beth’s Story, which looks at homelessness.

“Beth’s Story, was created to shine a light on the millions of people living on the street who are often times overlooked, said TakePart.com organizer KC Webster. “She is a composite of their many complicated, often heartbreaking realities and of the issues and challenges lead to homelessness.”

Impact: It is too early to tell the ultimate impact of the campaign, but so far, success has been made. Beth’s Story has also been promoted on TakePart’s blog, Twitter feed, text messaging and YouTube account, each tool has a few hundred followers supporting the cause.

“We are trying to get the word out about Beth’s Story, to get as many eyeballs to recognize the homeless issue as possible (On You Tube it is already 21,555 views strong!) and to realize that even though most of us are only exposed to numbing statistics, each individual number has a story,” Webster said.

NYU Student Protests: A Digital Occupation

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emry/3297069286/

Background: On February 18, 2009, a group of NYU students calling themselves Take Back NYU (TBNYU) barricaded themselves inside the university’s Kimmel Center for Student Life cafeteria, the Kimmel MarketPlace. Armed with laptops and wireless internet connections, the group published a list of 12 demands, including disclosure of the university’s operating budget, assurance of fair labor practices for all NYU employees, the creation of a Socially Responsible Finance Committee, tuition stabilization, scholarships for Palestinian students and free public access to Bobst library.

 The occupation continued the next day and into the night, with administrators reluctant to remove protesters by force and unwilling to negotiate with students behind the barricade. During the day on Wednesday, February 19, students stormed the building, entering the barricade to take part in the protest. Late Thursday night and early Friday morning the scene outside the building, where numerous supporters, critics and police officers had gathered, erupted into a riot. One NYU public safety officer was injured and taken to St. Vincent’s hospital in an ambulance. Numerous students reported that pepper spray had been used on them, although this was unconfirmed by the police.

 By Friday afternoon, the remaining students in Kimmel had been escorted from the building; all 18 were suspended. None of their demands were met.

 Technology: Why was the Kimmel occupation different from other student protests? TBNYU entered the student center knowing they would have full internet access, and they took advantage of that. The event was advertised as a “study breakdown” on TBNYU’s blog. Once the protesters barricaded themselves inside the cafeteria, they published their demands and wrote entries about the scene within the barricade, all of which could be accessed on their web site. TBNYU also recorded the events on Twitter, offered a live streaming broadcast, so people outside could actually talk to those inside Kimmel, and posted photos. Additionally, members of TBNYU had tipped off NYULocal, a blog that covers NYU news, and the site responded by installing a reporter in the Kimmel MarketPlace. The reporter, Charlie Eisenhood, liveblogged the events from the inside for over 30 hours. Meanwhile, Washington Square News (WSN), NYU’s newspaper, blogged about the occupation, the scene outside and the administration response, updating posts continuously over the three-day period. Between TBNYU’s coverage and the NYULocal and WSN blogs, the Kimmel occupation was one of the most comprehensively addressed student protests in recent years.

 Impacts:

1.     Take Back NYU was able to garner greater numbers of followers, who either stood in solidarity or actually entered the MarketPlace. For instance, Anna Mullen, an NYU sophomore, heard about the protest on Take Back NYU’s blog and decided to join the occupation. She was one of the 18 suspended on Friday, along with other individuals who were not part of the original planning for the event.

2.     The widespread coverage on blogging sites and campus media outlets certainly most likely encouraged administrators to use caution when removing the protesters from the building. NYU was extremely hesitant to involve the NYPD, and did not take significant action to remove the students until the Market Place had been occupied for nearly two full days.

3.     The sit-in attracted national and international attention. The New York Times reported on the occupation, Noam Chomsky sent TBNYU a letter of solidarity, and New York City Councilman Charles Barron came to the NYU campus to speak in support of the students as they were escorted from the building February 20.

4.     Incorrect information about the situation in Kimmel reached a large number of people. WSN originally reported incorrectly that an individual’s arm was broken in the riot outside the Kimmel Center, leading many to believe that injuries and violence were more grave than was actually true.

5.     Things did get violent. Discussions on NYULocal and WSN chat forums became heated, and a large number of individuals stood outside Kimmel because they had read about or watched portions of the occupation on the internet. These same individuals were involved in the riot that ensued early Friday morning.

6.     The administration was easily able to sap much of the movement’s power simply by removing a connection to technology. TBNYU was relying on NYU’s wireless internet service. Friday morning protesters reported that electrical outlets in Kimmel were not working. Commentators speculated the administration hoped to render the students’ laptops useless, severing their connection with the outside world. Several hours later, the protesters exited the building.

The Perils of Facebook Activism: Walled Gardens, Serial Activists and Hackers

I have written before about the brilliant Pink Chaddi Campaign and highlighted the important role played by Facebook in helping the campaign go viral.

Briefly, journalist Nisha Susan set up The Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose, and Forward Women on Facebook and urged women to gift pink panties to Pramod Mutalik, the head of the ultra-conservative Hindu group Shri Ram Sena, in order to shame him into backing down from his threats to disrupt Valentine’s Day celebrations.

The campaign has become one of the best Indian examples of how a grassroots community can come together, collaborate and take collective action using social media tools.

The Pink Chaddi Facebook Group has been getting hacked throughout last month, and, instead of dealing with the hackers, Facebook suspended both the group and Nisha’s account last week.

Before the group was suspended, the hackers changed the name of the group to ‘A Good Bong is a Dead Bong’ and posted vulgar and violent messages on the group. Over the month, the hackers had used names like ‘Nathuram Godse Appreciation Society’, ‘Dara Singh Appreciation Group’ and other vulgar names.

In an open letter to Facebook posted on Kafila, Nisha wondered if the first rule of Facebook activism is to not use Facebook.

In an update on the Pink Chaddi blog, Nisha warned her supporters against joining a fake Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women group created by the hackers.

In fact, several groups supporting and impersonating the Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women have sprung up on Facebook.

While Facebook activism has become an important part of any activist’s technology toolkit, it comes with its own perils.

To begin with, Facebook allows you very little flexibility in changing the design of your cause, group, page or event. Each of these options come with in-built limitations and once you have chosen one, you are wedded to it.

Facebook also gives you very little control over the content created by you or your supporters. For instance, you can’t highlight wall messages as important or sticky and you can’t export them.

Most importantly, you can’t export the names or contact details of your supporters, so the support base you build within Facebook stays within Facebook.

Then, there is the question of the involvement of your Facebook supporters. Ethan Zuckerman has wondered if Facebook protests are glorified petitions that attract serial activists. Beth Kanter has written about the difficulty of moving casual Facebook activists to higher levels of engagement.

We have also seen in the case of Egypt’s April 6 Youth Movement that Facebook activism groups come together for a specific protest, but lose the momentum thereafter.

Finally, there are serious security concerns associated with Facebook protests which have become all too clear in the case of the Pink Chaddi campaign.

Facebook groups can be hacked into, in spite of reasonable security measures, and the Facebook team is often not responsive to pleas of redressal. The FACThai Blog had written about the possibility of such attacks on the Pink Chaddi group last month and now, the attacks have really gone out of control.

Beyond the threat of hacking, detractors or even well meaning supporters can create duplicate groups, pages, causes, or events with similar sounding names, leading to confusion and a dilution of message.

So, if you are an activist, do leverage the virality of Facebook, but use it with an eye on its many limitations.

By all means, use Facebook as part of your campaign but don’t build your campaign around it. Use all the social media tools at your disposal and interlink them to increase their virality. In the US, it would mean using Facebook with MySpace, YouTube and Twitter. In India it would mean using at least Orkut, apart from Facebook.

Whichever tool you use, have a plan to transition your supporters to a traditional mailing list, so that you have more control over how you communicate with them. If you have been able to build a large and vibrant community, it might even make sense to move to a proprietary social network built on Drupal or Ning. I’m not implying that such a transition will be easy, or even successful, but it’s definitely worth a try.

Finally, do take basic security precautions like using strong passwords and changing them often, logging out of public computers after using them, and having more than one admin so that the group is not orphaned if your account gets hacked.

If your Facebook account, and your group, does get hacked, I guess the first step will be to try the Forgot Your Password? link, which will send the new password to your email ID, unless the hacker has already changed it.

If that doesn’t work, your next resort should be the Login Problems Help Page,which will lead you to one of two forms based on whether you have or don’t have access to your login email.

If you are lucky, the Facebook support team will respond quickly, otherwise you would do well to quickly move on to step three, and start an online campaign to put pressure on Facebook to restore your access.

Coming back to the Pink Chaddi Campaign, Nisha Susan has taken all these three steps and still doesn’t have access to her Facebook group.

If you know a way to help Nisha regain control of the Facebook group and avoid such hacking attacks in the future, do leave a comment below.

I’m convinced that someone should write a blog post titled “three steps to get your hacked Facebook activism group back”. Perhaps, we can write that post together here.

Cross-posted at Gauravonomics, my blog on social media and social change.

Tactic: Moldovans “break tweets” with gov’t protest

Description: If you love Twitter, and use it as one of your main sources of getting breaking news or the latest protest, it might be time for you to bookmark Breaking Tweets on your computer/mobile phone. Created by DePaul University grad student Craig Kanalley, Breaking Tweets is a breaking news service that intergrates Twitter and traditional media outlets on event coverage. According to BeatBlogging, Breaking Tweets editors “write a one or two paragraph explanatory intro about the story, then come the tweeters, who send opinions, analysis and eyewitness media. Editors cull the best and most insightful tweets from the bunch, as well as occasionally interjecting with their own updates.” This tool has also come in handy recently to help digital activists in Moldova.

Digital Tools Being Used: Twitter

What Are They Doing: Nearly 10,000 protesters in the former Soviet state protested its Communisty government Tuesday using the hashtag #pman on Twitter to rally Moldovans as well as allow others around the world to get updates. Breaking Tweets wrote a summary about the protest and posted the most insighful tweets representing the events.

Tactic: video for Island Dogs in Puerto Rico

Description: Yesterday my friend Katrina sent me this video made by teen digital activism organization Do Something (www.dosomething.org) for Island Dog (www.islanddog.org), an animal welfare group which promotes “animal friendly communities” in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. It’s a strong example of advocacy video so I thought I’d share it and a bit of analysis.

Tools: video camera, editing software, YouTube.

Lessons from this Case: This video works for several reasons, which are described below. If you would like a more comprehensive post on activist video strategy, with multiple examples, check out the post Guide: Designing an Advocacy Video.

1. Make your cause personal: All too often, advocacy campaigns are about issues and ideals - human rights, environmental sustainability, peace, social justice. While these ideals are compelling, they are also distant and intangible. An effective campaign will make their cause person, both in terms of who is effected as well as the activists who are working for change. This video lets the founders of the organization tell their own stores of why they started Island Dog (timecode: 0:06 - 0:40). Because these are passionate activists, they make their cause compelling.
2. Present policy issues through stories: This video also uses interview as a way of getting at policy issues. One problem mentioned in the video (timecode: 0:42) is that stray dogs in Puerto Rico are killed using rat poison, a slow and painful death. Rather than presenting this issue through slides, an activist from the organization talks to a visitor on camera about the issue. The emotion response of the activist, as well as the visitor, pull the viewer in.
3. Show the problem and the solution: The video starts on a very sad note with anecdotes about dog abuse and neglect in Puerto Rico. However, at 1:05, the music changes and the video is about the solution to the problem, what the campaign has already done, and what viewer can do to get involved. The stories in the beginning inspire sympathy in the viewer and the second part of the video inspires a sense of hope that it is possible to change the situation. Hope for change is crucial. Supporters will only get involved if they feel that your campaign will succeed. Read more »
   
   
   Tags: animal welfare, Puerto Rico
   Posted in Americas, Tactics, Video | No Comments »
   

Tactic: Social entrepreneurs go tech

Description: Social enterprises - organizations or ventures that achieve their primary social or environmental mission using business methods - are growing in popularity around the world. With a ever collapsing global economy, social entrepreneurs are tapping into technology to help turn a profit while accomplishing their social missions.

Digital Tools Being Used: Ning

What Are They Doing: Africa Bags, a non-profit organization founded by Todd and Holly Pettit in 2007, is economically empowering Africans by selling reusable cloth shopping bags that are hand-crafted in five small villages in northern Malawi. The bags are sold mainly in the United States and 100 percent of the profit goes back to the villages.

Todd Pettit has created a Ning page where users can find other like-minded social entrepreneurs helping to make the world more sustainable and purchase their products.

Tactic: “Cyberela” bridges digital divide

Description: As activists around the world celebrated International Women’s Day this week, this is a great opportunity to highlight the progress and barriers women and girls still face around the world. In the tech world, women are still disproportionately affected by the digital divide – the lack of economic and educational opportunities to access the Internet and other communication tools. However, there are many organizations around the world that are charged to close the gap. One group is using new media along with radio to do this.

Digital Tools Being Used: Podcasts

What Are They Doing: Brazilian nonprofit Communication, Education and Information on Gender (CEMINA) was founded in 1988 to educate poor women how to create and produce their own radio shows. The organization also works with local community radio stations across Brazil to run “telecenters,” where both women and men can learn various Internet tools. In 1999 CEMINA started “Cyberela,” an initiative that identifies enterprising women to create their own radio programming and upload them online. The radio programs are geared towards other women in their communities who feel empowered by the discussion topics such as education, agriculture and health care, which give way to spark action.

African bloggers stand up to bad governance

Description: Blogging for social justice has taken off throughout the African continent in recent years. The international television channel, Current, recently aired a “pod,” or a viral video featuring two bloggers who are taken on their governments.

Digital Tools Being Used: Blogs and Video
What Are They Doing: “African Bloggers” features two enduring citizen journalists who are taking risks to tell the truth about political corruption. Cedric Kalonji, a Congolese journalist, started his blog in 2005 as a way to communicate with his friends. However, his writings on bad governance in his country not only grew in popularity, but also gained the attention of the Congolese authorities. Chadian blogger Makaila Nguebla also came under suspicious eyes when he began blogging about the horrors the country’s government has imposed on its citizens. Despite the dangers that come along with their “line of work,” both activists are glad they are making a difference.

“We tell ourselves everything is worthwhile, so long as we contribute to shaking up the system,” Nguebla said.

To watch the video, click here.