Group items tagged

My first blog post about my topic - "protest movements". I am specifically looking at the Australian protest movement against the Government's proposed ISP filtering legislation.

This article discusses how a protest was organised against th Federal Government's Internet and Content filter plan in Australia. However, the attendance for this protest was lacking. Many arguements against the filter have stated that, it is simply a "false sense of security." Protesters continue to urge the public to write emails, make phone calls, and apply public pressure.

Informative and sometimes humorous tips for Australians who want to protest against the Government's proposed ISP filtering, including links to local members of parliament, senators etc. Note all the paid advertising from Optus on the site - taking a political position?

Sydney gamers protest the lack of an R18+ classification in the city centre on Saturday, dressed as Zombies from the controversial game Left 4 Dead 2, which has been censored for release here.

A really interesting article on the use of social networking platforms during and after protests in Kyrgyzstan. Twitter, Facebook and local forum, Diesel are important sites for citizens to report, share information and discuss issues in a relatively impartial environment as the media has increasingly come under the power of the President. In April protests took place in the captial Bishkek against President Bakiyev. The social networking sites allowed poeple to hear what was going on. It also facilitated groups forming to attempt curbing the violence that was taking place. The downside to this form of communication in this situation was the inflammatory comments that was essentially fear - mongering were posted. Some were found to be untrue, and some believe that it was the Russians attempting to influence the situation in Kyrgyzstan.

I'm covering Protest Movements on my blog and will be focusing on cultural protest. This post looks at the furore around Nestle's use of palm oil in its products and what Greepeace have done to protest this, including a darkly comic spoof video of "Have a break, Have a Kit Kat" creative.

A follow up to my first post about the protest movement to save digital-only radio station BBC6 Music. A second day of protest was held in London and royalties organisation PRS for Music publishes stats showing the station is more supportive to a wide range of musicians than other stations.

Social media's role in the organisation and communication of the protests in Thailand is still small compared to the role traditional forms of media have played. This article however is a good primer on the details of how social media has been used - citizen journalism, regular journalism that is now "on the fly", amplification of messages via social media channels. Censorship by the government has also been a factor in the unrest.

Following a Facebook user's invitation for people to submit drawings of Prophet Mohammed and the ensuing condemnation from individual Muslim's and Muslim groups, The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has extended a ban on Facebook until May 31, and has also applied the ban to popular video sharing website YouTube and restricted Wikipedia. Depicting the prophet in a perceived blasphemous manner is considered sacrilegious. Over 100,000 people had become fans of the page on Facebook. Thousands of protesters have held multiple public rallies against Facebook, with anti-America and anti-European sentiment high.

In my final blog post, I reflect on the reasons I believe cultural protest is just as valid a type of protest as any other and why I think people participate.

The millions of Palestinians who struggle against daily obstacles peacefully, choosing blogging, boycotts, and creating YouTube videos to nonviolently protest, should not be discounted.

This article is criticizing the attack lunched by Anonymous. It said, the any protest against the Mandatory ISP filtering plan is encouraged, however, the bring down government website is an illegal way to make political statement, and will render the protest null and avoid. Instead, even the anti-censorship community advocate legal way to protest the Mandatory censorship. In my opinion, this attack is interesting, although it is illegal, it doesn't cause big cost, just threw little troubles to government website, it can be considered as a prank, not a crime. Anyway, no one can be convicted, as it is an anonymous attack by hacker, lol.:)

Four Corners and Q&A are covering the mandatory ISP filter debate tonight, should be a great double bill. Now its off the agenda till after the election, so the Government clearly misjudged the public reaction. Thanks to widespread media coverage on the inherent flaws of the MISP, coupled with the activism of protest movements such as Electronic Frontiers Australia and the Pirate Party, its fair to say that the general public have moved beyond the Government's black and white positioning of the proposal.

Thanks for the reminder!

Back in March, Iranian's took part in the traditional fire festival, held at night time. A trend I've noticed with reporting in mainstream news is the use of a live blog with bloggers taking shifts to report on big events - The Guardian recently did this with the UK election and may do it for the World Cup coming up. To see this level of detail in live reporting in a mainstream news source is great, especially when it's not related to something as boring as sport ;) The reporter has contacts on the ground and also encourages other Iranians who may be reading to send him secure emails with updates from the event. Videos posted on YouTube are also linked to as soon as they're made available.

Although not strictly a "protest" in the strictest sense of the word, the Kiss Goodbye to MS movement has similarities with protest movements - people with a unified belief acting together to facilitate change. The main action required to take part is to wear red lipstick during MS Awareness Week in Australia: 26th May to 6th June. I wondered how men could get involved - the obligatory Facebook group encourages tattoos can be used as a talking point rather than lipstick. Others can simply donate to the cause. The charity sector is incredibly crowded (for good reason) and charities have increasingly bigger marketing teams to capture the public's attention. Social media is just the latest avenue that corporations and not-for-profits are using to drive awareness.

In almost an exact mirror of the situation in Pakistan, Bangladeshi authorities have banned Facebook and thousands have taken to the streets to protest. This is in response to the "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day" page that was set up on Facebook. One man has been arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) over the images. Images of Bangladeshi leaders were also posted to the site.

In an effort to disrupt communications and head off huge opposition demonstrations planned for Thursday, the Iranian authorities on Wednesday drastically slowed Internet service in Iran and shut down text messaging services, and an official said that Gmail, the Google e-mail service, would be blocked.

Engaging in social media backfires for Nestle. Due to the Greenpeace protest against the company with regards to how the company uses palm oil in its products, a number of people posted their distaste on Nestle's Facebook page. Unfortunately for the company, the representative in charge of replying to comments was far from being amiable, or even courteous. Sample exchange of comments: Nestle: "You have freedom of speech and expression. Here, there are some rules we set. As in almost any other forum. It's to keep things clear." Paul Griffin: "Your page, your rules, true, and you just lost a customer, won the battle and lost the war! Happy?" Nestle: "Oh please...it's like we're censoring everything to allow positive comments." Social media has significant benefits for companies and how they market the products to consumers. However, if used wrongly, as with this case, massive PR clean-up is inevitable.

"Some criticize me, others insult me. I don't care," he said. "It's a form of contact with the world." The president joined Twitter on April 27 in an attempt to counter adversaries who have actively used the site to make accusations of human rights violations, organize protests and - above all - ridicule Chavez. I found this interesting for many reasons - Chavez's use of Twitter as a communication mode but also to counter criticism of his government and person.

Good article on the social and political uses of social media (sic.) in Indonesia. There have been attempts to filter/censor content, but so far they have been avoided. Uses of Twitter, Facebook by politicians is also described.