How Twitter is fuelling a revolt against communism

Two days ago the Communists were declared victors in Moldova’s elections, triggering widespread unrest as people claimed the elections were rigged. Twitter has played a key role in organising the protests, as The Telegraph has reported:

Organisers used the social networking site Twitter to rally opposition to a Communist victory in legislative elections.

At least 10,000 protesters gathered and police fired water cannon but were unable to stop the crowd from breaking into the buildings…

“The election was controlled by the Communists, they bought everyone off,” said Alexei, a student. “We will have no future under the Communists because they just think of themselves.”

Protesters carrying Moldovan and European flags and shouting anti-Communist slogans gathered outside the government building and made their way down Chisinau’s main boulevard to the president’s office.

The protesters and other observers have been using the Twitter hashtag #pman. Twitter is well suited to instant reporting during events such as this, as people can quickly post updates from the scene of protests, just using the mobile phone. The hashtag in turn means that anyone can easily find this news, even if the news is coming from people you don’t follow on Twitter.

For example, this Twitter search results page lists all the most recent tweets with #pman in them. This all gives a flow of rapid information from the ground that adds hugely to knowledge about what is going on though, as ever, one must be a little cautious about whether all the events reported are accurate. This piece of satire nearly caught me out for example:

timespunctro: Pravda, Moscow: Russian Tank Brigade got lost and ended up in Chisinau due to pilot error #pman

The reference to not enough broken windows in one of their previous tweets was the give away.

Read more by or more about or .
This entry was posted in Europe / International and News.
Advert

8 Comments

  • Times.ro is the romanian onion.com only darker. Please correct. They are just giving false news. So ignore.

  • Chris Keating 7th Apr '09 - 10:01pm

    More info on Modova, protests, and twitter here:

    http://clickeral.blogspot.com/2009/04/moldova-revolution-or-what.html

  • Fat chance for the Romanians in Moldova to gain their real independence once again now that a closet communist is runing the White House.

  • Chris Keating 8th Apr '09 - 9:45am

    And another view on ‘what’s actually going on’ from inside Moldova:

    http://moldovalive.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-happened-actually.html

  • Mark: where is your evidence that Barack Obama is an US citizen?

    “Redistribution of wealth” is communism. He said it, you liked it, so what more evidence you need?

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert



Recent Comments

  • Steve Trevethan
    Thank you for an important article! Might any country where over some 25% of children exist in poverty be badly governed unless the aims of ruling politicia...
  • Marco
    Thank you for this article. In the last 2 elections the Lib Dems had the most redistributive policies according to the IFS, more than Labour. We proposed abolis...
  • Michael BG
    Roland, When I refer to the benefit system I am referring to the system of financial support people receive. Which I think is the same way Jeremy Hunt is ref...
  • Steve Trevethan
    Thanks for the comments! Might it be that direct government spending/money creation seems to be considered inflationary when it is proposed or done to reduce...
  • Peter Martin
    It would help the working poor if the Lib Dems had a view on the desirability of achieving full employment in the economy with a decent and liveable living wage...