Moldova's Twitter revolution is NOT a myth

Wow, am I glad to see this post. I've been making similar arguments on my blog Liminal States and techPresident (1, 2), and encountering a lot of skepticism. People seem to be so focused on what Twitter isn't that they miss what it is -- and the possibilities that it reveals.

The naysayers here remind of people who insist on claiming that reality doesn't exist even after knocking their head on the wall

Indeed. In this case I think it's accentuated by US- and UK-based elitism; at some level, people just can't accept that a relatively-poor country like Moldova can be a technology leader here. [The lack of recognition for the Egyptian Twitter and Facebook activism is another example of this.] That said, I've seen similar dynamics with people's reaction to Twitter in other situations as well. Twitter is a strategy and Gender differences in response to Skittlemania have plenty of examples. Very interesting ...

Thanks for the excellent ongoing analysis!

jon

There are just few things I found interesting and I want to share in addition to the article, which I believe was successful in providing a description close to the reality.

That is an excerpt from my blog post (politicalmoldova.wordpress.com) from yesterday, a day which initially was believed will gather again massive crowds of protests:

—- Twitter seemingly transforms into a sword with two edges. It looks like the communist authorities have learned the lesson and are using it to scare and discourage young people from gathering for protests. During yesterday and today I saw on #pman Twitter trend (used as a communication channel between protesters, young people, informing the Westerners on the developments on the protests in Moldova) many messages confirming that claim. Yesterday there were basically three messages that attracted my attention, posted repeatedly:

1. Don’t go tomorrow to the main square to join protesters because there will be bloodshed;

2. you don’t have any leader, you are powerless, it is futile and useless to go to protest, nothing will change;

3. do not take your ID tomorrow with you, if you are going to join the protests.

While the first two messages are basically used to scare, intimidate and discourage the potential protesters, the third one is really the interesting one. Anyone without an ID, can be detained by the police, until their identity is established, so not having an ID will offer the police a legitimate pretext to arrest you, even if you protest peacefully.

Finally what has been attained, the trend was deliberately flooded with these kind of discouraging messages in Romanian, which made #pman trend less and less visited by those interested in information on the protests.

Great perspectives, Dumitru, thanks much for sharing!

As a public channel, hashtags are a perfect place for people to sow disinformation. Of course others can reply in the channel and readers can make up their own mind, but this kind of debate can easily wind up overwhelming the real discussion and information that's going on.

There are a couple of ways to respond to this. In the US, Twitter Vote Report had a handful of volunteers "sweeping" the raw information from the hashtag with a custom-crafted user interface. An even more scalable approach is the "crowdsourced filter" being refined by Ushahidi's Swift River. Right now, the two projects are intersecting in India Vote Report ... definitely worth watching.

"Twitter revolution" - simple, striking and modern: international media couldn't like it more, especially outlets which don't know anything about Moldova, and not much more about Twitter.

But are we now calling all violent demonstrations in former Soviet Union revolutions? Whether we like it or not, there was no overthrow of the government or President in Moldova, and not even the organization of new elections.

And is Twitter the new name for social social networks and mobile communications altogether? What happened was much more than the activity of 70 Twitter accounts in Moldova, and probably even more than new technologies.

If to talk about a Twitter revolution, I would certainly not locate it in Moldova, and date it April 7.