Student Protests Are Turning Into A Twitter Revolution In Moldova

21 Jan 10

Max Forte

cyberactivism Twitter network protest social_media activism politics Moldova

Student Protests Are Turning Into A Twitter Revolution In Moldova
by Leena Rao on April 7, 2009
Students in Moldova are using Twitter as a tool to mobilize opposition against a communist victory in Moldovian elections.
- Twitter is the lead point of this article.
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In the last 48 hours, students from Moldova have been tweeting, trying to rally others into demonstrating against the communists. If you look under the search terms “pman” (stands for Piata Marii Adunari Nationale, a square in Chisinau) or “Chisinau,” you can see the tweets about the demonstration coming in a rapid pace. There are also videos on YouTube of the protest. There have been reports that there is limited cellphone reception in the square (thought to have been turned off by authorities). So protesters are using Twitter to give live updates via GPRS networks on their mobile devices.
- Twitter emphasized, other SNS such as YouTube mentioned in passing.
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Twitter has long-been been a popular platform for breaking news, but this adds a new twist to the powerful capabilities of the micro-blogging service.
- At the time this article was written, Twitter was barely over a year old, yet the author says it has "long-been [sic] a popular platform".
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The protests no doubt would have happened anyway and it is not clear how may of the actual protesters in Moldova are on Twitter.
- Doubt about how central Twitter may really be.
  
  Question about number of Moldovan Twitter users.
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But it seems to be helping both as a coordinating tool and as a way to disseminate information about the events that are unfolding to the rest of the world.
- Coordination & Dissemination
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5 more annotations...

30 Nov 09

Teale Rutledge

COMP 150 student protests twitter

13 Apr 09

Thomas Galvez

twitter politics itgs itgs_politics_government political_process

12 Apr 09

Christie Andersen

Det ser ud til at unge studerende i Moldova bruger Twitter i stil med den måde ungdomshusaktivister brugte sms kædebeskeder

netseeds mobilspeciale twitter mobilization trends microblogging politics mobilisering democracy moldova activism for:lolula

09 Apr 09

Rick Powell

twitter world politics Moldova

Rivera Valdez

2.0 culture media twitter politics moldova activism democracy journalism trends ping.fm art research

08 Apr 09

Ryan K

Students in Moldova are using Twitter as a tool to mobilize opposition against a communist victory in Moldovian elections

twitter moldova protests

There have been reports that there is limited cellphone reception in the square (thought to have been turned off by authorities). So protesters are using Twitter to give live updates via GPRS networks on their mobile devices.
a coordinating tool and as a way to disseminate information about the events that are unfolding to the rest of the world