Students in Moldova are using Twitter as a tool to mobilize opposition against a communist victory in Moldovian elections. According to reports, close to 10,000 protesters gathered at Moldova’s parliament in Chisinau, Moldova’s capital and were able to eventually break through police lines to storm into the building. From looking at the tweets on the subject, it appears that the demonstration turned into a violent coup attempt.
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 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. The protests no doubt would have happened anyway and it is not clear how may of the actual protesters in Moldova are on Twitter. 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.
Here are a few sample tweets:
“Chisinau - live feed from Radio Vocea Basarabiei is intrerrupted. will retransmit later. where are the official authorities?”
“RT @Moscovici: Protesters report police attacks protesters. Severe fights between police and protesters now in Chisinau, Moldova. #pman”
“The #twitter revolution – Twitter as the organizing tool for protests in Chisinau http://is.gd/rhwJ”
You can follow ALL the twitter real time updates as well as blog and mainstream news here
http://www.yaub...amp;x=0&y=0
This revolution will be played out in real time!
This reminds me on the Romanian revolution (when the communism felt) which was the first large scale revolution to be broadcasted live on TV by the local TV stations.
Moldavia being Romania’s relative I,m not surprised they brought the revolution in the digital age (uses today’s communications means).
Hope they’ll succed in their attempt, like Romania did.
Is TC still the tech blog that it used to be? Or any article with ‘twitter’ in it automatically makes it Tech-stuff?
yuppie students in one of the poorest countries in europe using “tech tools” to overthrow a democratically elected government. how fucking progressive. hope they get crushed.
what’s wrong with that? or you’d rather see machine guns as a sign of progress …
whats wrong is that rich scum think they have the right to dictate who becomes head of state in a society where the poor are already treated like dirt. neither of the liberal parties could get more then 13 percent of the vote in the election and now they want to recreate another one of the potato “revolutions” that the cia has sponsored in eastern europe over the last decade.
just listen to what these bastards have to say- if theyre not fascists bloating about reunification with Romania, then they’re complaining about how the “communist” party curtails their bourgeois freedoms as professionals to seek enrichment in the european union. they dont give two fucks about the producer classes.
id see machine guns as a sign of progress if they were directed at the capitalists and their bureaucrat enablers. alas such is not the case in moldava and this is simply one factor of the ruling class fighting another. but the social arrogance and utter contempt towards the lower classes of these students pisses me off to no end. which is why i hope they get crushed.
give it a rest pol pot. fighting for against totalitarian oligarchies is rather unprogressive, but brave of them.
- have you ever lived in communism? why don’t you try it for a while, and then judge others. The fact that the other parties did not get more than 12% is not relevant…there are too many factors involved – and corruption could be achieved in many ways, and not always apparent.
Hope you’re paid for this and you’re just doing you’re job. If you really think what you’re writing then I fell sorry for you.
“give it a rest pol pot. fighting for against totalitarian oligarchies is rather unprogressive, but brave of them.”
oh right as if the Liberal Party and Liberal Democratic Party are not servants of the “totalitarian oligarchy” of the bourgeoisie. its just the “communist” party thats “totalitarian” because they won an election certified as free and fair by “western” observers and throw more crumbs at the unwashed mass. hey did you know that the “west” funded pol pot for decades after he was driven from power by the “communist” vietnamese?
“Hope you’re paid for this and you’re just doing you’re job. If you really think what you’re writing then I fell sorry for you.”
yes beloved and respected comrade putin pays me well for trolling on techcrunch.com but off i must go, for glen beck is onto my secret plan.
iv,
Not sure you are speaking from a knowledgeable position. Students in Moldova are not yuppies. At least the ones I met in my time there, were if anything passionate, intelligent eastern europeans very open to thoughts and ideas – and very western in their thought processes I might add.
To live in a formerly communist country, and to fight against that same oppression for the sake of your democratic government is something that should be celebrated IMHO. Yes, this is a country that used to be part of the USSR…
I’d encourage you to read more on the issue before making such a strong negative statement.
And on another note, the use of twitter here is absolutely fascinating. I for one will “stay tuned”.
The election on Sunday was monitored by 3,000 international observers, including the OSCE and European parliament, who acknowledged its transparency and legitimacy. they won fair and square. i dont give two fucks about the “communist” party but like i said above i hate the arrogance of the upper classes.
“students in Moldova are not yuppies. At least the ones I met in my time there, were if anything passionate, intelligent eastern europeans very open to thoughts and ideas – and very western in their thought processes I might add.”
what the fuck does being passionate and intelligent have to do with not being a yuppie. these are individuals from the upper classes who are pissed of at some pathetic populist policies that give a minimum social net to parts of the working class. they want economic liberalization some they can run their private fiefdoms for their own enrichment. and being “western” in thought is the fucking problem.
iv, you are morron, 50% of population are people after 60, because all others left this country, and comunists, encrease pensions on 1st april to buy their vote.
Maybe counting votes was right, but how they got that votes…
“iv, you are morron, 50% of population are people after 60, because all others left this country, and comunists, encrease pensions on 1st april to buy their vote.
Maybe counting votes was right, but how they got that votes…”
how outrageous giving pensions to the old!! and not just a few old but “50% of the population”!
bourgeois democracy isn’t there to use the public’s money for public services, you morons, its there so that rich kids in the universities can become zany capitalists by utilizing public money and institutions for private profit with the help of economic liberalism. they should have privatized those pensions so that a few “western” minded individuals could blow it all in a fraud scheme and then raised the retirement age to get more productivity out of those lazy no good old people.
oh and i wonder why all those people left the country. one could only have assumed that with the death of stalinism people would no longer have to flee poverty and exploitation in their own country. but i guess oppression is a-ok if youre the one doing it and reaping the profits.
there’s nothing wrong with giving old people bigger pensions but don’t do it just to gain their votes and then take it back. Cause that’s what they are doing. They are taking money from other places to increase pensions right before elections then either they recalculate pensions to be lower or they manage everything so badly ( read steal ) after being elected that the economy goes so wrong and inflation grows so much that the pension growth equals zero or goes to negative.
Clearly, he doesnt know what he is talking about or he is a communist. And communism,like fascism, didnt bring any good to the humanity.
Unfortunately for these extremes, the information age make much more difficult for those regimes to control the crowd and hide info(when the regime is not high tech). Eat that, lv!
Nope, it’s no democratic, because comunists, close all TV, and democrats had no chance to win.
Here are not like in US.
in the U.S. opposition parties are virtually blacklisted from the state and corporate run press. they’re only mentioned in passing, if ever, as a curiosity. if your not a democrat or a republican, two parties controlled by the business class of the country, you either have to be rich or have rich sponsors if you even wish to get a chance to compete realistically on the ballot. public opinion polls have for decades shown that the vast majority of the american population dislikes both parties and want alternatives yet the republicans and democrats continue to have a monopoly in the congress. they are like the dictatorships that ruled latin america in the 19th century were liberal and conservative parties took turns at running the country while crushing, marginalizing, or coopting any opposition to their rule. they only difference is that the u.s. is a economic superpower and has more sophisticated means at preserving social control over the population. in this respect im sure the moldova is similar to the u.s. only that in the u.s. if some party won 13 percent of the vote they probably wouldnt get any seats in congress because there is a system of winner takes all in the country.
@iv do you have any clue of what are you talking about? Have you ever experienced censorship and communism first hand?
I’m a Romanian and I remember what it felt like in Romania some 20 years ago, and trust me despite all deceptions from politicians it was worth while!
All people were meant to live free and to disregard that right is just plain dictatorship!
Don’t wanna turn this post into a political message on a tech blog, yet get your facts right before you impose judgment. In your humble opinion who do you think is most responsible from Moldavia to be the “poorest country” in Europe?
The main theme is that web 2.0 stands for freedom of speech and giving voice to the masses; what TechCrunch noticed is that this “revolution” is another confirmation of how the concept works.
Why exactly should I eat my words? How would this have been different without twitter? A lot less geeks would have known about it? Or twittered their thoughts about it? BFD. How does twitter CHANGE anything with this situation?????
leean…
let me guess… a twit/fanboi!
nothing against twiiter… but it’s a communication vehicle, not a cure for cancer…
peace
Interesting usage… I wonder if the volume is big enough to be surf up to the radar of sites like: news.google/yahoo, nytimes.com, twitter-buzz.blogspot.com etc’
It’s obvious that you didn’t lived a revolution. You see … in a revolution who controls the media controls the perception, and who controls the perception controls the masses. In Moldova the public TV is controlled by the communists, cable is out, all but few ISP are out, the mobile carriers are mostly out or overcrowded and can’t take calls, and from this a terrible thirst of information ensues.
Twitter is here to inform when everything fails, because it can be used easily by people who actually take part in the events and can spread information at lightning speed.
In this case it’s not cool, it’s vital !
@samm
When all media is paid and controlled by the government party twitter was a wise choice. Peace there. Take a look to see what twitter did. http://unimedia...d=foto&id=2
http://www.real...oldovaserevolta special news coverage, but in romanian
The protestants had to use tools like twitter because most of the news sites fell under the large amount of requests, and most of the Internet operators closed their external connections.
They used mobile phones and the luckily working 3g connection to post news directly from the epicenter of the events.
Also they cut the cable connection for the Romanian TV Station that broadcast in Moldova.
>”The protests no doubt would have happened anyway…”
Man, is our self-importance bubbling over here or what…
Don’t know what to do with Twitter? Still think it’s useless? Why not start a Revolution?
As with the G20 summit, this will be covered by Twitter heavily. Another great example of how Twitter can add value to Society.
If you want to understand Twitter, check out John Battelle’s series of posts about it.
Eeek, Kinda seek of Twitter posts :/
It’s quite amazing how Twitter was and is used in this situation.
As my co-national Rares pointed out earlier we know first hand what a revolution is. Even though we were quite young at the time, I wish we would have had such communication tools 20 years ago.
This being said, please try to keep your comments on the topic. A revolution is not an event to mock.
iv you can drop the “democratically elected government” part. You obviously don’t know too much about Moldova.
“v you can drop the “democratically elected government” part. You obviously don’t know too much about Moldova.”
from the osce :
“The 5 April 2009 parliamentary elections took place in an overall pluralistic environment,
offering voters distinct political alternatives and meeting many of the OSCE and Council of
Europe commitments. Further improvements are required to ensure an electoral process
free from undue administrative interference and to increase public confidence.
Voting on election day was well-organized and took place in a calm and peaceful
atmosphere, without any major incidents reported. Observers noted good knowledge of
electoral procedures both by election commission members and most voters. Counting was
also assessed positively, but a number of significant procedural shortcomings were noted.
Processing of results by District Electoral Councils requires further improvement.
The media provided contestants with opportunities to convey messages to the electorate, in
particular through debates and paid airtime, and therefore allowed voters to make a more
informed choice. However, the public broadcaster Moldova 1 in its news offered
preferential treatment of the authorities, blurring the distinction between the coverage of
duties of top State officials and their campaign activities.”
sounds like massive fraud to me. if only their election were bigger public relations stunts like in the u.s. so the moldovans could see the wisdom of voting for the preferred candidates of the “west”.
http://www.osce...04/37142_en.pdf
Is that your argument? the OSCE document? give me a break.. I saw the OSCE observers working. 30 min in a voting station=enough to say that the elections are OK.
Is that all you know about Moldova?
I didn’t say there was “a massive fraud”.
“Just” a regular fraud will do to get people pissed off. Especially if they lack a free press, are beaten by the police if they say something against the government or suffer other forms of abuse and intimidation.
just out of curiosity… what country are you from iv?
someone said (dunno if on twitter or on a blog) something like “Romania, 1989: first revolution seen on TV; Moldova, 2009: first revolution seen online”
speaking from teh neighbouring country of Romania (y’know, Dracula, Nadia Comaneci, Hagi): there were more like 30k people; Moldovan news sites were out (either fell under the traffic, or were cut out); there were reports of cell phones being jammed in central Chisinau; Romanian television crews that kept broadcasting live all this time looked like they were being jammed (hard to tell, though, may be crappy equipment causing the satellite connection failures); Moldovan television was airing something about squirrels while the Parliament house was on fire, the presidency was under siege and police were fleeing the scene (it’s worth noticing that people stepped aside and let them go).
I’m amazed the army didn’t get involved yet, shooting everything that moves
Another way in which a seemingly simple tool can be used to create social disruption (I don’t mean that in a negative way… it’s just a different way to organize socially). There’s also some interesting thoughts on how it can change the way we interact economically…
http://www.mcco...tter-economics/
We DON’T have a Twitter Revolution in Moldova. It’s a Social Network Rev. Other SNs are also used: Y!mess Youtube Flickr Facebook
All things started with twitter, and exped 200 people but come few thousand…, later, photo and video start to be published on facebook and youtube
FREEDOM FOR THE MOLDAVIAN PEOPLE!!!!!
moldovians need change!!!
how many people get paid for this?
Forums have also been used before in organizing mass rallies or demonstrations (I remember such organizing taking place in the school forums during my university days), but I guess it points to how technology has become a part of our cultural revolution, rather than just a technological revolution. Twitter just represents part of a growing number of technologies being used in ways that were probably not intended to by their creators.
Twitter has become a tool where people are talking their lives, problems or joys. I bet this would not have been planned when they might have started twitter.
Currently, people are marketing their blogs and other related posts via twitter so this twitter is becoming a next best thing. But, what twitter does was always there in facebook (Status) and that isn’t popular why is that ?
The election was democratic, the lies, the suppression of independent press, was most certainly not. The mayor of Chisinau , a popular figure among the students has asked for one thing: a recount of the votes.
Also the international advisers were mostly from the CSI. One more thing, wealthy students do not gather in numbers of tens of thousands in PMAN for one reason: there are no wealthy students in Moldova, it’s a poor country. Also students don’t fight people with iron shields and non-lethal ammunition for the hell of it. IV if you like it so much, go live there yourself, 25% of the population works abroad. You might find room.
Ha ha .. why does 25% people work abroad? Where is Moldova .. i read somewhere that its in eastern europe
I guess you missed your geography lessons…
And why people from Moldova are working abroad? Why do you think…??
Dude WTF you are running hurricanesoftwares.com as I see in your link and you have no clue where is a country on the map?
God ignorance is bless… right Ash?
Twitter = IRC without the beards.
Den 7 april blev til en sørgedag i Moldova. Hvorfor??? Fordi folk er træt af diktatur, at blive truet og presset. OG DET ER DIKTATUR I MOLDOVA, SÅ GROTESK FOR EN MODERNE EUROPA!!!! I kender ikke de kommunistiske metoder, hvor man er bange for at leve i sit EGET LAND og sige hvad man mener. Knap 2 millioner ud af 4. 455mill. bor eller arbejder i udlandet. Tror ikke de vil vende tilbage, fordi der er ingen fremtid med denne regime.
Jeg ville hjælpe med alt de unge mennesker hvis jeg kunne og de har virkelig brug for støtte nu. De er klar til at dø for deres børns fremtid i et frit og demokratisk land.
Kommunisterne har forfalsket ID-kort for at kunne vinde de stemmer de havde brug for. Det er beviser og observatørerne kunne ikke gå så dybt og engang ikke tro på at dette kan lade sig gøre. Det er sidste chance for et lille land som Moldova at vinde sit land tilbage.
Guys, before judging smth “online”, get yourself that experience to really feel that on our skin.
If you lived some years in a totalitarian regime, you would understand how the students are feeling right now.
8 years of Commies reign and Moldova became poorest country in Europe. It’s normal that people want a change, 4 more years is not an option.
Yes, I’m from Moldova, but settled myself in USA not because I had there the life that will satisfyme.
I know exactly what they are feeling right now.
Try to imagine when you have to speak in a language that is non-official in your country, try to see how russian-language speakers have more priorities in finding a job, try to live in a country where mass-media can’t be free, can’t expose his point of view (sometimes different from leading communist party), try to feel 1/4 of population working illegal in Italy, Greece, Russia just to survive.
it is a shame. nobody cares about this issue.
we want to be free !!! help us EUROPE !!!
I think calling this is a ‘Twitter Revolution’ is very premature and its role in organising the protests has been small.
One of the organisers of the student movement in Moldova doesn’t directly mention Twitter in her description of how the protests were organised. Instead, she cites Facebook and other social media including blogs and forums as well as the ‘old-fashioned’ email newsletter and SMS.
At the protest itself mobile phone connection was sporadic at best, if not blocked entirely, meaning it’s organisational role there must have been limited (though it seems people did use Wifi in a nearby McDonalds!).
In an interview by the New York Times, one of the protesters, who did use Twitter, says that the Twitter community in Moldova is between 100 and 200 strong.
For me, Twitter alone doesn’t explain why thousands ended up on the streets.
More at my Frontline blog: bit.ly/FAJDJ
True, on twitter are few, but almost all have linked their status to Facebook, where are much more users.
Readers of my blog http://tinyurl.com/c479bv
know that I believe that the protests that are arising around the world with increasing frequency, more participants and wider support from the population as a whole, could explode into something more than protests. I’ve suggested that maybe it makes more sense to ask how this crisis compares to the period preceding the French Revolution rather than how it compares to the Depression http://tinyurl.com/abreou. That gives rise to the question: How would you launch a revolution in the age of the Internet?
The people of Moldova just gave us a preview. We better look closely because this crisis is going to be tough enough to get through without global political turmoil and upheaval; it is hard to envision what the world would be like if people-versus-government protests morphed into organized violence.
What can we learn from what happened in Moldava? Although there is a serious generation gap issue there, the protest is strongly linked to the global economic crisis. As The Times article explains, young Moldovans (that is, the people now taking to the streets) who had found work outside the country are returning as they are being laid-off from their jobs. So it is important not to look at this event in isolation but, like so many others around the world, http://tinyurl.com/daaua9 it can be directly tied to the global economic situation.
Whereas the protests and violence in Moldava appear to be spontaneous, what if it was better organized by people who really understand how to conduct a protest to erode and eventually topple support for any government? How quickly can a community be created, coalesced, and moved to action? The world has just seen it done basically instantaneously. This is a lesson that will not be ignored by the extremists of the world, who can use the new tools of communication with little cost of entry, and no language or geographical barriers. They also can adopt their own standards for truth and falsity. They can hide their agendas from those they rally into action.
How would a revolution be launched and managed in the era of the Internet? And what would the consequences be? How should you – as an investor, parent, entrepreneur, or someone just beginning to build a career – prepare or be defensive about that prospect? How should our own government react to organizations that pose threats to global security but exist primarily in cyberspace? I fear that those questions are going to become increasingly real.
do you live on the moon or something? whoever pays you, should pay you less, cause you are obviously doing a bad job, get your facts before posting idiotic comments as shole
Will the governments need another CTU (Counter Twitter-Activists Unit) ?
It not only eavesdrops conversations between anti-government organizers, but spreads disinformation to confuse them
Scary thought, but we cannnot be too naive on technologies that could matter national security , can we?