Abstract
The paper examines the participation characteristics within internet-based collective action by analysing the case of digital rights campaigning. Drawing upon empirical findings from a case study (the “Telecoms Package” campaign, 2007-2009), we discuss how digital rights activists organise, collaborate and mobilise using websites, mailing lists, wikis and instant messaging channels. Participation is individualised and malleable. However, successful digital rights’ campaigning requires political, technical and social skills. To intervene in EU policy-making, activists need technical and political expertise and technological skills. As a result and contrary to claims of inclusiveness and openness, digital rights campaigning is in fact dominated by a small group of highly specialised movement entrepreneurs who mobilise occasionally to demonstrate broader support to policy-makers. The emergence of internet-based campaigning does not necessarily equal to more inclusive forms of participation. However, it allows for the engagement of resource-poor actors in traditional policy settings such as the EU.
Highlights
The present paper investigates how digital rights activists organise online, asking the question of who does what in online campaigning networks or whether participation is horizontal and equal among peers as often suggested by the literature
The particular case of the Telecoms package campaign has been selected because it was unfolding at the time of the research, offering insight into digital rights activism in its particular European context
The paper builds on a series of thirty-two in-depth interviews with core campaigners involved in the Telecoms package reform, that were selected following a purposive sampling strategy
Summary
Internet sites connect like-minded actors, through lateral linkages (Foot, Xenos, Schneider, Kluver, & Jankowski, 2009; Gibson & Ward, 2000; Kavada, 2009). 142) as “hundreds, thousands of organisations and individuals, around the world, converging in some symbolic protests, dispersing to focus on their own specific issues – or just vanishing, to be replaced by new contingents of newly born activists” This increased flexibility contributes to the success of some internet-based movements but it makes it more difficult to estimate what type and how many individuals are involved, regarding the fluidity of this type of protest forms (Dahlgren, 2004). Following Howard (2010), even if only a small number of internet users engage in contentious activities, notably in totalitarian states where internet access can be extremely limited, a few “brokers” suffice to inform a larger community and spark off wider protest actions This is the case when the various segments and leaders composing a movement are integrated with each other. To questions of participation and inclusiveness, the paper focuses on the role of leaders in internet-based activism
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