Online Protest Research Articles

‘Žít Brno’: Czech online political activism from jokes and tactics to politics and strategies

The paper presents a case study of the Czech online activist group Žít Brno. The group that challenges local representatives and employs tactics of political satire, parody and culture jamming, evolved from a spontaneous one-off event to an ongoing political project and eventually became an institutionalized political actor. The case study, based on interviews with group members, content analysis of the project website, longitudinal observation of the group's activities and other additional material, enables us to research the limits and the potential of online tactics and the way online practices are intertwined with a more traditional repertoire of collective action. Building on debates about online political participation and the broadening concept of the political, we interpret the group's protest as a reaction to the crisis of institutionalized local politics and we discuss the actual role of new media in such a protest. The conclusion is that online protest and new media, despite their criticized action-less character, could enable a functional bridge to “real” politics but at the same time they do not play an exclusive role in successful protest politics and have to be interpreted within the context of a particular political action.

‘Let's Get a Bit of Context’: Fifty Shades and the Phenomenon of ‘Pulling to Publish’ in Twilight Fan Fiction

The publishing success of E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey, a series with origins as Twilight fan fiction, has energised popular interest in the practice of writing fan fiction (or ‘fanfics’). Equally, however, the series' popularity has fuelled debate on the ethics of its commercial publication. This article highlights the divisive and polarising phenomenon of ‘pulling to publish’ in the Twilight fandom. ‘Pulling to publish’ refers to the process of rewriting and republishing for profit a work that was inspired by another's intellectual property, and collaboratively edited by unpaid volunteers – the majority of whom would have expected the edited work to be freely available in perpetuity. Among other relevant case studies, this article examines a critical instance of pseudonymous online protest, challenge and defence between James and another well-known fanfic writer, coinciding with the March 2011 announcement that Fifty Shades would be commercially published. Several critiques of fanfic commercialisation are contextualised by a critical reading of the ‘official’ publication history of Fifty Shades, revealing the incompatibility of two self-constructed fan identities: the faithful and the opportunistic.

The Future of Social Movement Organizations

This article examines the role of social movement organizations (SMOs) in Internet activism. While SMOs may still play a vital role in offline protest that is facilitated online, I argue that SMOs do not necessarily offer strong returns on investment for forms of protest in which participation occurs online or in which entire movements are organized online. Specifically, I argue that several critical functions for SMOs in offline social movements are not as applicable online, rendering SMOs less necessary for online participation and/or organizing. However, that SMOs may no longer be prerequisites for online protest does not imply their extinction for several reasons. First, noninstrumental motives may drive SMO formation and maintenance. Second, other situations remain, such as facilitating offline protest using the Internet, in which SMOs are still likely to provide significant returns on investment. Third, SMOs may be important to healthy movement ecologies such that entire social movements that are devoid of SMOs may operate less optimally than movements in which at least some SMOs are active. I close by arguing for increased research on settings where SMOs are absent and on alternative returns on investments for SMOs in Internet activism.

Studying Online Activism: The Effects of Sampling Design on Findings

Social movement scholars are increasingly interested in Internet activism but have struggled to find robust methods for identifying cases, particularly representative samples of online protest content, given that no population list exists. This article reviews early approaches to this problem, focusing on three recent case sampling designs that attempt to address this problem. The first approach purposively samples from an organizationally based sampling frame. The second approach randomly samples from a SMO-based sampling frame. The third approach mimics user routines to identify populations of "reachable" websites on a given topic, which are then randomly sampled. For each approach, I examine the sampling frame and sampling method to understand how cases were selected, outline the assumptions built into the overall sampling design, and discuss an exemplary research project employing each design. Comparisons of findings from these exemplar studies indicate that sampling designs are extremely consequential. I close by recommending best practices.

The Wealth of (Occupation) Networks? Communication Patterns and Information Distribution in a Twitter Protest Network

ABSTRACT Can social media facilitate better protest action organization and coordination? This question has been at the forefront of discussion between media pundits and academic scholars. But what networking mechanisms and communication patterns help activists achieve better organization and coordination? This study uses social network analysis to explore students' Twitter use during the 2010 university occupations. It maps the interconnections between Twitter occupation accounts at the peak of the online protest network's activity and examines how this structure benefited the entire network. It identifies (a) how “closely” accounts were connected, (b) which were the best connected, and (c) which acted as brokers. Findings show that the protest groups used the Twitter network structure to establish horizontal, direct lines of communication to efficiently redistribute information. Although some accounts played a larger role in distributing information than others, occupation accounts could continue to receive information from the decentralized network even if well-connected accounts were removed.

Legitimacy and efficacy: The blackout of Wikipedia

The hallmark of the successful online protest against SOPA was the blackout of Wikipedia for a day. This paper tracks the internal dynamics that led to Wikipedia’s blackout and focuses on the place that legitimacy and authority had in crafting the debate.

Copyright Lawmaking and the Public Choice: From Legislative Battles to Private Ordering

On January 18th, 2012, the Web went dark in the largest online protest in history. Two anti-piracy Bills – The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and The Protect IP Act (PIPA) – attracted waves of opposition from the Internet community, which culminated on January 18th in an unprecedented 24-hour Web strike, followed by a decision to shelve the Bills indefinitely. The tech industries’ recent rise to be one of the most influential lobbies in copyright legislative arena, and social networks’ ability to lower mobilization costs of individual users set the foundation for the overwhelming accomplishment of the SOPA/PIPA uprising. An established line of commentary has employed public choice theory to explain the perspective that corporate copyright holders have had disproportionate influence on copyright lawmaking to the detriment of the general public. Following the successful opposition to the antipiracy bills, voices arguing a revolution in copyright legislation and policymaking began speaking out. Contrary to those voices, this Article argues that since the laudable display of the power of the public in the SOPA/PIPA case was of a unique context, it is too soon to part ways with the public choice model of copyright lawmaking. The public should be looked at as a ‘sleeping giant’ whose potential awakening, as paramount as it could be, is merely a potential. Furthermore, this Article claims that even if the public could mobilize into action more frequently, previous resort to private ordering in the form of cross-industry partnerships, which are often kept away from the public eye, would regularly impede public opposition. Cross-industry partnerships, while little-discussed in legal commentary, make perfect economic sense for corporate players, and they can be as influential and effective as public legislation, without the fear of a prospective public backlash.

PRIVATE PROTEST?

This article examines two historically distinct understandings of privacy and their relationship to online protest. Using a contemporary view of privacy, which focuses on information secrecy and disclosure, the author examined the development of ‘private protest’ in which both the identities of protesters and even the number of participants are concealed. Empirically, she traced this by tracking both the percentage of protest-related websites that include privacy policies and the percentage of online protest actions that report or estimate participation figures. Using a much older view of privacy, which focuses on controlled access to private property, she examined the implications of online protest occurring on private servers (e.g. Facebook, YouTube). Offline protesters have increasingly had to choose between protesting in venues that enjoy substantial free speech protections or protesting in venues where large numbers of people gather; she argued that online protesters face a similar dilemma but with less recourse to protesting in legally protected spaces. By examining both definitions of privacy, this article offers a rich understanding of the privacy dilemmas facing online protest organizers and participants.

Apocalypse Now: An Interview with Joy Garnett

Apocalypse Now: An Interview with Joy Garnett

The Internet as a Tool for Black Feminist Activism: Lessons From an Online Antirape Protest

This article explores how the Internet is a tool for Black women to challenge violence against women of color. It highlights online protest in response to the actions of civil rights organizations’ narrow focus on the treatment of Black male offenders while overlooking the civil rights of Black female victims. Specifically, the article examines a protest focusing on the reactions of racial justice leaders to a brutal gang rape in a Palm Beach housing project known as Dunbar Village. Drawing from the literature on collective action frames, this article illustrates how the Dunbar Village protest evolved from an online dialogue to social protest.

THE DYNAMICS OF PROTEST-RELATED DIFFUSION ON THE WEB

Drawing on several larger literatures on diffusion processes, including literatures on the diffusion of innovations, disease spread, and the diffusion of information, this paper examines the classes of diffusion processes that may be relevant to understanding online protest and social movements. The author also argues that one commonly studied type of online, protest-related diffusion process – the online diffusion of information – has only minor theoretical implications for social movement theory. Two other diffusion processes – the diffusion of online, protest-related innovations and the diffusion of protest in its many forms as a problem-solving heuristic to new populations – are likely to qualitatively alter other (non-diffusion) social movement processes, creating important second-order, theoretical effects from these types of diffusion.

Technical documents as rhetorical agency

This research argues that documents can become intermediaries which affect the relationships between disparate groups. Through a critical analysis of materials distributed during an online protest, the author traces the life of a single technical document, simultaneously describing how it was described during deliberation between several groups. Marcusean critical theory and rhetorical criticism framed the analysis. It is suggested that certain documents act as a locus between otherwise unaffiliated groups and that those documents become agents who can mediate deliberation. Further, it is suggested that document analysis can become an important aspect for interpreting group relationships. Future research examining the agency of documents is suggested.

THE TARGETS OF ONLINE PROTEST

A major debate has erupted in recent work on social movements about the role of the state in protest, with some advocating alternative approaches to the study of social movements, such as a focus on institutional authorities. Using data on four types of online protest (petitions, boycotts, and letter-writing and email campaigns), acquired using an innovative new methodology that produces a generalizable sample of online protest actions, this paper addresses this debate. While the state is a frequent target of online protest, a significant portion of protest activity targets other institutional authorities. The authors' analyses disaggregate the state and distinguish between types of institutional authorities, further deepening the understanding of both state and non-state actors. Their data also suggest an association between tactical forms and their targets. Finally, by using Internet data, this paper contributes to an under-studied area of social movement research: online protest.

A Conceptual Framework for Online Business Protest Tactics and Criteria for Their Effectiveness

In this article, the authors lay the foundation for the emerging area of research on online protest tactics mobilized against business. The authors offer a definition of online business protest tactics and distinguish them from related activities such as electronic civil disobedience and cybercrime. They also appeal to the interest-group literature as one theoretical foundation for this area of research. Based on the degree to which each tactic involves intrusion, disruption, or damage, the authors categorize the array of online business protest tactics into a typology, providing definitions and illustrative examples from the business press for each. They advance a dualistic framework to evaluate the intermediate and ultimate effectiveness of the various online business protest tactics using a set of criteria relevant to both online and off-line environments, and conclude by suggesting avenues for future research.

“Boulevard of Broken Songs”

“Boulevard of Broken Songs”

Deconstructing Google bombs: A breach of symbolic power or just a goofy prank?

In this study I compare two Google bombs using Melluci’s (1996) social movement framework. Viewing the Google bombing practice as a social movement provides an informative lens from which to analyze the nature and goals as well as the results of this form of online collective action. The empirical basis for this research relies on analysis of the content and context of Google bomb hyperlinking using an approach informed by Beaulieu’s (2005) notion of sociable hyperlinks. From this study I conclude that the Google bombing practice is an online protest technique not unlike the "media mind bomb" developed by the late Bob Hunter of Greenpeace (2004) fame. In the case of Hunter’s mind bombs, sounds and images were used to form alternate constructions of reality in the news media. Similarly, Google bombs are constructed by manipulating the relative ranking of an Internet search term and thereby creating alternate constructions of reality through collective action online.

French researchers at boiling point

Thousands of French researchers are joining an online protest and threatening a boycott of their administrative work over the government's handling of science funding over recent years. Michael Gross reports.

Death of distance or tyranny of distance? The Internet, deterritorialization, and the anti-globalization movement in Australia

Much of the analysis of the anti-globalization movement that has emerged in the last five years has focused on the degree to which the Internet has played a crucial role in contemporary social movements. It is commonly argued that the Internet helps create ‘virtual communities’ that use the medium to exchange information, coordinate activities, and build and extend political support. Much of the commentary on the web as a means of political mobilization for social movements stresses the degree to which the Internet compresses both space and time, accelerating the exchange of information among whomever has access to this technology. Equally important in this view is the deterritorialized nature of on-line protest and the diminution in importance of ‘place’ in current anti-globalization campaigns. Certainly this argument features prominently in analyses of the campaign against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) in 1997-98 and the protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle in November and December 1999. Our examination of the antiglobalization movement in Australia however leads us to a different conclusion: that while the Internet does indeed compress time, it compresses space in a different, and indeed quite variable, way. We examine the way in which Australians protested against the MAI and against the WTO meetings in Seattle, and show the differences in the nature of protest in each case. In the MAI case, the protests were well-organized and national in scope, with the Internet playing an important role in organizing the movement. By contrast, in the case of the WTO, the movement was minor and relatively marginal, with the Internet playing little discernible role in galvanizing protest. We conclude that crucial to an understanding of the differences was the considerable difference in the importance of ‘place’ in each case.

Death of distance or tyranny of distance? The Internet, deterritorialization, and the anti-globalization movement in Australia

Much of the analysis of the anti-globalization movement that has emerged in the last five years has focused on the degree to which the Internet has played a crucial role in contemporary social movements. It is commonly argued that the Internet helps create ‘virtual communities’ that use the medium to exchange information, coordinate activities, and build and extend political support. Much of the commentary on the web as a means of political mobilization for social movements stresses the degree to which the Internet compresses both space and time, accelerating the exchange of information among whomever has access to this technology. Equally important in this view is the deterritorialized nature of on-line protest and the diminution in importance of ‘place’ in current anti-globalization campaigns. Certainly this argument features prominently in analyses of the campaign against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) in 1997-98 and the protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle in November and December 1999. Our examination of the antiglobalization movement in Australia however leads us to a different conclusion: that while the Internet does indeed compress time, it compresses space in a different, and indeed quite variable, way. We examine the way in which Australians protested against the MAI and against the WTO meetings in Seattle, and show the differences in the nature of protest in each case. In the MAI case, the protests were well-organized and national in scope, with the Internet playing an important role in organizing the movement. By contrast, in the case of the WTO, the movement was minor and relatively marginal, with the Internet playing little discernible role in galvanizing protest. We conclude that crucial to an understanding of the differences was the considerable difference in the importance of ‘place’ in each case.