Saturday, April 30, 2005

anti-Japanese protests in China and blogging

Yes, those two do have a connection, at least according to a recent report from the BBC. Apparently text messages, blogs, online instant messages, e-mails, and bulletin boards helped to spread word about the recent anti-Japanese protests in China. Chinese authorities usually filter and monitor online forums. And so to circumvent this, Chinese text messagers and bloggers used code words in lieu of "protest." Bloggers called it a "spring outing." I thought that rather funny.

Anyway, the BBC also lists the other significant events worldwide where the influence of these online forums has been apparent. An example here in the United States was when 12,000 workers went on strike in December at the factory of a supplier of Wal-Mart. Workers used SMS and a blog to organise the strike.

I have posted in the past reports and instances in which online forums have played a cruicial role in events that made it to the headline. Consider this event in China an addition.

Here is the article about the protests and online forums from the BBC.

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