StartupCafe

Distributed Denial of Tatties

Over the last few months, there have been a number of hashtag campaigns on Twitter. The general goal is to encourage other users to use the tag often enough that it appears in the list of “trending topics” every user sees, which should raise awareness of the cause. Some of these are trivial, like the recent #songsincode or the slightly older #quantickstesticles but several seem to be aiming for higher things. The #iranelection tag was pervasive at the beginning of summer, helping to spread the news of events as they happened in Iran, but it also acted as a platform for western supporters to protest against the behaviour of the Iranian government. More recently, in reaction to conservative American FUD about death panels and severe criticism of the NHS, the#welovetheNHS tag gave Brits a chance to stand up for the service. Both could be viewed as showcases of the power of social media to help the public have their voice heard. Both failed to have any significant impact as a protest, because those who most needed to hear it were not listening.

In Iran, it may have encouraged some to join the rallies who may not have otherwise, but it certainly failed toinspire a critical mass to revolt, or the government to seriously face the accusations of fraud and rigging. If anything it may have given the government a bigger stick to beat the dissenters with, as they could use twitter as an example of western powers trying to influence Iranian politics in their favour. In the case of the NHS, it is worth pointing out that the public health care reform bill being considered by the American government was never going to provide a universal healthcare service like the NHS. The comparisons to the NHS were a diversionary tactic aimed more at embarrassing the democrats than seriously undermining the bill (which has so many failings it is not expected to pass).

Why then, if these protests are so wildly popular on twitter, are they so ineffectual in reality? Partly it is due to national boundaries: it is hard to put much force behind your opinion when you are not physically present. It is also due to misdirected effort: #iranelection was noticed by many technically literate middle-class students in Tehran but failed to have much of an impact with the working classes and other cities; #welovetheNHS simply had little relevance to the real issues of American health care. Meanwhile, the people it would have been most desirable to reach (the Iranian government, conservative americans fearing “socialism”) were largely unaffected by it all. Both seem to be a classic example of Slacktivism, a form of protest that carries a low level of commitment from those who take part, while providing them with the pleasant feeling that they have done their bit, regardless of how effective it may have actually been.

Not all twitter campaigns necessarily fall into this category. The Twestival initiative is a fantastic example of a campaign that did large amounts of good, raising $250,000 for charity: water by mobilising volunteers to organise events all over the world. Richard Herring’s campaign to run the Tempting Tattie out of baked potatoes, which was promoted on twitter, on his popular podcast and had a facebook event, was successful on a smaller scale. It attracted around 100 people, giving the shop a boost in sales and free advertising, and probably improved Herring’s reputation a little too. It is worth noting that the main beneficiaries of both schemes did not initiate the campaign, instead they were voluntarily organised by third parties, most of whom had little to gain directly. This behaviour is more in line with the idea of a Gift Economy, where participants trade material goods for social status or the chance of reciprocation in the future. So perhaps a better strategy if you want to change things through social media is to forget the empty protests and to focus instead on taking the opportunity to be unexpectedly nice to others when you get the chance. If twitter can make it easier for us to do that, then maybe it can help save the world!