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We thought we could tweet our way to a socialist paradise. The election changed that

Suzanne Moore
Guardian
11 May 2015

As the Labour bubble burst amid a volley of disbelieving posts on election night the echo-chamber limitations of Twitter and Facebook became all too clear

One of the biggest shocks of this election is the realisation that you can’t get a socialist paradise on Earth by tweeting. Or even by putting up really angry statuses on Facebook. Who knew? Actually, as people who do this kind of thing all follow each other, it seems that many of them still don’t realise. In the echo chambers some of us inhabit online, everyone not only votes Labour but crows about it in 140 characters.

I love social media and think it is brilliant in all kinds of ways for connecting us, but its limitations have been clearly shown in this election. Declaring one’s allegiances is fine if you understand who you are declaring them to. No one really does. Hope soon changed on election night into disbelieving, angry tweets. Is there an emoji for howling? All of this happened in self-selecting universes.

We all of us inhabit bubbles, and in the current postmortem at least we can see more clearly what some of those bubbles are. Continue reading “We thought we could tweet our way to a socialist paradise. The election changed that”

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Facebook loses sparkle as Malaysian youth embrace messenger apps

by Boo Su-Lyn
The Malaysian Insider
November 26, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 — Fara Halina Rosli updates her Facebook status only once every three days, but the 24-year-old chambering student uses other messaging apps daily to text, and share photographs/cute digital stickers.

Social media analysts say that chat apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE and KakaoTalk are cutting into the social networking giant’s youth customer base in Malaysia, where the entire Facebook population numbers about 13 million.

“Chat apps offer a higher level of privacy versus Facebook or Twitter,” Jagdish Singh Malhi, social media director at global media company Universal McCann, told The Malay Mail Online in a recent email interview.

“Although you can set your privacy level, once you’re friends with a parent, relative or minder, then your personal space is somewhat constricted… In fact, the fastest growing age group on Facebook are the boomers and one of my clients even had her grandma win an iPhone in a Facebook campaign!,” he added.

Facebook admitted last month that its usage among teenagers was dropping, with American business magazine Forbes quoting its chief financial officer David Ebersman saying that the site is witnessing a “decrease in daily users, specifically among younger teens.” Continue reading “Facebook loses sparkle as Malaysian youth embrace messenger apps”

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Russians fight Twitter and Facebook battles over Putin election

Miriam Elder in Moscow
guardian.co.uk
Friday 9 December 2011

Protests against president’s party escalate across social media with flood of automated counterattacks and alleged hacking

Protest against Vladimir Putin United party over elections have escalated across social media, including Twitter and Facebook, with a flood of automated counterattacks.

Russians have flooded Facebook and Twitter as they organise unprecedented protests against Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party. But they are not alone. Thousands of Twitter accounts appear to have been created with the sole purpose of drowning out opposition voices by flooding the service’s hashtag search function.

The automated attacks have dumped a blizzard of meaningless tweets with hashtags such as #Navalny, on which tweets about Alexei Navalny are collated, making it impossible to follow the flow of news about the arrested opposition leader. Many of the so-called “Twitter bots” have now been shut down. Continue reading “Russians fight Twitter and Facebook battles over Putin election”

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‘Diamlah’ wake-up call for Najib

Oon Yeoh | Jul 28, 11 2:31pm
Malaysiakini

I read with amusement that news portals were not included in the media consultative council, mooted to be jointly-headed by Information, Communications and Culture Minister Rais Yatim and Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

Instead of having Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider and Free Malaysia Today – all very popular news sites – as representatives of new media, the government proposal included Blog House, a bloggers’ association.

This is not surprising as the government still obviously thinks of new media as consisting of blogs. Continue reading “‘Diamlah’ wake-up call for Najib”

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The days of gatekeeping are numbered

By Alexis See Tho
July 12, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

Wong waved his hands in the air. “The tear gas canister was right in front of me!” he said.

The 22-year-old working adult was one of thousands of young Malaysians who went to Saturday’s rally that saw tens of thousands of people in the city centre.

Some of them weren’t die-hard supporters of Bersih’s call for clean and fair elections. Some like Wong were there “just for the fun” while others were relentless in their pursuit for the “perfect” photo.

Thousands of protestors and onlookers were at the rally with their cameras and snapped away at everything they saw. Some gung-ho ones even stood between riot police and protestors eager to get a good shot. Continue reading “The days of gatekeeping are numbered”

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Anti-Bersih group holds Najib to ransom

By Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 11, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — Anti-Bersih supporters have mounted a petition online, threatening to abandon its support for Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s administration if the prime minister fails to revoke the citizenships of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Datuk Ambiga Sreenavasan and punish Bersih marchers.

Pledging one million signatures, the petition started by one Rahmat Azim Abd Aziz, 39, warns Najib against ignoring its five demands, saying its signatories would not hesitate to rebel to defend Malaysia, “even without the help of Datuk Seri’s (Najib) government”.

As of 8pm today, the petition entitled, “Legal action and recommendations to His Royal Highness the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia to revoke medals and accolades” has attracted 173 signatures. Continue reading “Anti-Bersih group holds Najib to ransom”

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Resign, netizens tell Najib

Malaysiakini
Jul 11, 11

Even as thousands descended on Kuala Lumpur for the Bersih 2.0 rally on Saturday, netizens held their own protest via Facebook to demand the prime minister’s resignation.

The page, ‘100,000 People Request Najib Tun Razak Resignation’, quickly hit its six-figure target, garnering a staggering 109,484 ‘likes’ from Facebook users within 48 hours.

A large part of the virtual congregation is made up of Bersih 2.0 supporters, many of whom have used the official Bersih 2.0 profile badge. Continue reading “Resign, netizens tell Najib”

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Malaysians Resort To Facebook To Voice Out Their Opinions

By Dinesh Karthikesu
July 10, 2011

Malaysia, according to a recent report by greyreview, is home to more than 11 million Facebook users, and is Asia’s No. 4 Facebook nation behind Indonesia, India and the Philippines respectively. Malaysians however, aren’t just using this ingenious creation to keep in touch with their friends, and to have some social fun. They’ve actually resorted to Facebook to voice out their opinions, and to make themselves heard, and to be perfectly honest with you, they are doing a pretty good job at it.

In the wake of the recent Bersih 2.0 rally that took place in Malaysia, as well as several other countries by concerned Malaysians, several Facebook pages have been set-up by angry, and dissatisfied Malaysians.

A Facebook page was registered under the title, “100,000 People Request Najib Tun Razak’s Resignation“, and moments later, people started flooding the page. The page went viral, and has 52,802 ‘likes’ as I type this. The best part of it? Well, the page has been up for less than a day! Instead of blatantly insulting their leader, who is under immense pressure right now, they figured that being united would be the best way to achieve their goal of having a good government. Some use the page as a medium to share shocking facts, and revelations related to the country’s government. Continue reading “Malaysians Resort To Facebook To Voice Out Their Opinions”

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What creativity?’ Kit Siang asks Soi Lek

By Shannon Teoh
June 19, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 — Lim Kit Siang mocked today Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek’s defence of the “unquantifiable creativity” behind the tourism ministry’s RM1.8 million Facebook project.

The Ipoh Timur MP pointed out that a Facebook page protesting the project has already garnered three times the support of the Tourism Malaysia ~ Cuti-Cuti 1Malaysia page.

“Chua is defending the indefensible. What creativity is Chua talking about?” said DAP’s parliamentary leader of the MCA president’s statement yesterday defending Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.

The Curi-curi Wang Malaysia community page has raced to nearly 120,000 “likes” in just five days while the official Tourism Malaysia page is yet to hit 40,000 despite being set up in May. Continue reading “What creativity?’ Kit Siang asks Soi Lek”

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“Creativity cannot be quantified” – Malaysians must thank their lucky stars it only cost RM1.8m

R1.8 million six Facebook fiasco – Going by Chua Soi Lek’s logic, Malaysians must thank their lucky stars they had not been charged RM18 million or RM180 million as “creativity cannot be quantified”

Going by the logic of MCA President Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek, Malaysians must thank their lucky stars that they had not been charged RM18 million or RM180 million for six Facebook pages to promote tourism to Malaysia although facebook pages are free as “creativity cannot be quantified”.

Chua’s logic is impeccable when he said it might cost nothing to start facebook but “maintenance had costs” particularly when he stressed that it is difficult to put a dollar figure to the creativity of the IT consultants used. Continue reading ““Creativity cannot be quantified” – Malaysians must thank their lucky stars it only cost RM1.8m”

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On Facebook, protest grows against Yen Yen

By Clara Chooi
June 17, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — A spontaneous Facebook campaign started by critics of Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen has drawn the support of nearly 90,000 Malaysians, almost a triple of those who follow her ministry’s official page.

The campaign kicked off on Tuesday evening, shortly after it was revealed that the ministry had spent a whopping RM1.8 million to manage its Facebook accounts. Continue reading “On Facebook, protest grows against Yen Yen”

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Facebook fiasco earns Yen Yen Cabinet colleagues’ ire

By Clara Chooi
June 17, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — Already facing growing public discontent, Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen was confronted with a hostile Cabinet today when she tried to explain her ministry’s controversial RM1.8 million outlay on six Facebook pages and was even told by some colleagues not to waste their time.

The Malaysian Insider understands several ministers also insisted against announcing that Cabinet had officially accepted Ng’s explanation, preferring instead to say they had taken note of it. Continue reading “Facebook fiasco earns Yen Yen Cabinet colleagues’ ire”

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Malaysia’s ‘stupidity’ sizzles Internet

By Casey Lee
June 17, 2011 | Free Malaysia Today

KOTA KINABALU: Malaysia, it seems, is fast becoming the purveyor of laughs on the worldwide web.

On the heels of the Obedient Wives Club which aimed to turn ‘good wives into first class whores’, there’s now the Malaysian government spending RM1.8 million (US$590,000) on six Facebook, which incidentally is free, applications.

The Internet application (app) developer world is abuzz with humour and bewildement at the ‘stupidity’ of the move. Continue reading “Malaysia’s ‘stupidity’ sizzles Internet”

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Loke says Yen Yen’s answers unsatisfactory

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
June 17, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — The DAP’s Anthony Loke today accused Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen of not answering why six Facebook pages cost RM1.8 million.

“This is unsatisfactory. She has not yet explained what exactly is integrated social media campaigning…what is the scope of social media? Facebook and Twitter? If it’s not a website, what is the money for? Advertisements? Where?” the DAP socialist youth chief (Dapsy) told The Malaysian Insider.

The Tourism Minister said yesterday she did not contradict a detailed account of the costs, and that the sum of money was for an “integrated social media campaign.” Continue reading “Loke says Yen Yen’s answers unsatisfactory”

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Yen Yen blames DAP for Facebook ‘distortion’

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 16, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 — Datuk Seri Ng Yen Yen blamed DAP for “distorting” facts on the tourism ministry’s RM1.8 million expenditure to develop six Facebook pages, insisting today she did not contradict a detailed account of the costs.

Her deputy, James Dawos Mamit, had told Parliament that each Facebook page had cost RM293,072.

“My deputy minister had answered it very clearly… Facebook is free.

“The cost is for the integrated social media campaign, the DAP has taken the campaign and distorted it… I accuse him (Anthony Loke) of distortion,” she told reporters today.

The tourism minister said that so far RM250,000 had been spent on the campaign. Continue reading “Yen Yen blames DAP for Facebook ‘distortion’”