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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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Tweets from the government’s standoff with 150 Sulu intruders in Lahad Datu

Tweets from @limkitsiang

On fact-finding mission on 12day standoff w some 100 intruders claiming 2b Royal Sulu Army w JimmyWong Edwin HiewKC FredFung ChanHK Wu etc
Wednesday, 20 February, 2013 12:43

Not only Sabahans Msians v concerned abt standoff in Kg Tanduo (13km away but sealed off by police) LahatDatu n Bandar Cenderawasih ppl too
Wednesday, 20 February, 2013 12:57

This is bcos nation’s sovereignty n security undermined by intrusion/standoff – not what Hishammuddin said yesterday, yet 2b threatened!
Wednesday, 20 February, 2013 13:16

Y has Najib not visited LahadDatu 2highlight Fed govt’s seriousness 2resolve issue speedily? Shd even convene emergency Parliament on issue!
Wednesday, 20 February, 2013 13:20

Also convene urgent Sabah State Assembly. Najib shd direct Home/Defence Ministers 2give regular briefings 2update MPs/Sabah SAs on updates
Wednesday, 20 February, 2013 14:25

Intrusion/standoff poor reflection on security capabilities when every year MPs approved tens of billions of RM 4 Home/Defence ministries
Wednesday, 20 February, 2013 14:32

How did the ragtag Suluk militants get past Msian marines, Navy Army n Police? What for 2 multi billion-RM Scorpene Submarines in Sepanggar?
Wednesday, 20 February, 2013 14:38

Back 2Lahat Datu – 6hrs on road 2day n another 2hrs back 2Tawau. Then flight 2KL. LahadDatu/Sabah right 2demand Najib give top attn 2them
Wednesday, 20 February, 2013 15:01

Bcos of info blackout on standoff, all sorts of rumours in Sabah incl baseless 1am riot 2day in KK LahadD n Keningau reported by BorneoPost
Wednesday, 20 February, 2013 15:21

1Q – Govt acted immediately 2deport Aussie senator Xenophon as enemy of state yet helpless w 150 Sulu intruders who r x friends of state. Y?
Wednesday, 20 February, 2013 15:43

With intrusion/12day standoff another reason why Msia has become int laughing stock, can Hisham continue 2 claim Msia safest country in SEA?
Wednesday, 20 February, 2013 15:59

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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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Twitter Power – Helen Clark comes to detainees’ rescue

by MICHAEL FIELD
stuff.co.nz

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark has played a crucial role in winning the release of three jailed Bahraini activists and it is partly due to her passion for Twitter.

Now Secretary General of the United Nations Development Programme, she appears to have followed the arrest of the three women who were Twittering through it all, and then used the power of the social network and her office to win their freedom.

The three women were arrested as they tried to stage a sit-in at a United Nations office in the capital Manama.
Zainab Alkhawaja, Asma Darwish and Sawsan Jawad, who are all closely related to men who were detained during the recent protests, were finally released at about midnight local time.

According to the New York Times, throughout their seven hours in captivity, they managed to hold onto their phones and called on their followers on the social network to apply pressure on Bahrain’s government and on the United Nations.

Clark, who Twitters regularly, then used the UNDP handle to tell the women – and the world – “we’re looking into the situation and establish the facts with a sense of urgency. We’ll give an update asap”. Continue reading “Twitter Power – Helen Clark comes to detainees’ rescue”

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Twitter Power – Tambatuon dam controversy – Why MP Kota Belud never visited kampong? (5)

Twitter sequel Part 5
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

dredwinbosi Jun 07, 12:33am
@mpkotabelud @limkitsiang Food security should not be an issue if we don’t have a surge in pop of legalised illegal immigrants.

dredwinbosi Jun 07, 9:00am
@mpkotabelud @limkitsiang@junzwong Tambatuon is already a natural tourism attraction, no need a man-made lake.
Continue reading “Twitter Power – Tambatuon dam controversy – Why MP Kota Belud never visited kampong? (5)”

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Kit Siang, Kota Belud MP in 2-week dam debate

By Shannon Teoh | June 10, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 — Although Parliament resumes on Monday, Lim Kit Siang and Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan have not ceased a two-week Twitter argument over the construction of a dam in the senior Umno backbencher’s constituency.

The two have been at it hammer and tongs over the RM450 million dam in Kampung Tambatuon, Kota Belud, with increasingly poisonous responses attracting widespread attention from other users of the micro-blogging service. Continue reading “Kit Siang, Kota Belud MP in 2-week dam debate”

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RM450m Tambatuon dam controversy – Why MP Kota Belud never visited kampong? (2)

This is twitter sequel to “RM450m Tambatuon dam controversy – Why MP Kota Belud never visited kampong?”:

29th May – 1 June 2011

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan
Baru landing di KK. Buka phone, timeline dan DM saya flooded wt tweets abt @limkitsiang’s visit to my beloved Kota Belud. Ish..
29 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan
Saya dah bermesyuarat &trima memo JK Bertindak Empangan Tambatuon dua bulan lalu. Kluar dlm paper. @limkitsiang playing spin doctor lagi ke?
29 May

mpkotabelud Abdul Rahman Dahlan
Tak payah main politik dgn I. U all pun sama. RT @kaikiok: Continue reading “RM450m Tambatuon dam controversy – Why MP Kota Belud never visited kampong? (2)”

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Can They Win, One Tweet at a Time?

By Michael Scherer
Time
Monday, May. 30, 2011

When Barack Obama traveled to Texas this month to talk immigration, David Plouffe, his top message guru, decided to stay home and watch Twitter instead. While Obama spoke, Plouffe sat before two flat-screen televisions in the White House complex. One showed live footage of Obama in El Paso. The other flickered with a lightning-quick vertical ticker tape of people tweeting with the #immigration hashtag, reacting line by line to the President in real time. “I find it useful,” Plouffe says, “to see what’s penetrating.”

When Obama went off script to joke that Republicans would soon demand a border moat filled with alligators, a blur of Twitter messages showed people sending the quote to friends and followers, signaling a messaging victory of sorts. “It’s kind of the next evolution,” Plouffe explains. “Remember back in 2008, you’d have the presidential debate, and then most of the networks would have some sort of dial going up and down. That seems very Jurassic Park–like compared to this.” (Read Joel Stein’s essay: “Following the Leader.”) Continue reading “Can They Win, One Tweet at a Time?”

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10 days in May (updated)

Tweets @limkitsiang :-

10 days in May – 5 days when my dominant left eye went blind/5 days initial recovery after vitrectomy ops. But also 10 “black” days 4Msia

10 days when reputation of leaders crashed/causes destroyed. Eg: Fullpage advert 65th UMNO ann but 1 logo no more 1Msia but 1Melayu. Y?

Is Najib PM of 1Msia or 1Melayu? Is Hisham Home Minister 4Msia or UMNO? 1Msia N H never suffered greater damage 2credibility these 10 days

Christian Msia conspiracy? How ludicrous! Height of irresponsibility not just Utusan but Utusan’s boss- UMNO ie Najib/Hisham who must answer
Continue reading “10 days in May (updated)”

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Government says voluntary, but 1 Malaysia email KPI 100pc by 2015

By Jahabar Sadiq
Editor
The Malaysian Insider
April 20, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 — Several firms were invited to bid for the 1 Malaysia email project last November and demonstrate a 100 per cent take-up rate for the service, contradicting the Najib administration’s statement that the account is not compulsory.

The Malaysian Insider understands the key performance indicator (KPI) for the project was a 50 per cent take-up rate for those above 18-years old by 2012, before increasing to 100 per cent by 2015.

The winning bidder also had to demonstrate how it would get 50 per cent of the email account holders to use its value added services such online bill payment and public record searches by 2020, according to a document seen by The Malaysian Insider.

However, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who announced the project yesterday, clarified early this morning that the email account is entirely voluntary. Continue reading “Government says voluntary, but 1 Malaysia email KPI 100pc by 2015”

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Najib’s 1 Malaysia circus — 1 email for every Malaysians

Tweets @limkitsiang:

Are Malaysians so IT-backward? http://bit.ly/ggwc0K All Malaysians to get official 1 Malaysia email a/c (TMI)
04/19/2011 02:26 PM

Will 1 use of 1M a/c get a 1M burger, 2nd use IM-Tshirt, 3rd use 1M-Tupperware? http://bit.ly/ggwc0K All Msians to get 1M email a/c (TMI)
04/19/2011 02:29 PM

Najib’s 1Malaysia circus plumbs new depth – Big Brother-ism gone mad! http://bit.ly/ggwc0K All Msians to get 1M email a/c (TMI)
04/19/2011 02:30 PM

Results Najib’s 1M circus (1)Msians more divided bcos of rhetoric race/religion under UMNO patronage (2)birth new army of 1M fortune hunters
04/19/2011 02:33 PM

Wow! Ripoff of the century! RM50 million 4newfangled 1M email a/c 4Msians that nobody wants. Couldn’t Najib put RM50 million 2better use?
04/19/2011 03:09 PM
Continue reading “Najib’s 1 Malaysia circus — 1 email for every Malaysians”

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Kudos to Prof Bong and Prof Hanafiah of HUKM

Tweets @limkitsiang :

@UKM Specialist Centre where SohAhKee(Mrs PangHokLiong) underwent miraculous +12hr rare pancreatic cancer operation othr specialists decline
04/19/2011 11:20 AM

Ops on 8/4 830am to 845pm carried out by young HepatobiliaryPancreatic Specialist Prof BongJanJien n team – believed 1st such ops in region
04/19/2011 11:29 AM

Prof Bong n specialists in HUKM show our talents compare w best in world Msia must retain/inspire them 2stay instead of joining braindrain
04/19/2011 11:35 AM

Specialists in Spore Malaysia declined Whipple ops on SohAhKee cos she has tumour virtually encasing her arteries n too dangerous 2operate.
04/19/2011 12:15 PM
Continue reading “Kudos to Prof Bong and Prof Hanafiah of HUKM”

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On the Ubah campaign trail (8)

Bersih 2.0 queries Sarawak for barring Ambiga’s visit (TMI) http://bit.ly/fG7j48
Friday, April 15, 2011 5:14 PM

Deny BN 2/3 majority in Sarawak polls 2send powerful message 2all Sarawakians n Malaysians – “Tomorrow can be better!” http://bit.ly/hE02j9
Friday, April 15, 2011 6:12 PM

On the Ubah campaign trail (7) http://bit.ly/evu3oH
Friday, April 15, 2011 6:14 PM

1k ppl Meradong ceramah Bintangor – all expressed support 4re-election of Ting Tze Fui as Assembly rep 2continue 2represent Swkians 4change
Friday, April 15, 2011 9:20 PM
Continue reading “On the Ubah campaign trail (8)”

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On the Ubah campaign trail (7)

Tweets @limkitsiang :

DAP releases postal vote tampering video By Sheridan Mahavera http://ow.ly/4z8UW
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 6:16:44 PM

Another Najib-Peh Moh clash? PM not sure but Peh Moh very sure of 2/3 BN majority. Who is running the Swak BN election campaign?
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 6:18:05 PM

But more imp Q – can Najib give undertaking he will fully respect Swak BN defeat in polls n honour all pledges/projects anncd by PM DPM?
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 6:23:04 PM

Haris Ibrahim denied entry into Sarawak. Peh Moh sending him back 2KL
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 7:02:43 PM
Continue reading “On the Ubah campaign trail (7)”

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On the Ubah campaign trail (6)

Tweets @limkitsiang :

820am AA Sibu-Kch flt further delayed to 1020am. TQ @jeffccl1 Reminded of age – am feeling strain when in past took all stress in stride
9:40 AM Apr 13th

Met airport exPBB MP Bujang Ulis (78-90) n Taib’s nephew Azizan Manan who r campaigning 4 Salleh Jafaruddin in Balingian 2defeat Peh Moh.
10:10 AM Apr 13th

No more delays – flying off @ 1020am
10:11 AM Apr 13th

BN faltering on Taib factor (TMI) http://bit.ly/hnI3xi
2:04 PM Apr 13th
Continue reading “On the Ubah campaign trail (6)”

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On Ubah campaign trail (5)

Tweets @limkitsiang:

Deepest condolence 4bereaved family on death of SabahAir Bell206 helicopter pilot Capt Sahimi Razali.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 11:08 AM

What investigations into SabahAir helicopter mishap n death of Capt Sahimi n what other actions being taken by civil aviation authorities?
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 11:27 AM

@bongkersz now in bintangor will be in sarikei/sibu 2nite n sri aman tmr
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 12:54 PM

Meradong ppl ask Y Muhyiddin cannot come from Sibu by car 30mins-ride or heli mishap wld not have occurred n capt sahimi wld still be living
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 1:33 PM
Continue reading “On Ubah campaign trail (5)”

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On Ubah campaign trail (5)

Tweets @limkitsiang :

Miri pc – Najib’s 1Malaysia reduced into farce by Muhyiddin “I am Malay 1st Msian 2nd” stmt. Now transformed in2 1TShirt 1Tupperware circus
Monday, April 11, 2011 2:23 PM

Latest in Swak elections – GeorgeChan n SUPP leaders waiting 2b saved by MCA’s ChuaSoiLek n Gerakan’s KohTsuKoon!
Monday, April 11, 2011 2:43 PM

Sabah Air helicopter pilot “severely injured”. http://bit.ly/fgN8vj Chopper crashes in Sibu after ferrying DPM’s entourage(TMI)
Monday, April 11, 2011 3:30 PM

PM DPM Ministers staff flying around Swak in election campaign grave threat to safety of helicopter pilots n crew. Suspend all such flights
Monday, April 11, 2011 3:33 PM
Continue reading “On Ubah campaign trail (5)”

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On Ubah campaign trail (4)

Tweets @limkitsiang :-

For first time in 48-year history, Miri leads in forefront for political change in Sarawak’s 10th general elections http://bit.ly/gAYbww
Sunday, April 10, 2011 3:31 PM

Challenge 2 Najib – set up 5 RCIs on pressing issues of public importance http://bit.ly/icSvtQ
Sunday, April 10, 2011 7:09 PM

Who expects him 2admit he’s desperate? Or 2Swak loaded w goodies? http://bit.ly/gnpQ55 6 days in Swak not desperate move, Najib says (TMI)
Sunday, April 10, 2011 7:26 PM

Of course. Najib, Taib, BN in great danger! http://bit.ly/i3sEqO PM on 6-day S’wak blitz: BN in danger? (Mkini)
Sunday, April 10, 2011 7:29 PM
Continue reading “On Ubah campaign trail (4)”