Web Activism Across the Globe

In a blog post this past weekend, Ethan Zuckerman, founder of Global Voices and fellow of the Berkman Center, used political remixes of Apple's "1984" commercial to exemplify the broad reach of modern web tools.

As the Washington Post reported last month, the first viral attack ad of the 2008 campaign was a mash-up that was viewed more than one million times in its first 48 hours online.  The media reports categorized the use of this means of communication as groundbreaking, innovative, and powerful.  Ethan happened to discuss this with a friend, Sami ben Gharbia, who pointed him in the direction of a Tunisian political mash-up using the same commercial.

After noticing the date of production on the Tunisian video was early 2004, Ethan surmised that the recent American version was most likely produced without knowledge of the Tunisian mash-up, but that the coverage and fanfare the American version got - in a country with a comparatively free press - should be crediting activists from all corners of the globe, using many of the same tools to get their message out.

One of Tunisia's ISPs has blocked the site that the video was posted too, but as Ethan notes: "Censorship, as always, is the sincerest form of flattery." 

Be sure to read Ethan's post, "Democrats invent the remix, only three years after the Tunisians" for the full story and his analysis.