Poliblog Perspective

Analysts have already started studying the reaction actions the use of legal threats to close down websites carrying allegedly defamatory material without further debate.

On his blog The Daily EM, Evgeny Morozov wrote a long piece entitled:

“Cyberactivism 101: notes on emerging distributed advocacy in the case of Usmanov vs Murray”

I found it fascinating as an analysis of how the use of the Internet for publishing of personal political opinions has lead to new possibilities in campaigning for equal representation - in this case in the face of billionaire Alisher Usmanov using Schillings’ “Reputation Management” Lawyers to attempt to suppress open debate of criticism of Alisher Usmanov’s past.

The article has been republished as a summary piece on the Globalist E-Zine, under the title Uzbek Oligarch Faces the “Streisand Effect”:

What do Alisher Usmanov — a Russian oligarch of Uzbek origin and a potential owner of the top-ranked British football club, Arsenal — Apple, the tech giant, and Diebold, a company that produces electronic voting equipment, have in common?

All three have suffered from the “Streisand Effect”, an emerging virtual disease that is giving headaches to public relations professionals all over the world.

A Case Study in Popular Campaigning

Treating this campaign almost as a Case Study, Evgeny draws out a ten point set of “how to” instructions. He summarises the case:

“It didn’t take long for the British blogosphere to react. Dozens of blogs have reposted Murray’s original post (and many have received threatening letters from Schilings); many more have linked to the story (more than 190, but the list is growing, check Chicken Yoghurt for the most recent count). It’s become one of those threads where the left and the right tend to forget their ideological differences and join ranks to fight a common enemy.

What is particularly intriguing about this story is how the British bloggers have used the Web for fighting back and claiming their right to free expression. Below are some of my personal observations on the online campaign, presented as “lessons learnt”. Please keep in mind that in the particular case of Murray vs Usmanov, most of the actions described occurred in just 48 hours.

So here goes my counterinsurgency cyberactivism manual drawn largely on the Murray-Usmanov saga. “

A Cyberactivism 101

Then he draws out ten points in how to campaign effectively - and comments on each in the context of the Alisher Usmanov / Schillings affair:

1. Make copies of the initial post widely available on third-party web-sites.

2. Document all developments related to the story via a single resource; make it easily accessible to non-blogging audiences

3. Tell supporters of your campaign how they can help.

4. Leverage social news and community web-sites.

5. Put meta-data on everything; it makes your posts/pics easier to discover.

6. Encourage and facilitate intra-campaign communication.

7. Crowdsource, crowdsource, crowdsource!.

8. Find partners to build coalitions.

9. Find ways to form language hubs thus getting access/spreading your story to non-English language communities.

10. Be prepared!

You can read the full article at the Daily EM, but I suggest getting a cup of tea first.

Wrapping Up

The thing that I find interesting is that most of this has been spontaneous. There will be a lot of reflection later on, but I think that suppressing political blogs in a niche that both cares a lot about free expression, and knows how to make things happen was not the brightest move ever made by a law firm.

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