Romanian Protesters Vow To Overcome Net Saboteurs

During a seminar last week at the University of Berlin, a journalist gave a lecture about how social media and digital platforms are used in politics. As case studies, he took the far-right movement in Germany, some members of which are filming policemen, social workers, or other “enemies” and putting the footage online along with their private information and threats; the other example is of Romania, and how its people used social media platforms to organize Occupy-style protests, topple governments and fill in for the authorities, by crowdfunding actions, whenever they failed at, for instance, having enough medical supplies in an emergency situation (like the Colectiv disaster).

The journalist wasn’t the only one who noticed that in the hands of some Romanians, social media can be a weapon, but so did the army of trolls backing the ruling Social Democrat Party, that wants to hand over the justice system to the politicians. A day before last Sunday’s protest, a lot of influencers and people with considerable reach on Facebook, who urged people to take to the streets, complained that their accounts had been blocked immediately after sharing demonstration-related content. They’re suspecting that the blocking phenomenon is a move orchestrated by the party, in an attempt to beat them at their own game.

Tensions in Romania are rising because, as a response to the protests and as a means of deterrence, the capital’s administration decided, in a rarely seen display of swiftness, to build a Christmas market right in Piața Victoriei, where all the demonstrations take place. Although they set one up already in another big square. Seeing this as a defiance act, the protesters promise to be back on the streets this Friday in even bigger numbers.