Internet use in Social Activism in Taiwan: Modes, Constraints and Strategic Integration

ISA Congress, Yokohama, 19 July 2014

Dr. Albert Tzeng, International Institute for Asian Studies, Leidenp.w.tzeng@gmail.com

A Military Servicemen’s Death and “Citizen 1985”the emergence of social activism 2.0?

Introduction

The Emergence of “g0v” Community“programing for social reform”

Modes of Internet Use in Social Activismtypology and constraints

Sunflower Movementintegration of approaches

I. A Military Servicemen’s Death and ‘Citizen 1985’

Cyber Mobilization for a Cause

1.1 Hung Chung-Chiu’s Death

July 4, 2014 Hung Chung-Chiu ( 洪仲丘 ), a corporal in Army, died from extensive physical exercise under high temperature during military detention - only few days before the completion of his service term

Violation of procedural codes revealed, but critical evidence missing (e.g. camera mal-function)

Public suspicion of military abuse or even conspired murder

Distrust on military juridical systemWidespread sympathy and anger

1.2 Citizen 1985 as “Social Activism 2.0”?

A group of ‘netizens,’ mostly middle class professionals, met in a cafe in response to a post (by a young doctor) calling for collective action.Note: 1985- number of military helpline

7.20 The first rally of (estimated) 30,000 people demanding “truth” and “institutional reform” (without specified objective)8.3 The second rally of (claimed) 250,000 people demanding abolishment of the military juridical system

Mixed-responses from traditional NGOS/ political parties, who failed to stage any mass protest at comparable scale for years:1. Self-doubt and eulogy of “social activism 2.0”2. Criticism on the two rallies as “amateur and ineffective”

1.3 Icons and FB Campaign

Logos for two rally, reads“Lost Equality and Justice” & “Big Citizen is Watching You.” Both logos were widely used as FB profile/cover images

Campaign: Wear white T-shirt and upload your photo to facebook to show support. Mast to stress the anonymity of initiators and “everyone is hero”

1.4 Creative Elements at the Rally

Group pushing-up at the Ministry of Defense

Drama that mock the malfunction camera

Protestors holding posters of “Citizen Eye”

Lighting Candles around the photo of Hung

1.5 PRNV and Order

1.6 Contrast of Trad. Protest and “1985-style”

Traditional Protest 1985-Style

Leader Long standing advocacy group or activist concerned about particular issues

Decentralized network of anonymous volunteers responding to emergent incident

Crowd Organized crowd experienced with protest, mobilized via personal/ institutional network

Unorganized crowd inexperienced with protest, mobilized mainly online

Style Sometimes violently confrontational

“Peaceful, rational and non-violent” (PRNV) orderly and imaginative

Image “mob”, risky to attend Cool and Safe

Demand/ follow-up

Well-researched and clear demand with persistent follow-up in policy process

Loosely defined objective without focused monitoring of subsequent policy change

Criticism

High barrier to participateFailure to engage more people

Carnival-ization of social protestIneffective/ inefficient in delivering political outcome

II. Emergence of “g-zero-v” government

“Programing for Social Reform”

2.1 “g-zero-v” movement

A loose network of programmers and IT engineers Influenced by hacker culture. Core Values:

Transparency- faith on free flow of informationOpen Culture – principle of open sourceCommunity- distrust in centralized power

Creation of g0v sites mirroring gov sites, which features gov-released data in a more accessible, user-friendly format:visualisationaccessibility (search engine)data format (word > hypertext with url to each paragraph)

gadgets, e.g. browser plug-in

2.2.1 Visualization Government Budget

Visualization of the scale of budget allocated to different Ministries and Boards

Another version with the colors indicating the ratio of budget change from the previous year.

2.2.2 Visualization Political Donations

Chart of political donation received by MP (red) and the frequencies of their absence from committee meetings.

Structure of political donation (marked in different colors) received by individual MP

2.2.3 VisualizationCorporate Networks

Visualized Database of how corporations were interconnected (e.g. cross stock-holding, shared board members)

2.3 Data Accessibility

g0v data center, which include all dataset searchable from diverse government websites.

One-site search engine of all welfare resources provided by different governmental agencies.

2.4 Information Gadgets

News Helper- a small browser plug-in that alert you on online news that has been reported problematic.

Job-seeker’s Helper A browser plug-in that alert job-seeker of the “record of labor law violation” of the company profile browsed.

III. Modes of Internet Use in Social ActivismTypology and Constraints

3.1 Four Modes of IT-use in Social Activism

Cause Platform

Mature Form Trad. advocacy/activism groups

Online indie-media

Organization founded to address a public concern via campaign, lobbying, protest or other initiatives.

Discursive platform for dialogue, civil empowerment and idea accumulation.

Websites, youtube, social media, petition, fundraising

Media websites, distributed via social media

Emerging Form

1985-style cyber mobilization

G-zero-v community

A loose network of actors assembled as a response to some emergent incidents, with the expectation to mobilize online more public attention.

Innovative platform for devising new platforms that is expected to lead to social reform by redirecting information flow

Social media, youtube, BBS

Internet as infrastructure

Emerging forms relies more on actors’ voluntary agency. A form of liquidity?

3.2 Strengths and Constraints

Trad NGO 1985 style Indie-Media g0v Projects

Mature Emerging Mature Emerging

Cause Cause Platform Platform

Strength Focused attention in Issues

Mass online mobilization and PR

Deliberation and discursive accumulation

Devicing Information Infrastructure

Barriers to Participate

Social and Epistemological

Least Epistemological

Technical

Scale of participants

10^2-3 10^5 10^3-5 10^3

Constraints Difficulty to broaden participation

Polit. pressure not focused/ sustained

influence limited to educated elites

engineers’ taste

IV. Sunflower MovementIntegration of Approaches

4.1 Outline of Context

300-400 protestors occupied Taiwanese Parliament on 3.18 to resist the abrupt “passing” of Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement from Parliamentary committee review

Cause- the absence of legal procedure for parliamentary monitoring of agreements with China; the appropriation of an improper procedure

Demand- “legalization of a ‘monitoring law’ before substantial review

3,000-30,000 supporters emerged, which effectively backed up the occupants from being cleared by police force

48%-56% supported occupation, whereas less than 40% oppose63%-74% supported the demands

24 day occupation (including a mass rally of 350-500,000 on 3.30) that ended with concession from parliament chairperson

4.2 Four Approaches of Social ActivismIntegration in Sunflower Mvt

Four approaches of social activism (distinguished in my earlier manuscript about internet use for social movement):

Conventional advocacy groups

‘1985-style’-netizen assembly for a cause

The g0v community

Independent media

Defining agenda, initiating the entire movement and taking actions

Social mobilization and PR

Setting up IT infrastructure, live broadcast; constructing a platform for coordination and multiple sites for public communication

Discursive accumulation and public deliberation on related issues

Blurred boundaries with intensified interplay between approaches.

4.1.1 Groups Involved

Primary Concern

CORE groups within the decision-making circle

PERIPHERAL groups present but excluded from the decision-making

IndependenceTW Nationalism

Taiwan Asso. for Univ. Professors ( 台教會 )

Alliance for Referendum ( 公投盟 )Wing of Radical Politics ( 基進側翼 )

Left-Wing Taiwan Rural Front ( 農陣 )Taiwan Labour Front ( 勞陣 )

Alliance for Workers of Closed Factories ( 全關連 ) Taiwan International Worker Association ( 台灣國際勞工協會 )

Environmental Green Citizens’ Action Alliance ( 綠盟 )Earth Citizen Foundation ( 地球公民 )

Human Rights Awakening Foundation ( 婦女新知 )Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Right and Welfare ( 台少盟 )Taiwan Asso. for Human Right ( 台權會 )

Taiwan Alliance for the Victims of Urban Renewal ( 都更受害者聯盟 )

Democratic Reform

Taiwan Democracy Watch ( 民主守護平台 )Citizen Congress Watch ( 公督盟 )Citizen 1985+

Student/ Youth Activist Group

Black Island Youth( 黑島青 ), Citizen 1985+(Miaoli Youth Front)

Variety of student societies

4.1.2 Official Pages

Left: Announcement of 318 Operation posted on Facebook page of Black Island Nation Youth Front

Right: Call for joining the 3.30 Rally posted on website of Democratic Front

Down: “Democracy at 4am,” an English site set up to communicate with foreign audience

4.1.3 Online Fundraising

More than 6 million NTD raised on FlyingV, a online group fundraising platform, to buy an add on the front page of New York Times

4.2.1 “1985-style”Decentralised Online Mobilisation

Online media- youtube, slideshare, images and documents Social media- Facebook, twitter, plurk PTT, a BBS (DOS-like bulletin board system) founded in 1994, of which

the user count reached a historical high on 3.24 when 177.734 users logged online at the same time.

Decentralized- collective action of the various parties

4.2.2 “1985-style”Images appealing to the Public Majority

Medical Station (Professional) Medical Paths (Order) QR Code on Screen (Hi-Tech)

Artistic Work (Creative) Recycling (Responsible) Studying (Good Students)

4.3.1 “g-zero-v” TeamCoordination Platform: Logistic Management

Online table for logistic demands (item, quantity, location, contact)

4.3.2 “g-zero-v” TeamCoordination Platform: Volunteer Shift Scheduling

Self-filled shift table of volunteer “participants from home” (video transcriber)

4.3.3 “g-zero-v” TeamCoordination: Textual Transcript of the Event

Transcript of the event

4.3.4 “g-zero-v” Team Public Communication: Broadcasting

4.3.5 “g-zero-v” Team Public Communication: CSSTA Running Headlines

An continuously-updated list of articles published from various websites.

4.3.6 “g-zero-v” TeamPublic Communication: Contested Views on CSSTA

Website that categorize online commentaries/news in four pairs of contradictory stances

4.3.7 “g-zero-v” TeamPublic Communication: Democracy Classroom

3/20 濟南路 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKbOavrerNQ&feature=youtu.be

編號 演講命題 講師 影片時間 單篇分享網址

1 兩岸經貿如何影響民主？ [清大社會所-陳明祺老師] 53:37-1:15:44 http://ppt.cc/vv2e

2 服貿對言論自由的影響 [台大新聞所-張錦華老師] 1:47:18-2:00:49

http://ppt.cc/Ii8L

3 無命題 [世新大學-蕭旭智老師] 2:11:21-2:21:56

http://ppt.cc/wA82

4 無命題 [東吳大學法律系-胡博硯老師] 2:43:23-2:50:52

http://ppt.cc/kFqy

5 公民社會有什麼用？ [台大社會系-范雲老師] 2:56:17-3:16:15

http://ppt.cc/Rvbu

6 無命題 [中央研究院應用科學中心-梁國幹老師] 3:19:30-3:36:20

http://ppt.cc/2gLA

7 無命題 [台北大學法律系-官曉薇老師] 3:37:45-3:46:14

http://ppt.cc/qnc0

8 服貿、抵抗權與審議民主 [台大社會系-林國明教授] 3:48:00-4:06:00

http://ppt.cc/TkQS

9 無命題 [淡江法文系-詹文碩老師] 4:12:25-4:21:20

http://ppt.cc/Pm9V

10 健康照護與服貿協議 [台北大學社會系—張恆豪老師] 4:22:43-4:27:10

http://ppt.cc/0CV2

11 無命題 [世新大學傳播管理學系-羅慧雯老師] 4:30:00-4:39:36

http://ppt.cc/uzYp

12 無命題 [人本基金會-史英老師] 4:47:00-5:14:05

http://ppt.cc/QERB

13 無命題 [世新大學社會心理系-范綱華老師] 5:16:00-5:21:38

http://ppt.cc/J59J

14 無命題 [政治大學法學院-陳志輝老師] 5:22:00-6:05:00

http://ppt.cc/6Y1y

15 服貿背後的新自由主義迷思

[中山大學社會學系-邱花妹老師] 6:16:30-6:57:07

http://ppt.cc/H2vP

16 無命題 [世新大學傳播學系-黃順星老師] 7:13:00-7:20:24

http://ppt.cc/ysji

17 民主與抵抗權 [東吳政治系-陳俊宏老師] 7:20:38-7:41:25

http://ppt.cc/cDNd

3/20 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSVVKmFLQqY

1 服貿與認同政治 [交大人文社會系-許維德老師] all http://ppt.cc/PmRJ

03/21 濟南路 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDB7jcS8LX8

1 無命題 [政治大學地政學系徐世榮老師] 1:30:00-1:48:56 http://ppt.cc/SVfq

2 網絡與社會運動 [ -台大社會系 簡妤儒老師] 2:10:00-2:23:40 http://ppt.cc/lmPK

Titles include: How Cross-Strait Trade Affect Democracy Impact of CSSTA on Freedom of Speech CSSTA, Right to Resist and Deliberative Democracy Healthcare and CSSTA The Neoliberal Myth Behind CSSTA CSSTA and Identity Politics Internet and Social Movement CSSTA and Income Distribution Today and Tomorrow? Taiwan and Hong Kong Anti-CSSTA and Indigenous Civil Right Movement The Political Implication of ECFA and Cross-Strait IP Agreement Minorities and Majority in Representative Democracy Why Social Workers Should Oppose CSSTA? Why the State Treat Us as Mob? The Economic Analysis of CSSTA CSSTA Might Undermine Future Technological Innovation CSSTA, Liberal Economics and Argriculture

4.3.7 “g-zero-v” Team Some Side-effect

4.4 Discursive AccumulationIndependent News-media and Commentaries

Coda

Fast evolution and integration of internet appliance in social activism, which makes any typology transient

Transnational dispersion beyond Taiwan

Logistics and broadcasting platform used in Hong Kong 7.1 mass rally. Original codes from Taiwanese g0v team.