Diasemglobo - Censored by Wikipedia

What they want you to forget:
O que eles preferem que você esqueça:

Anatomy of Twitter Trending Topics Manipulation

On our last post, #diasemglobo and how big media was able to manipulate Twitter Trending Topics? , we were really intrigued about Twitter Trending Topics manipulation by big media. Yesterday, after performing what we call a "stress test" we could finally have some insight on how someone is managing to do that. This is a screen capture of what happened when #diasemglobo was trending worldwide:

Somehow, they are being able to mess with Trending Topics search. After this error happens (No results for #diasemglobo), people can't follow the topic anymore. It then collapses. Big media is being able to pick whatever topic interests them the most and push it to the top. Yesterday we performed a simple experiment, tainting the topic "Adeus Cristiano Ronaldo" - Goodbye Cristiano Ronaldo with our movement's message. After some minutes, guess what?

Same error. The Trending Topic, that was trending for the whole afternoon, dissapeared as well. They then are able to coordinate introducing other Topics that were waiting to be boosted, such as "Fátima Bernardes", "Tony Ramos", "Ana Maria Braga" and "Mariana Ximenes". All celebrities from the media conglomerate. Last week, even the death of one of these celebrities was announced "Lima Duarte morreu", in a distasteful effort to shut us up.


We are really upset and saddened that this kind of manipulation is happening on Twitter right now. We understand Twitter as the chance of individual citizens to share with the world their ideas and concerns. From the point big media can interfere on Twitter Trending Topics, we loose this opportunity. That is just not fair.


Help us free twitter from big media manipulation.


02.07.2010 | #umdiasemglobo | #People united against manipulation.


Kind regards,
@diasemglobo

#diasemglobo and how big media was able to manipulate Twitter Trending Topics?

Diasemglobo was supposed to be just that: a day without GloboTV, Brazil’s foremost media conglomerate.  Like many Brazilians, I was unhappy with Globo’s treatment of the Brazilian soccer coach, Dunga, and decided that changing the channel the day that Brazil played Portugal in the World Cup was a clear way to make my point.  What actually happened was much more interesting: social media pitted against a media giant.

In three days, the account had thousands of followers. The hashtag #diasemglobo was appearing in the Trending Topics nationally which eventually spread, being featured in the worldwide twitter topics. It suddenly disappeared. Although there were efforts to unseat the topic in Twitter, people had already begun to act. Brazilians produced and printed posters, convinced restaurants to change the channel, had a conversation with family and friends, took the day to read books. Millions of people discussed whether or not they would participate and their reasons why. It was a peaceful dialog.

Rede Globo is the same TV channel that was featured on BBC’s 1992 documentary “Beyond Citizen Kane” which discusses the group's influence, power, and political connections. This documentary was and still is censored in Brazil. Internet is making possible for Brazilians to know more about it today.

I suspect that many Worldwide Trending Topics were manipulated these last days as well, such as “Ana Maria Braga”, in an effort to censor #diasemglobo on Twitter.

After the game, Globo announced TV ratings in an effort to convince the public that the movement was a failure. The problem was, they used ratings numbers issued by the IBOPE institute based on an archaic measuring system called Peoplemeter. To gauge human behavior, randomly selected users need to “log” their presence using an extra remote control every time they want to watch TV. Oh, and don’t forget to press the button every time someone leaves the room as well. If you also consider that the sample size is 750 measurements for São Paulo, the most populous city proper in the Western World, this hardly passes any test of statistical significance.

Diasemglobo wasn’t against Globo TV. It was a tentative step away from the grip of mass media and its history of control and manipulation of the Brazilian populace. I hope it serves as inspiration for bigger causes, causes that move people away from the TV and towards a better Brazil. Twitter gave us the voice we needed. #diasemglobo is a chess game, they announced victory after the first move.

25.06.2010 | The first #diasemglobo in history.

Kind regards,
@diasemglobo