Comments on: Twitterers Subvert Daily Mail’s Racist Poll

By: JISC-PoWR » Blog Archive » Some Use Cases For Preserving Twitter Posts

JISC-PoWR » Blog Archive » Some Use Cases For Preserving Twitter Posts — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:05:44 +0000

[...] recently described how Twitterers Subvert[ed] Daily Mail’s Racist Poll. For me that provided a fascinating example of how Twitter can be used by activists to support a [...]

By: Sam Saunders

Sam Saunders — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:42:50 +0000

My own involvement followed a post in a (music) web forum – the members of which joined in the fun. I did wonder whether the additional hits had positive implications for The Mail’s advertising revenue? I then lost the urge to try subverting other polls (some of which are so crazy that “no” and “yes” are equally unacceptable).

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:48:16 +0000

… I agree with Web 2.0 – which is a bit more than Twitter :)

By: Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus)

Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:36:52 +0000

@Josh Thanks for that reminder. This blog is about Web 2.0 and will focus on that area. But you are correct to remind me (and the readers) that many other communication and dissemination channels are likely to have been used.

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:32:54 +0000

Just to remind you, that it wasn't just Twitter. While I'm a huge fan and avid user of Twitter, we must keep perspective and not neglect other areas or over-celebrate Twitter as a comms tool! See bit.ly stats for referrers over a total time.

By: AM_Doherty

AM_Doherty — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:43:23 +0000

I wonder if they even have the infrastructure to respond (possibly even by mail) to every written request to create a web link to their site. “Dear Sir or Madam…”

Using a URL shortening service means that you’re linking to a service that is linking to them. We wouldn’t want to break their T’s & C’s now would we? :-)

By: Billy

Billy — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:24:56 +0000

The re-use of the short url makes me think of ‘all publicity is good publicity’. It’s the next evolution of linkbaiting, generating dozens (hundreds?) of negative links to your site and then removing the controversial content. A boost for the seo strategy…

By: Emma

Emma — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:37:19 +0000

I got that Error message too, yesterday … and thought that it was set up so that you could only click “No”. Was glad to see though, that people had been able to vote “Yes”; maybe it was disabled before I got to it.

As you’ve also said; wonderful example of a loaded question for a question design session!

By: Frank Norman

Frank Norman — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:09:06 +0000

I remember another incident last year when a Christian organisation ran a poll trying to persuade Heinz to withdraw a certain advert that featured a gay kiss. The poll was brought to the attention of users of a gay social networking site and there was a massive campaign to subvert it. Halfway through the poll organisers twigged what was happening and they reversed the sense of the question so that suddenly NO became YES and vice versa! Farcical.

I think the message is that such populist polls are a heap of sh*te and should be given no credence.

By: Dave Pattern

Dave Pattern — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:42:08 +0000

More than happy to mirror the image for you :-)
- http://www.daveyp.com/blog/stuff/daily-mail-poll-2.png
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepattern/3647032788/

Both servers are based in the US and I believe, under the fair use doctorine of US copyright law, you’d be covered as you are clearly parodying the poll itself.

To be honest, looking at the Daily Mail’s T&Cs, you’re free to use “extracts” from their site for non-commercial purposes. However (and how 1990s is this?!), you’re not allowed to link to any page on their site “without obtaining our prior written consent” :-D

By: AM_Doherty

AM_Doherty — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:09:16 +0000

While I’ve not been able to locate it, I did wonder if Google Cache might have a copy of the content of the screens you may have taken. This could alleviate your copyright problems, let the DM fight Google over it.

We are so often reminding younger internet users that they need to remember everything they type, share and publish will probably never go away, the DM must now have learned this, and at the same time learned a new way to make a poll-posing-as-news completely backfire.

By: ggw_bach

ggw_bach — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:06:39 +0000

the whole spread of ideas online is a fascinating one. What takes, what doesn’t take, how fast it spreads … there is a mix of psychology and technology at play. Personally, if it is ever deciphered and understood, it will be manipulated no end, but at present, it is a black box which everyone is trying to tap into. We are at the point in culture and the web where it has become an ‘Ideas War’ – those that can spread and meme themselves the fastest win the attention of millions instantaneously. But then again, maybe it has always been so; that information has been used to control and combat; only that it is so much more accelerated now; and visible and trackable. Exciting times; and glad that you played a small in this latest event!

ggw