The role of social media in Occupy protests, on the ground and around the world
At the height of the riot police operation, 12 tweets about Hong Kong were being posted every second as images of protesters engulfed in tear gas spread globally.
The message tweeted by Josie Tao Cai-yi immediately after she was tear-gassed and pepper sprayed by riot police in Admiralty on September 28 provided a stark insight into the experience. “First time I’ve actually witnessed the tear gas and pepper spray,” the 27-year-old shared. “Absolutely terrifying.”
As students invaded the forecourt outside government headquarters – known as Civic Square – on September 26, through the early days of the demonstrations up to September 30, more than 1.3 million messages about the city were posted, the social media company said. During that period the protests were among the most talked about events in the world.
“We’ve seen progressive new ways to connect [on social media], serving the needs of something like this in real time… and making sure we’re always connected, [just so] the message can get out fast.” said Scott Likens, analytics consulting lead at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) China and Hong Kong.
He noted similarities to the organisation of the Arab Spring but the mobilisation of Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrators “happened very fast” through social media in a way that “I don’t think we’ve really seen in previous events like this”.
On September 28, in the midst of the police action to clear thousands of protesters from the streets outside government headquarters, it was impossible to get reliable news from the ground, Tao said.
“It was quite chaotic on the ground. Accessing information was very difficult because of the scale of what was happening. It was difficult to see what was happening,” she said. “I couldn’t even see any of the red and yellow [warning] flags the police were waving, so I was using social media tools to see what was happening around me, so that I could stay alert,” she added.