VIDZEME UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES

FACULTY OF BUSSINESS ENVIRONMENT ADMNISTRATION

Summary
,,Moldova Twitter Revolution 2009

Author: Oleg Andreev

VALMIERA-2016
CONTENTS

Introduction.........................................................................................................3
I: Moldova Twitter Revolution...4
II: #PMAN Hashtag analysis ..................7
Conclusion..8
Bibliography...8

INTRODUCTION
2

On April 6th, 2009, a peaceful protest was called in Moldova in reaction to what some claimed
were fraudulent parliamentary elections that led to the reelection of the incumbent Communist
Party. Characterized as a flash mob, the gathering on April 6th quickly swelled to a large
protest on April 7th with an estimated 30,000 participants. The events gained international
attention as many journalists and technology pundits began asserting that they were organized
using the social networking tool, Twitter. Headlines included Moldovas Twitter Revolution,
Protests in Moldova Explode, With Help of Twitter, and Moldovans Turn to Twitter to
Organize Protests. How central was Twitter and other social networking technologies to the
organizing of these events? How did participants perceive the events? What was the political
motivation behind them?
Within this paper I will try to approach these questions about the events of April, 2009 but also
to situate them in the context of Moldovas complex history and identity the role of Internet
Communication Technologies in a single event.

TWITTER REVOLUTION
The #pman 2hashtag began at 7:40 in the

morning on April 7th by Vitalie Esanu, a

software developer in Moldova:
Morning, I propose we use the tag pman for
messages from the national assembly
square.33
Vitalie attended the event on the previous
night (April 6th) arranged by Natalie Morar
and her colleagues at the pro-democracy
NGOs Think Moldova and Hyde Park to
protest the results of the previous days election. A young journalist, Natalia Morar used SMS and
social networking tools including Twitter to spread the word about the protests against the election
results. Morar intended to call together all the young people in Moldova who didn't vote for the
Communist party to come into the streets with candles to commemorate a national day of mourning.
Morar expected about 300 people to come, but she about 15,000 people ended up attending the
national day of mourning.
In a blog post, Vitalie described the peaceful mobilization on April 6th4:
I was there on the evening of April 6th, 2009, in the square, without a candle (Im not a fan of these
things being displayed in public), and I remained wide-eyed with wonder. There were so many
people.
At the time, there was an estimated 100 Twitter users located in Moldova. As the protests in
Chisinau turned violent (police clashes and the vandalization of the presidential and parliamentary
buildings), the news about #pman spread over the Internet and it was only a matter of hours until
1 Picture credits: http://www.cipe.org/blog/2009/04/08/moldovas-twitterrevolution/#.Vv4rJ5yLSmw
2 Piata Marii Adunari Nationale (national assembly square).
3 4 http://www.esanu.name/vitalie/
4

election protests in a relatively unknown country were dubbed the Twitter Revolution by the
international media (Morozov, 2009). Even though it started as a communication channel for people
attending the protest, the hashtag #pman on Twitter quickly evolved into a hub for people around
the world to get the latest information about what was happening in Chisinau. Approximately 32,000
tweets were sent through #pman from its creation on April 7 through April 12, 2009 when the
protests ended.
Protests in small, Moldova would

normally not

capture the attention of the

international media.

Using Twitter was "a great way to get

attention on the events because it was
the flavor of the month in social
media and mentioning cool new
tech was a great way to get
journalists to cover an event they
might otherwise miss
(Zuckerman, 2009). Most of
the articles about the
events in Moldova
mentioned Twitter first in the list of social networking sites (SNS) used by
protesters, even though other SNS such as Facebook, LiveJournal, and Faces.md
were more actively used in Moldova (Ionescu, 2009). The events in Moldova
were dubbed the "Twitter Revolution" because in the midst of the events and
rapidly spreading news, it was believed that Twitter played a crucial role in
organizing the demonstrations (Morozov, 2009). In his blog, Vitalie Esanu
states:
Although the mobilization of the protestors wasnt only done through Twitter (I
personally learned what was going on through Twitter), but also other social
networks and SMS. However, Twitter Revolution sounds cool.5

4 picture credits: http://www.dw.com/en/facebook-twitter-help-moldova-protesters-organize-demonstrations/a4166896deutche welle(clashes with the police, vandalizing presidential palace).

Esanu submitted an email with Morozovs article attached to the editor of

TechCrunch, a popular site for technology news, and Student Protests are
Turning into a Twitter Revolution soon appeared on the sites front page6.
Esanu attributed the wide distribution of this article via RSS and syndication on
other sites to the explosion of interest in the #pman tag on Twitter and the
subsequent coverage of the Twitter Revolution by CNN.
The fact that tweets were publicly

accessible allowed for a large number

of people to get to the information and
interact with the existing social and
informational networks. NGOs and
many young people of Moldova were
not only present at the protests but
some were actively engaging with
Twitter readers about the protests. All
this led journalists and media analysts to believe that Twitter was a tool used
during the events and for its organization. The role Twitter played in the events
at Chisinau continues to be contested- some believe it was less about the
organization of a social movement as proffered by media outlets but more as a
platform to rapidly spread the news about the protests to a global populace who
may have never otherwise
Thus, the Twitter Revolution began to be used and given as an example in all
conferences on social networks. But, one thing should be clarified: In our case,
Twitter did not have a role in organizing, but rather informing people outside
MoldovaThe name Twitter Revolution was preferred only because it was
cool, because it was more appealing than Facebook Revolution, Odnoklasniki
5 https://7aprilie2009.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/raport_nagacevschi_7aprilie2009.pdfMoldovan Parliamentary
Comission report on the causes and effects of the events of 7th of April 2009

6 picture credits: http://www.dw.com/en/facebook-twitter-help-moldova-protesters-organize-demonstrations/a4166896deutche welle (yougsters firing up the Parliament building ).

Revolution, SMS Revolution or Social Network Revolution. It was rather a

new type of marketing for promoting an event, a crucial event for the destiny of
a community.7

II
#PMAN HASHTAG CONTENT ANALYSIS
While only a fraction of the content, the tweets

from the three users in the appendix17 are

indicative of #pman on April 7th. Many of the
original tweets come from evisoft, Moscovici,
and others that are in Chisinau but not always in
the Square, where there was little Internet
access and almost no cell phone coverage. Other
users post Retweets of this original content to
spread the information to their followers, thus gaining more interest in #pman.18 Tweets that are not
direct or secondhand reports appear to be coming from those with access to Romanian television,
which, in contrast to Moldovan state television, covered the events in detail. Once pictures, video,
blogposts, and Web articles began appearing, links to this content began to take up an increasing
majority of tweets. As with any partially anonymous Internet discussion, deliberate disinformation
and provocative commentary is also in evidence. For example, user gr tweets:
Russia's 4th army tanks, based in Tiraspol, are moving towards Chisinau. #Moldova #pman

7 Monitorizarea nfptuirii justiiei pe cauzele legate deevenimentele din 7 Aprilie 2009

8 Picture credits: http://defense-jgp.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.htmlLes troubles du mois d'avril(students

arboring EU flag over the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova).

Moldavian navy choppers "engaged to restore order in the capital". Pictures coming soon. #moldova
#pman
As Moldova is a land-locked country with no navy, others quickly pointed out gr and others as
posting fake information.
On April 8th, the discussion begins to shift a little towards speculation about arrests and the state
response, and warnings over agitators in the streets. In later days, some dissenters appear in the
content maligning the protestors actions, generating heated debate. Though there are a few renewed
calls for mobilizations, the crowds never reappear to the degree they did on April 6th and 7th9.
While it seems that Twitter could not have played much of a role on the ground organizing, the
content
CONCLUSION
Moldova Twitter revolution from 2009 demonstrates in a clear and comprehensive way the
political capacities of social networks as Twitter and Facebook if handled by profesionals.
As a result of April 2009 manifestations Moldovan President( Vladimir Voronin, leader of the
biggest governing party) resigned and snap elections took place, where pro-european parties
took majority in Parliament and composed a new democratic Government that engaged into
broad reforms and vowed to integrate Moldova into EU.
Last but not least IT technologies become more and more sophisticated and important for
business, politics and other social spheres of life which can not be neglected.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. https://7aprilie2009.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/raport_nagacevschi_7aprilie2009.pdf
Moldovan Parliamentary Comission report on the causes and effects of the events of 7th of April
2009
9 Amnesty International ,,Five Years of Ignorance 30.03.2014
https://promolex.md/upload/docs/30.03.2014_Actiune_Publica_1396250476ro_.pdf
8

2. Monitorizarea nfptuirii justiiei pe cauzele legate de evenimentele din 7 Aprilie 2009

3. Amnesty International ,,Five Years of Ignorance 30.03.2014
https://promolex.md/upload/docs/30.03.2014_Actiune_Publica_1396250476ro_.pdf
4. Comunicat de pres al Coaliiei Civice pentru alegeri libere i corecte Coaliia 2009 privind
rezultatele monitorizrii alegerilor parlamentare din 5 aprilie 2009
5. Raport asupra situaiei presei n Republica Moldova n anul 2009 ,,Centru pentru Journalism
Independent 2009