When protesting in the real world everyone assembles physically, discusses a plan, and then carries out their protest. This protest is usually in the form of gathering a massive crowd equipped with slogans, signs, and chants to protest their means. In Bridget Blodgett’s article, she discusses virtual protesting. Blodgett explains that through Hacktivism and CMC (Computer Mediated Communication) virtual protests are able to form.
Hacktivism is the way in which protesters use the internet to carry out their protests. These different types of protests can vary as Blodgett explains, “Hacktivism encompasses many different types of activities within its boundaries, from the emailing of politicians to denial of service attacks” (3.3.1).
CMC is the way in which these social movements form by use of the internet and/or other technologies. Social movements use for example the internet to gather people together, this is CMC. Or through other technologies or mobile devices such as telephone CMC, portable gaming device CMC, or IPads etcetera.
Blodgett uses her theoretical framework “Virtual World Collective Action” to set up some guidelines for the way social movements and protests work in virtual worlds. There are four key foundations to Blodgett’s model, they are:
1. “Degree of virtualization: degree of virtualization is a simple percentage of the amount of organization and participation that was achieved offline or virtually.
2. Legality: legality is a measurement of how legal the actions of the protests were both in planning a protest and holding it.
3. Cultural homogeneity: this is a measure of how similar individuals within the protest are to each other in regards to their cultural views and identity.
4. Limitations on Participation: Limitations on participation is a measure of if and how individuals are prevented from participating in the protest” (3.4).
A good example of a virtual protest is one that happened in the game Habbo Hotel back in 2006. This protest was called the "Pool’s Closed" protest. A group of users protested the occurrence of racism in-game, claiming the game moderators were in particular blocking black avatars. This sparked a group of users to protest by blocking the entrance to a pool in game preventing the other users from entering. Habbo Hotel at the time did not allow their users the ability for their avatars to walk through the body of another in-game avatar. Thus, other users were blocked from entering the pool. One thing unique about the protesters is that they were all black avatars with giant afro’s, dressed in suites.
The fact that this protest happened mostly online made the degree of virtualization slim. Members were mobilized online and the protest itself was carried out online. One thing interesting about the protest is that the use of CMC was very helpful in this one. Members were not only summoned through Habbo Hotel but also through various forum websites and other Habbo related sites. This was a very effective way of using CMC. In terms of legality within this protest the only thing that can possibly be deemed illegal would be the violations of the EULA or TOS. Since there is no governing body of the internet, as Blodgett explains, actual real-world governance is almost out of the question. In terms of Habbo Hotel governance the protests were judged against violating the TOS and several bans were administered. The cultural homogeneity in this protest was rather good. Habbo Hotel has its origins out of Finland; therefore the use for cultural homogeneity was broad, bringing together various cultures and people of different citizenships to protest. Also spreading the word of using one similar looking avatar amongst them all showed that CMC was a good help in mobilizing the cultural homogeneity in this protest. When it comes to limitations on participation, the only fact that would limit someone from participating would be they either do not have a computer or way to use the internet, or they didn’t have access to the game. Which in either case the need to participate is pointless considering one would most probably not know of the protest. Blodgett’s model is a good framework for virtual protests and can be effectively used to examine many other virtual protests much like the examples in her article And the Ringleaders Were Banned: An Examination of Protest in Virtual Worlds.
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