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Colombian Mass Protest Got Its Start On Facebook

by Terrence O'Brien on February 5, 2008 at 05:20 PM

Columbian Mass Protest Starts on Facebook
The streets of Bogota, Colombia have erupted in protest over the killings and kidnappings perpetrated by the Marxist rebel group Farc. A conservative estimate put the number of protesters at 500,000 -- an impressive number by any standards -- but even more impressive when you consider the whole thing got its start on a little social networking site called Facebook.

Less than a month ago, the anti-Farc movement got started when 33-year-old engineer, Oscar Morales, created a group on Facebook calling for an end to the Marxist rebel group and encouraged others to voice their outrage. The group quickly amassed 250,000 members. Then the fight moved to more traditional media, newspapers, radio, and television, culminating in the mass protest yesterday that drew anywhere from 500,000 to 2-million people in Bogota alone. Smaller protests were held throughout Colombia and across the globe drawing thousands.

Apparently it was the first anti-Farc movement of its size, which just illustrates the power of the Internet to empower a new generation of activists and the oppressed.

From the BBC

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Tags: Facebook, Facebook activism, FacebookActivism, online activism, OnlineActivism, social networking, SocialNetworking

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