Global Information Society Watch 2011 by APC APC
#CIV2010 – Côte d’Ivoire online
In the middle of October 2010, immediately after the launch of Wonzomai, the Twitter hash tag #CIV2010 was launched. Its aim was to engage citizens on Twitter on all election issues. #CIV2010 allowed voters to track candidates, post pictures, analyse TV debates, campaign for votes, report issues and much more. #CIV2010 users chose not to obey the government injunction to not publish the first round of election results, since the injunction specifically focused on national and foreign media in Côte d’Ivoire. As a result, many of the #CIV2010 users felt they were not obliged to respect this.
The first leg of the presidential elections went relatively well and was declared peaceful across the world. This gave more impetus to the “ivoire.info-techpreneurs”. They started meeting regularly on Friday evenings for drinks, forging friendships and comradeship. Then came the famous presidential face.to-face debate between Gbagbo and Ouattara. Once the debate was officially set for Thursday 25 November, the web went into a frenzy. It was going to be the first debate of its kind – the very first – in the recent history of the nation. The capacity of the live web stream of the national broadcaster was increased to cater for more viewers. Those three hours were going to see the most viewers in the history of Ivorian TV.
Shocker!
About ten hours before the debate, the online platform was shut down. Viewers were required to pay a monthly or quarterly subscription for access. #CIV2010 took up the issue. Citizens pay for public TV already and, by law, access to the state broadcaster could not be restricted online. Especially not on such a day! The TV officials said they were not aware of the changes and that the board of the broadcaster had not been informed. In three hours, the ivoire.info-techpreneurs were able to track down the fraudster responsible for the shutdown. He was an employee of the broadcaster’s web solutions provider. They reported his acts, informing the national broadcasting authority and the office of the prime minister. The national TV channel came back online for free after four hours of intense internet-enabled activism!
The debate lasted three hours and nine minutes. Every word was live.tweeted. Every question, every gesture. #CIV2010 users were doing direct translation of the presidential candidates’ comments straight into English – in the same way the official results of the first round of presidential elections were live.tweeted. Beginning from the Thursday of the live debate to the time of this report, #CIV2010 has been in the Top 10 Trending Twitter Topics in the French language.
When crises set in
After waiting for run-off results for three sleepless nights, ivoire.info-techpreneurs knew danger was ahead. And the crises certainly came. The Independent Electoral Commission announced Allasane Dramane Ouattara winner of the polls. The Constitutional Council overrode the results of the Commission and gave victory to incumbent president Gbagbo. Each “president” held to his victory, formed a cabinet, and was intent on exercising power. The international community aligned itself with the Electoral Commission and held the challenger as victorious.
By this time #CIV2010 had established itself as the “other country” – a cyber country that offered a parallel expression of people’s rights and needs. All stakeholders were using the hashtag. The two presidential camps were there, their propaganda too. Violence erupted. As clashes raged on the streets of Abidjan, details could be read on Twitter minutes after events unfolded. Photos, numbers, reports, eye.witness accounts! The international media was shut down, and Twitter became the “official” media platform for Côte d’Ivoire.
Managing the humanitarian crises
With the outbreak of post-electoral violence, citizen mobilisation took a different turn. While information battles were raging on #CIV2010, the need for humanitarian aid and support loomed large. Private vehicles had been snatched by armed combatants, banks had closed their doors, cash flow was meagre and medication for the sick was dwindling. Then came the curfew, which started at midnight and only ended at six in the morning. There was an unprecedented breakdown of the social system. As if all of that was not enough, mobile phone text messaging (SMS) services went down too. Movement was limited, phone calls down to the minimum, hunger was everywhere and the number of people hospitalised increased. At this time, gas stations had closed, shops too. Some hospitals ran out of medication, public transport was non-existent and heavy gunfire could be heard even before the curfew started!
The ivoire.info-techpreneurs decided to use the Wonzomai solidarity platform and weave in a kind of internet-enabled emergency centre. Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), the Red Cross, and the United Nations were the only international organisations offering help in the country at the time. The solution to this was the CIVSOCIAL project.365 The project consisted of six different hubs:
A call centre in Accra, staffed by volunteers