The Power of Social Networking: It’s More Than Just Business
On July 26th, AT&T began to block access to parts of the popular 4chan.org image board, a site that claims to be the creator of such popular internet memes as Rick Rolling and LOLcats. Apparently, AT&T chose to block certain boards on the site, the predominant one being their popular /b/ image board.
First, let me throw in this disclaimer: I am not a member of that community, nor have I ever been on that site until I heard about this. It is NOT a site I will visit in the future either and if you are prudish or squeamish, I would advise you to NOT visit that site either. LOL. Some call 4chan the defender of internet free speech, others call it the worst cesspool on the internet. (I reserve my judgment, but for those of you who know me, I’m sure you know where I stand.)
The fact that this happened is really not important to me just because AT&T appeared to be censoring 4chan. What is important is the fact that apparently AT&T took it upon themselves to censor a website. Period.
What happened next can only be described as a whirlwind of support for the site. Articles popped up on reddit, digg, CentralGadget, and TechCrunch as sites and forums discussed retaliation and protest. Talks of this being the first shot fired in the war for Internet freedom arose. If the self-proclaimed ‘Mos Eisley of the internet’ could be taken down at will due to its sometimes unsavory material and user base, what would this mean for other sites in the long run?
Did we loose our freedom of speech and expression somewhere?
With its control over around 15% of the United States’ internet connection, it was feared that AT&T could suddenly start banning sites it found unsavory without retaliation, effectively censoring service for their customers.
As the day wore on cries of censorship rang out throughout the internet as AT&T refused to disclose the reason behind the blockage. There was much discussion of Net Neutrality and how these could be the first shots fired in the war for internet freedom. If a huge ISP suddenly decided that it could take away sites without reason, what was to stop them from blocking out competitors or even racketeering small entrepreneurs into paying them to allow their user base to see their sites? This was just ‘ not cool’ and the internet community saw that.
Thousands of calls and emails were made to customer service inquiring the ban and many users threatened to change service if the ban was not lifted immediately. Information began to spread and ideas flowed freely between people who were ready to fight against what they saw as an infraction against their freedoms and the momentum escalated until AT&T lifted the ban on the site and also made a press release concerning why they took action against the site:
“Beginning Friday, an AT&T customer was impacted by a denial-of-service attack stemming from IP addresses connected to img.4chan.org. To prevent this attack from disrupting service for the impacted AT&T customer, and to prevent the attack from spreading to impact our other customers, AT&T temporarily blocked access to the IP addresses in question for our customers. This action was in no way related to the content at img.4chan.org; our focus was on protecting our customers from malicious traffic.
Overnight Sunday, after we determined the denial-of-service threat no longer existed, AT&T removed the block on the IP addresses in question. We will continue to monitor for denial-of-service activity and any malicious traffic to protect our customers.”
Look, whether you believe this was the ‘reason’ or not the fact remains that hundreds of thousands of internet users rallied to the cause of protection against what they perceived as censorship thanks to social media being utilized effectively. Articles and blog posts popped up and spread like wildfire thanks to reddit and dig, youtube videos and twitter posts, and sites like TechCrunch, PC World, and CentralGadget reporting in. In one day, the message had spread so far and so fast that it appeared that AT&T had no choice but to address the situation. That is a huge example of the power of social networking. Can you imagine what it can do for your business, too?
Here’s another example of the power behind this ‘social media’ craze:
The power of social networking also has the power to allow the underdog to come out on top. After months of being passed around to different customer service representatives who all passed the buck to other parties, Dave Carroll had enough. What started off as a frustrating experience with United Airlines was channeled into a creative protest online in the form of a music video that debuted on July 6th on YouTube: United Breaks Guitars. Within days, the video was being applauded by many in the internet community and linked to within social networking sites. Within a week it had over 1,500,000 views.
With press like that, United Airlines could no longer afford to ignore the situation and finally began to pay attention to Dave’s complaints and offer compensation after the video was only up for about 4 days.
The thing is, before all of this success, Dave Carroll wasn’t anyone particularly famous. He wasn’t some big country star like Toby Keith and he is not as attractive as Carrie Underwood, either; he was just a small act touring the country. His band has notoriety, but they’re not an iconic act. It’s not like he had a legion of fans ready to help spread the word. The video is pretty much a grassroots effort to tell his story that spread like wildfire when social networking sites got a hold of it. Imagine if you could somehow harness that power for use in your business too?