#OWS:A Revolution in Tweets

By Wennie Chi

Hello, my name is Wennie Chi.

I’m currently a student at the

University of Cincinnati studying

industrial design and enrolled in an

Intermediate Composition class.

I’ve been following the Occupy Wall

Street movement since October, and

really fell in love with the movement.

About the Author

Introduction

The Beginning

The First Occupation

The Introduction of Pepper Spray

Arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge

Global Day of Protest

Eviction of Occupy Oakland

Violence at UC Berkley

Eviction of Zuccotti Park and the Media Blackout

Pepper Sray at UC Davis

Conclusion

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3

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9

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15

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21

23

Chapters

Introduction

I was introduced to the events via Twitter, a website that allows people to host their own virtual announcement board. The service is free, and each announcement board is personalized by each user who is allowed to post their own news as well as follow as many other users as they would like. The messages are limited to 140 characters, which keeps the announcements short and to-the-point. Another unique feature of this system is the ability to label the announcements or to add “hashtags” in order for the messages to be easily tracked by others. People can use these hashtags to find more announcements or users that share the same topic. This quick and effortless method of worldwide news streaming helps news spread fast.

There’s no denying that Twitter has become an invaluable resource for the

Occupy Wall Street movement. What Twitter offers is a quick and easy way to

publish updates and spread news. The 140 character limit keeps the messages

short and concise so that readers can digest the announcements just as quickly.

And with the way technology is streamlining, ‘tweeting’ has become only a click

away via cellphone. People who are interested can look up Occupy-related

hashtags such as #OWS, #OccupyBoston, or #WeThePeople to find out what is

going on. Or they can follow specific Twitter Accounts such as OccupyLA. If there

are any changes to the agenda they might find something like this in their Twitter

feed: “Occupiers if you are still at City Hall, move over to 350 S. Grand for the

march! #occupyLA” (Oct 6 OccupyLA). The ability for Occupiers to tweet on the

go is essential considering these people are out in the streets and in the parks

protesting, and don’t quite have the time or resources to make long blog posts or

send a newsletter. It has also been a large player in publicizing the events. People

live-tweeting at protest sites, sharing photos, links to articles or videos, and

hashtagging these with Occupy-related tags linking them to a larger community.

The Beginning

Occupy Wall Street spawned from the activist

group Adbusters who posted a blog post in

July calling for a “shift in revolutionary tactics”.

Inspired by the uprisings in Egypt and Spain,

the assembly of thousands of people in New

York City was described in the proposal.

Within the next week, OccupyWallSt.org

was launched along with a Twitter and the

hashtag “#occupywallst” to promot the first

demonstration on September 17.

The hacktivist group Anonymous jumps

aboard #occupywallst, releasing a video

and tweeting to support and promote the

September 17 demonstration.

Jul. 13

Jul. 24

Aug. 23

The First Occupation

September 17 marks the first day of Occupy

Wall Street. Close to 1,000 people gathered

in Lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park to

participate in this first march. The NYPD

quickly prohibited the use of tents so the

100 to 200 protestors who remained on site

slept in cardboard boxes over night. Soon the

encampment will have its own kitchen and

work on a steady food supply chain as well as

build a library and get WiFi.

#occupywallst#takewallst#sep17

Sept. 17

OccupyWallStNYC

democracynow

LupeFiasco

anonops

March starting RIGHT NOW! Join us!! #takewallst#sep17

TODAY: Hundreds expected to #OccupyWallStreet in peaceful NYC protest & beyond. t.co/NsglG6fg Follow @samalcoff for reports. #Sept17

If anybody needs me I’ll be on Wall St : ) #iwilloccupy #occupywallstreet @OccupyWallSt @OccupyWallStNYC

The Police ask to speak to the leader. We told them that there is no leader. They didn’t understand. #TakeWallStreet #OccupyWallStreet #Sep17

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The Introduction of Pepper Spray

Septermber 24 starts the second week of

the young Occupy movement. The public

is amazed to see this demonstration to still

be going on and also to be growing larger.

Today, 80 protesters are arrested, and a

video of a police officer pepper spraying a

nonthreatening woman goes viral.

#occupywallst#takewallst#NYPD#USDOR

Sept. 24

subversionletic

blogdiva

TPB_Stun

OccupyWallStNYC

@OccupyWallStNYC WE HAVE JUST MADE THE FRONT PAGE OF THE @NYDAILYNEWS #occupywallst #NYC http://yfrog.com/nvlt9twj

few of the people i spoke to said they found out about #OccupyWallStreet by accident. they all said they were there to bear witness

The peaceful #OccupyWallStreet protest march turned violent as the NYPD coralled and pepper sprayed the participants j.mp/q65ZEF

More than 50 ppl arrested 5 women maced in the face #nypd #usdor

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Arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge

On Saturday, October 1st, over 5,000 people

marched towards the Brooklyn Bridge. The

march was intervened by police who arrested

over 700 protestors. Traffic on the bridge was

shut down for 2 hours to make room for

all of the arrests. The remaining protestors

returned to Zuccotti Park.

On a side note, the “Occupied Wall Street

Journal” debuts with an initial print of 50,000

of its first issue and then a second printing

of 20,000 Monday. This was the answer to

protestors’ complaints of the mainstream

media not covering events sufficiently.

#occupywallst#occupywallstreet#takewallst#NYC

Oct. 1

BatmanWI

NYTMetro

jopauca

jeffrae

Would have made more sense to let us walk off bridge peacefully. Taking a long time to arrest. #occupywallstreet #wiunion

New arrest figures from the police: “400 to 500.” All charged with disorderly conduct, at minimum. #OccupyWallStreet

Ill be arrested momentarily. See ya’ll soon #OccupyWallSt #OccupyWallstreet

Okay Im signing off bout to be arrested on bridge #occupywallstreet

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Oct 15 Global Day of Protest

1000+ cities&

82 countries

On October 15, people gathered in cities

all across the world for an international

day of action. Tens of thousands of people

actively marched and protested today as a

unified voice to be recognized as a force to

be reckoned with. Cities around the world

including Sydney, London, Hong Kong, Paris,

Madrid, Puerto Rico, Rome, Berlin, and Tokyo.

Overall the protestors maintained a peaceful

demonstration that ended in hundreds of

arrests.

#globalchange#15o#o15#oct15#15oct

Oct. 15

takethesquare

occupyafrica

takethesquare

OccupyAusUnions

#Barcelona, of course!, is going to streets as well http://twitpic.com/70qosz! #OccupyTogether for #GlobalChange #15O #O15 #15Oct #Oct15

We are here #OccupyCapeTown beautiful people great voices real conversations http://yfrog.com/kkiqcyzj

Check out Madrid, its huge. Predictions that Sol wil be ful once more are coming http://yfrog.com/ochetej

@OccupyBrisbane A chilly 4am in City Sq in the first 24hrs of @OccupyMELBOURNE sees about 120 camping, chatting, sleeping, occupying #15O

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Eviction of Occupy Oakland

On October 25, hundreds of police officers

in Oakland, California move in to clear the

Occupy Oakland encampent. The means

were far from nonviolent. Police used teargas,

beanbag rounds, and rubber bullets in the

operation. This eviction resulted in a severe

injury. Former Marine and Iraq Veteran Scott

Olsen suffered a skull fracture from one of

the projectile smoke canisters thrown by the

police officers. After a time in intensive care,

Scott Olsen’s injury eventually resulted in his

death. Meanwhile, the official press release

by the police chief stated that the operation

was successful in avoiding any injuries of the

officers or the protestors.

#occupyoakland#solidarity

Oct. 25

FourYawkeyWay

JacqKD

occupyoakland

northoaklandnow

zero windows smashed, 2,400 arrested nationwide. #ows is peaceful, what are you, police? #occupyoakland

POLICE JUST FLASH BANGED US. Smoke everywhere. People running. (Including me.) #occupyoakland

#occupyoakland attacked by 500 cops in surprise assault. tear gas, rubber bullets, shotguns, flash bang grenades. Many injured.

Eyes.burning. throats on fire. Tear gassed. #occupyoakland Ppl crying and coughing

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Occupy Berkley

On November 9, protestors head to UC

Berkeley campus and starts to set up a new

encampment. The university campus police

was immediately ordered to break up the

Occupy Berkeley encampment and demand

removal of tents. Video footage reveals that the

“nudges” officers used to coral the protesters

were clearly much less of a nudging and more

of a violent jabbing. Officers broke students

ribs with their batons. Forty protesters were

arrested, and many injured.

#occupy#occupycal#ows#solidarity

Nov. 9

Angela Johnston

Mike Elk

Lucy Kafanov

jeffrae

Six students busted, dozens beaten by campus cops. For rallying against tuition hikes on the quad. #OccupyCal

While #occupycal is fighting budget cuts, Penn state students are rioting to support an enable of a child molester #homestateshame

This video of #OccupyCal police violence from today is pretty shocking t.co/O1bRm7XH #OWS

I’m getting sick of America’s War on Tents t.co/rqXBrZo3 #Occupy #Solidarity #OccupyCal

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Eviction of Zucotti Park and the Media Black out

In the wee hours of November 15, hundreds

of police officers militarized around New York

City’s Zuccotti Park. Ordered by the Mayor

Bloomberg, police were operating under the

orders of Mayor Bloomberg to evict of the

OWS demonstration from the park. The most

controversial aspect of the operation was the

forceful measures taken to prohibit any media

coverage of the event. About 200 people were

arrested including many journalists who were

just doing their job.

#occupy#nypd#ows#mediablackout

Nov. 15

Simon HB

phalic macdonald

SethGreen

DiceyTroop

Apparently the NYPD have destroyed the donated library at #ows - I don’t think you need a metaphor, but crushing 5000 books might be one.

Helicopters all over the place, riot police breaking up OWS, media ban, camera phones saving America #occupy #OWS

RT @Mike_Dougherty: wapo.st/R0fLu #MediaBlackout @MikeBloomberg & NYPD violate 1st amendment, ban press from #OWS eviction

Lots of cries to stay nonviolent. “This is a mvmnt about being good to each other. We are exercising our right to peaceable assemble.” #OWS

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Pepper Spraying at UC Davis

On November 18, video footage of police

brutality on the UC Davis campus was

captured and published all over Youtube. The

video shows a group of students seated on

the ground surrounded by a group of police

and other Occupiers. A member of the police

force walks out from the crowd displaying

the bottle of pepper spray in his hand before

spraying it onto the seated students. Most of

the students had their heads down, but several

were hit directly in the face. The victims and

the crowd were helpless to retaliate.

#occupydavis#occupycal#ows#ucdavis

Nov. 18

Matt Kowalczyk

Gavin Aronsen

Wil Wheaton

chaswied

What country are we in? Syria? China? No, it’s the good ol’ USA where ridiculous police action is tolerated. t.co/6lSZCfta

“He sprayed us at point blank range”: @xeni’s interview with #OccupyDavis protester: t.co/MBkWHwoT

“What I’m looking at is fairly standard police procedure.” What the actual fuck. goo.gl/82p9u #UCDavis #occupy #ows

No matter what side of the Occupy movement you occupy, this article is worth the read: Militarization of Campus Police huff.to/tzTFbK

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Conclusion

The Occupy Wall Street movement worked in harmony with the internet and its function as

a global connector and sharing platform. Much of OWS news is spread through the social

networking site Twitter. Twitter’s function as a news reporter works especially well with

the movement’s needs and ideals. Plus, the growth and development of Occupy Wall Street

movement can easily be tracked with through advent of the technology Twitter offers.

The instantaneous nature of Twitter with its constantly updating feed and the speed

of its response makes it a great resource for live updates and time sensitive announcements.

A movement as large as Occupy Wall St and as unestablished, lacking in a central headquarter,

relies on technology like Twitter to figure out what is going on! The crowds out there can be

so big, that you can’t see past the sea of people. In case something is happening on the front

lines, it’s so much easier to find updated Tweets on a cell phone.

The use of hashtags makes it wonderfully easy to spread information to those who

may be interested but may not know where to find it or be in the right network. The way

hashtags are used to link similar ideas to each other means people can find out what they need

more quickly and more easily.

Twitter isn’t just aiding the people within the movement, it’s also a resource for many

people not involved. News like #OWS spreads like wildfire and can go viral pretty quickly,

especially the events that involved police brutality. Links to video footage or images or articles

discussing the demonstrations serve as great way to spread awareness of the movement and

spark interests in people. I know that’s what happened to me. Thanks to Twitter I went from a

clueless outsider to an active follower. It’s amazing what technology can do today. Occupy Wall

Street would not have had the same success with out it!