Censored Comments
Issue 15 | June 2010
Agency
Reporters without borders
Creative Team
Matthias Schmidt Executive Creative Director Christian Vosshagen Stefanie Zimmermann Creative Director Ann-Carina Thygs Art Director Roman Jonsson Copywriter
Other Credits
Sarah Schulte-Herbrueggen Mareike Felten Sebastian Vetter Account Managers Nico Lumma Daniel Doebrich Martin Szyymanski Social Media Jens Hinrichs Programmer
Date
12th March 2010
Background
March 12th was the World Day Against Cyber censorship. Reporters Without Borders published its annual report, ‘Enemies of the Internet’ on the same day. What they wanted was a way of engaging new people in the debate by raising awareness of censorship online with internet users.
Idea
To show how easily anyone with an opinion can be censored on the internet, Reporters Without Borders was given access to a number of popular websites in Germany. Whenever and wherever someone posted a comment their messages were manipulated. Instead of what they actually wrote being posted, an anodyne remark appeared instead.
What this did was to give ordinary people first-hand experience of how it feels to be censored. Many of the target group used to think that censorship was an issue for people in other countries, not for them in a civilised democracy.
Results
On March 12th, there were 4,780 new visitors to the website, 38% more than usual, looking for information about the World Day Against Cyber Censorship and/or the ‘Enemies of the Internet’ document.
There were many links created via Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other blogs.
Our Thoughts
This is a terrific media idea, not just demonstrating what censorship looks like but dramatising how even middle-of-the-road, middle-class folk with uncontroversial views can be marshalled by governments or, indeed, by any authoritative organisation. It’s not the sort of idea that smacks you in the face but one which works through dawning realisation. It is an idea of discovery, one which has to be experienced personally for it to be effective. Once experienced, though, the online buzz about it would have been as powerful as the original idea itself.