Twitter joins the Olympics, as a Chinese journalist cries out for help

August 14, 2008 | Chris Morrison

There seems to be some grassroots support for the idea of an emergency broadcast system on the micro-messaging service Twitter, at least from people who have emergencies to broadcast. The latest cry for help: A Chinese journalist nabbed by security forces during the Olympics and forced to go to a village far from the event.

You can see Zhou “Zuola” Shuguang’s Twitter stream here, but it won’t do you much good if you can’t read Chinese. A translation of his Tweets is on Global Voices Online. According to the article, Zuola — a childless 27 year old — was ordered to meet with police over accusations of having two children, one more than the local limit. On meeting the police, he was placed in a car, driven to a mining town, and placed under house arrest.

Two months ago a similar case in Egypt got the attention of Twitter users, when an American, James Buck, sent out a terse message reading, simply, “ARRESTED”. Buck proposed the emergency system, in order to help bring awareness to people in desperate straits. Twitter has also proved useful for sending out some alerts, like the one of a 5.4 magnitude earthquake in Southern California.

Just one problem: None of the above situations appeared to have been major emergencies. Buck was released; Zuola appears to have been sent home (with a warning to stay there). The earthquake was small. Twitter is a new service, and the noise ratio is still relatively low. As it grows, how many people will tap into it to Tweet about their predicament? Who will keep reading? And how will they know when to take action?

Still, it’s interesting that Zuola, a citizen reporter, knew all about Twitter and even had a Blackberry in order to send messages. Twitter is gaining users, but it’s hard to tell how many come from outside the United States. A Chinese man crying out for help in his own language indicates that sizable populations are growing elsewhere — whether they’re good in an emergency or not. Meanwhile, Twitter is also proving useful in less life-threatening situations, like the recent Gmail outage.

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About the Author, Chris Morrison

Chris Morrison writes about cleantech and environmental issues for VentureBeat, with occasional forays into gaming and semantic technology. He got his start writing about tech for Business 2.0 magazine, but quickly realized new media was the ticket when that institution closed its doors in 2007. Chris has also covered public equities and regulatory issues. He originally hails from southern Virginia, graduated from Evergreen State College in Washington, and now lives in San Francisco.

  • Sam B
    Who are these incompetent secret policemen who keep letting arrestees use their mobile phones?
  • I don't know, but the idea of a Chinese version of the Keystone Kops makes me happy.
  • LaoBin
    Check out ongoing drama at http://twitter.com/iamgadfly. Short summary: mentally imbalanced Mexican-American pastor from Puente, CA rents 2 hotel rooms in Beijing at international hotel chains. He vandalizes the rooms and splatters fake blood around. Records it all and posts it to YouTube. Immediately flees without paying the damage; foreign hotel chains spend thousands on cleaning bill. Now he is hiding in a hole (he says dramatically, "evading authorities") in Beijing for the next 12 days exposed to weather, and tweeting the whole time.

    He says he did it to "attract attention". He plans to turn himself in (if anyone is actually looking for him) in 12 days. If all goes according to his plan, China will release some random political dissidents and ratify some U.N. law. And he will get even more "attention". If God doesn't force the Chinese to release the dissidents, this guy will return to Beijing later and hold more hotel rooms hostage.

    Good times; good times.
  • hmmm
    Mr. Morison you really should fact check your articles before reposting other people's information. Your accounts of Zhou Shuguang's encounter with authorities are misled by inaccurately researched material posted on the most recent Global Voices story by J. Kennedy where you seem to have single sourced your facts.

    1. "A Chinese journalist nabbed by security forces during the Olympics and forced to go to a village far from the event."

    Zuola was not at the Olympics when he was visited by authorities. He was already at home in Meitanban. Definitely not "forced to go to a village far from the event."

    2. "...driven to a mining town, and placed under house arrest."

    Again he was already in Meitanba. Also he was not officially arrested.

    3. "Zuola — a childless 27 year old — was ordered to meet with police over accusations of having two children, one more than the local limit."

    He was not accused of having two children. The officials were asking him about another person. I think it does a disservice to people like Zola to inaccurately represent facts - especially when a situation is somewhat sensitive already.