How SMS Swung An Election

From movements.org

On March 11, 2004, days before national parliamentary elections in Spain, four trains were bombed at Madrid train stations, killing nearly 200 people and injuring hundreds more.

In the immediate aftermath of the bombing and before any evidence had surfaced linking any specific terrorist organization to the event, the incumbent Popular Party (PP) publicly stated that the Basque terrorist group ETA was behind the bombing. By the end of the day, however, evidence pointed toward a jihadist cell inspired by the Islamist terrorist organization Al Qaeda. The Spanish government, known for taking a hard stance against the Basque group, continued to assert that ETA was culpable, in part because making the Basque terrorists appear responsible would benefit PP in the upcoming elections against the Socialist Party.

According to blogger Andre Serranho, the first SMS message was sent on March 13, the day before the election, and simply stated, “The government lied. Pass it on.” Other messages began circulating, such as: “We want to know before we vote,” “Today at 18 at PP Genova no political signs demanding truthful information pass it on,” and “Information poisoning at 18:00 PP pass it on.”. By 11 p.m. on March 13, more than 10,000 people had gathered in front of the PP headquarters in Madrid.

Serranho notes that the majority of Spaniards he spoke to acknowledged that they had forwarded text messages to their contact lists upon receiving them. This created a snowball effect, with thousands of texts being passed around asking Spaniards to vote for the Socialist Party and to demonstrate against the Popular Party. At the time, Spain had a mobile penetration rate of 94 percent, indicating that many residents of the country had mobile phones capable of sending and receiving texts; March 13 saw a 20 percent increase in text messages; March 14, election day, saw a rise of 40 percent.

These tactics proved successful. The large size of the group that gathered at PP headquarters showed how many people were upset with the incumbent party. In a surprising turn, the Socialist Party defeated the PP at the polls, with turnout for the election estimated at 77 percent, an 8 percent increase from the previous election.

Such is the power of technology. This case is also interesting, because it has nothing to do with globalization, but everything to do with technology. Tech can empower at individual level, it can have grassroots effects on the power structure. This is the crucial point. Technology takes precedence to globalization, the latter could be fleeting, increasing, or decreasing at times. But the constant is always the effect of the production method (knowledge base in this case) on the social order. The SMS was sent, broadcast in one country. And it worked.