Trendsurfing: Online petitions (The Times)
By David Rowan
Congratulations: you are one heck of a powerful person. In a few mouse-clicks, you have the ability to disrupt multinationals’ marketing plans, re-programme TV networks and even enact new laws on whatever takes your fancy. In fact, thanks to the extraordinary growth of online petitions, you can have your say on anything from the content of a Beyoncé music video to sanctions in North Korea. That’s why this columnist is going to be very, very nice to you.
At first, online petitions were another trivial internet distraction. Not any more. Today, with high-traffic sites such as iPetitions and Petition-them hosting thousands of campaigns, it is becoming increasingly difficult for politicians or customer-service departments to escape public shamings on a global scale. When Oxfam can attract 18 million signatories to its online Fairtrade petition, and a manifesto to keep the European Parliament in one city can pull in a million, the world’s lawmakers need to at least show they are listening. Some online petitions have already helped enact legislation – such as the decision by West Virginia’s legislature to designate this December 6 as the state’s first annual Miners’ Day, in memory of a mining disaster.
Not all petitioners are motivated by politics. There are currently 24,755 demands that Nike starts selling the trainers worn by Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future Part II, around 40,000 calls for MGM and New Line Cinema to let Peter Jackson direct The Hobbit and 6,850 signatures urging Columbia Records to re-shoot Beyoncé’s Deja Vu video on such grounds as "the dancing is erratic, confusing and alarming". At times, the intensity of these campaigns can cause panicked retreats by the executives in the frame – such as those running the social-networking site Facebook, which faced nearly 750,000 protests within days of announcing changes to its privacy settings.
But the trend’s greatest impact has been its potential to undermine corporate reputations by aggregating complaints. In the old days, dissatisfaction expressed itself in little more than bursts of anger directed at unhelpful call-centre staff. Now the whole online world can be told – risking far greater damage to the unresponsive corporation. Customers planning to switch to broadband supplier TalkTalk, for instance, may think again when they see the fury in a petition started by unhappy subscriber Daniel Wykes (typical example: "Your TalkTalk connection will only work when the moon is in its second phase, the wind is blowing in an easterly direction and all the planets are aligned"). Prospective buyers of Apple laptops may also reconsider on discovering that more than 1,000 iBook customers have experienced similar hardware failures shortly after the warranty period expired – with Apple refusing to acknowledge any fault.
I know this because I, too, found the same screen defect in my mollycoddled two-year-old iBook, and felt helpless until online petitions reassured me that it was "a common problem". Now some of my fellow petitioners are threatening class lawsuits, and Apple’s reputation is being pulped. Will it finally take responsibility? A spokeswoman would only say that "any customers experiencing problems should contact AppleCare". Let’s see where that gets them. But at least I know I’m not alone.
(The Times Magazine, October 28 2006)
Congratulations: you are one heck of a powerful person. In a few mouse-clicks, you have the ability to disrupt multinationals’ marketing plans, re-programme TV networks and even enact new laws on whatever takes your fancy. In fact, thanks to the extraordinary growth of online petitions, you can have your say on anything from the content of a Beyoncé music video to sanctions in North Korea. That’s why this columnist is going to be very, very nice to you.
At first, online petitions were another trivial internet distraction. Not any more. Today, with high-traffic sites such as iPetitions and Petition-them hosting thousands of campaigns, it is becoming increasingly difficult for politicians or customer-service departments to escape public shamings on a global scale. When Oxfam can attract 18 million signatories to its online Fairtrade petition, and a manifesto to keep the European Parliament in one city can pull in a million, the world’s lawmakers need to at least show they are listening. Some online petitions have already helped enact legislation – such as the decision by West Virginia’s legislature to designate this December 6 as the state’s first annual Miners’ Day, in memory of a mining disaster.
Not all petitioners are motivated by politics. There are currently 24,755 demands that Nike starts selling the trainers worn by Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future Part II, around 40,000 calls for MGM and New Line Cinema to let Peter Jackson direct The Hobbit and 6,850 signatures urging Columbia Records to re-shoot Beyoncé’s Deja Vu video on such grounds as "the dancing is erratic, confusing and alarming". At times, the intensity of these campaigns can cause panicked retreats by the executives in the frame – such as those running the social-networking site Facebook, which faced nearly 750,000 protests within days of announcing changes to its privacy settings.
But the trend’s greatest impact has been its potential to undermine corporate reputations by aggregating complaints. In the old days, dissatisfaction expressed itself in little more than bursts of anger directed at unhelpful call-centre staff. Now the whole online world can be told – risking far greater damage to the unresponsive corporation. Customers planning to switch to broadband supplier TalkTalk, for instance, may think again when they see the fury in a petition started by unhappy subscriber Daniel Wykes (typical example: "Your TalkTalk connection will only work when the moon is in its second phase, the wind is blowing in an easterly direction and all the planets are aligned"). Prospective buyers of Apple laptops may also reconsider on discovering that more than 1,000 iBook customers have experienced similar hardware failures shortly after the warranty period expired – with Apple refusing to acknowledge any fault.
I know this because I, too, found the same screen defect in my mollycoddled two-year-old iBook, and felt helpless until online petitions reassured me that it was "a common problem". Now some of my fellow petitioners are threatening class lawsuits, and Apple’s reputation is being pulped. Will it finally take responsibility? A spokeswoman would only say that "any customers experiencing problems should contact AppleCare". Let’s see where that gets them. But at least I know I’m not alone.
(The Times Magazine, October 28 2006)
posted by David Rowan at Saturday, October 28, 2006
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