Raconteur

Indonesia’s Social Media This Week – Vol.02

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By atri Other posts by atri

Here are Raconteur’s picks for social media highlights this week:

1. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) by Hanny

Though the commotion is happening at the U.S., social media enthusiasts in Indonesia are also discussing about this bill due to influential big names such as Wikipedia, WordPress, Reddit, and many more that are boycotting #SOPA through a 1-day blackout on January 18th, 2012.

Why? Because through #SOPA, government and corporations will have the ability to censor the Net for the cause to protect “creativity”. As stated by Fight For The Future , “The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites– they just have to convince a judge that the site is “dedicated to copyright infringement.” The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, as sites like Youtube and Twitter usually does, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.”

Watch this video to find out further why lots of social media platforms are against the bill  and why it is becoming a threat to freedom of expression on the Net.

2. Soleh Solihun: Moving Forward  by Nadia

Soleh Solihun is no longer working as a Rolling Stone Indonesia journalist. Since Stand Up Comedy Indonesia become very popular in Indonesia, he has received tons of offers as presenter, broadcaster, and stand up comedian. Due to this circumstances, he had to reconsider his career path either as a journalist or a full time entertainer. This epiphany was written on his personal blog on Friday, January 13th 2012. He also stated that his next big dream is to become a book writer, which he is currently working on a book project based on his life as a journalist for 7 years. Goodluck Soleh!

3. Steve Jobs’ Action Figure Withdrawn by Daniel

In Icons, a company in China that was producing Steve Jobs action figure, decided to stop further production and cancel the whole order. The main reason is to honor Jobs’s family whom objected the Steve Jobs action figure production. In Icons created this action figure with an accurate 1:6 scale, outfitted with the official black turtleneck, jeans, and New Balance sneakers that Jobs seldom seen without. Excessive number of orders has caused problems on In Icons official website. Retailing for 100 USD, In Icons promised to return the money that has been paid.

4.  ’Getaway’ Viral Campaign Went Backlash by Atri

Friday night, January 13th, people on Twitter timeline were buzzing about the whereabouts of stand up comedian Ernest Prakasa. It all started when Ernest tweeted ‘it was dark and I don’t know where I am. I AM NOT KIDDING’ and plead for help. However, he also said that he could manage to upload a video to YouTube with a poor wi-fi signal to indicate his captivity in a locked storage room. The timeline were instantly filled with various reactions. Friends and his Twitter followers panicked while others speculated  it’s a prank. When someone pointed out clues that were on the YouTube video tags, the mystery was solved. The whole scheme was a viral campaign for a car brand. Negative responses immediately flooded the timeline addressed to both Ernest and the agency for misleading the public with such insensitive scenario. On the contrary, several opinions acknowledge that this is a breakthrough-marketing case, especially, with the buzz result despite the tonality. The pro and cons (check here and here) surrounding this case is familiarly similar with Sumardy’s provoking coffin campaign last year.

*The campaign is still ongoing as an intro to invitation-only party later on.

5.  Katy Perry #JakartaDreams Tour 2012 by Daud

“Otw SICC, can’t wait Jakarta Dreams!” is a sentence made of three trending topics: ‘Otw SICC, ‘Cant wait’ and ‘#JAKARTADREAMS’ on January 19th, 2012. Katy Perry’s ‘California Dreams’ 2012 Jakarta concert successfully made an enormous conversation trend on Twitter. At least thousands of Indonesian Twitter users retweet-ed Katy’s tweets in Jakarta and also conversations regarding Katy’s concert, ticket selling, and her file for divorce just weeks before the concert. Looking on this phenomenon we can say that Twitter has made concert organizer’s job more easier and beneficial than ever before. The massive buzz made from Katy’s concert has proven once again the impact of tweet intensity in Jakarta, fueled by the enthusiasm towards international artist concerts. Several artists that previously came to Indonesia also made it to Twitter’s trending topic. However, Katy’s kissing scene with one of her – very lucky – Indonesian fan most likely will be the talk of the town until the end of the week. Apparently, Katy kissed a boy not a girl.

Stay tune next Friday for another scoop on Social Media grapevine

Have a nice weekend and Happy Chinese New Year!

Gong Xi Fat Choi