Social media harnessed the support – and donations – of millions after the devastating Haiti earthquake. A viral communication wave that swept Facebook and Twitter generated awareness and prompted donations for the Haiti and Chilean earthquakes earlier this year.

But internet users do not only respond to global emergencies – on a growing scale internet users are tapping social media sites to seek support for political causes and voice consternation over what they see as unfair company practices:

• A Facebook group called “Boycott BP,” it’s urging a worldwide boycott of all BP brands and services, has drawn more than 500.000 fans. This site is urging followers to protest not just BP gas stations, but also “Wild Bean Cafe,” a coffee shop concept BP runs in Europe, South Africa and Australia. BP’s name is no where near that Wild Bean cafe logo, but organizers are doing their best to make sure that the cafe line goes down with its parent company
• An anonymously managed Twitter account – BP Public Relations (@BPGlobalPR) – that makes glib comments, purportedly on BP’s behalf, has more than 140.000 followers. BP’s legit Twitter feed @BP_America has drawn fewer than 12,000 followers
• At the BP station on Houston and Lafayette in New York City a flash mob was arranged through Facebook
• A US-based web design company launched an “Oil Spill Firefox Plugin,” which blacks out all web mentions of BP with oil spill blobs
• Intel was attacked by activists opposed to minerals mining in the Congo inundated Intel’s Facebook page. They wanted Intel to pledge its support for a congressional bill that would restrict the import of “conflict minerals” that contribute to fighting in the war-torn country
• Human rights group Amnesty International  launched a social media campaign on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and through bloggers, designed to raise money for a full page ad buy attacking oil company Shell in a UK national newspaper
• Nestlé, maker of Kit Kat, was attacked by Greenpeace for using palm oil from companies that where trashing Indonesian rainforests, threatening the livelihoods of local people and pushing orang-utans towards extinction. Greenpeace prepared a frontal assault with prepared assets such as off-brand logos, detrimental videos, and called for their Twitter followers to attack Nestle’s Facebook page
• Hewlett-Packard, which released a web camera that supposedly track people’s faces – always keeping them centered on screen – got slammed when a buyer posted a video claiming that the product doesn’t recognize African American faces. The video, posted under the title “HP Computers Are Racist”
• United Airlines repeatedly refused to listen and take corrective action after damaging the guitars of Dave Carroll. He eventually wrote a song in response, that has been viewed than 8,4 mill. times  on Youtub and had untold damage to United. Now known as the “United Breaks Guitars” phenomenon
• Facebook groups and fan pages attacking Timer Warner: “Time Warner Cable Sucks”, “Boycott Time Warner” and “Time Warner Sucks”
• Fashion Ministry (“Fashionministeriet”) succumbed after bloggers wrote about overcharges and poor business ethics. Now the online shop is closed

Short URL & Title:
Web users turn to social media sites to channel anger and frustration — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/tri

Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean has officially begun. Weather experts say 14 hurricanes could be headed to the Midlands. With over a dozen named storms, state emergency management officials are thinking outside the box in order to get prepared, doing something they have never done before.

Using social media, participants will be able to ask questions and create a sense of community and conversation they have never done before. The idea, is that this interaction will help increase both awareness and preparedness this year.

Short URL & Title:
Use social media to prepare for hurricanes — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/rdr

Lately we have seen human rights group Amnesty International  launched a social media campaign on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and through bloggers, designed to raise money for a full page ad buy attacking oil company Shell in a UK national newspaper.

Now BP Public Relations (@BPGlobalPR) – parody account on Twitter with 134 followers – is seeking to raise money to combat the massive oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico.

Tumblr has painted its iconic ocean blue dashboard black today in an effort to raise awareness about the disaster, while simultaneously allowing users to donate right from their dashboards.

If you’re a Tumblr user, you can log on today and donate to a myriad of groups: Save Our Gulf, the National Audubon Society or the Greater New Orleans Foundation. Donating will also unlock the Limited Edition Black Dashboard as an account preference — and Tumblr will match every donation it receives.

Short URL & Title:
Social media used to raise money for BP oil spill — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/ygi

In the wake of the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, BP have been under heavy social media attack: boycot movement on Facebook now hovering around 400 thousand fans, BP Public Relations (@BPGlobalPR) – parody account – on Twitter with 134 thousand followers, flash mob attack and the online/offline movement “We´re bringing oil to the American Shores”.

And now the Black Oil Firefox plugin that aims to black out all mentions of BP (British Petroleum) across the web. As one popular tweet espouses:

“Want BP to [blank] up your browser like they’ve [blank] up the Gulf? Install the Oil Spill Firefox plugin from @jess3.”

The plugin replaces all mentions (case insensitive) of BP and accompanying terms like BP oil, BP gas, BP worldwide, and so on, with blacked out letters and dripping oil drops.

Images that contain meta data matching the terms are also blacked out (or blued out, as was the case on my machine).

In a future version of the plugin, Jess3 plans to add oil drip effects to BP photographs and to turn official BP websites black and white.

This plugin may not do much to stop the oil, but it’s a way to express anger and outrage over BP.

Short URL & Title:
The plugin attack against BP — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/meb