10 Practical Ideas for Supporting Protests

These ideas for supporting activists in other countries can be adapted for use locally

1: Organise a meeting / rally / balloon release / protest / concert / poetry reading. Post details on FaceBook, or use a service like EventBrite
2: Sign one of the many online petitions online to seek help and support from various Western governments, European Union and United Nations. Try a Google search to find petitions
3: Use Twitter

• Change your avatar, background picture or color scheme
• Post on Twitter about protest issues or news
• Never leave out the all important hashtag
• Be careful and use your common sense about re-tweeting posts
• Avoid repeating unconfirmed reports as facts or include “UNCONF” / “UNCONFIRMED”
• Check links in tweets before re-tweeting in case they are broken /  wrong
• If you don’t like to open links, why should anyone reading your tweet? “If you don’t click it, don’t tweet it“
• Be sensitive when posting info about deaths, injuries, arrests, torture
• Be especially sensitive when posting links to images or videos containing harrowing scenes add “CAUTION” or “GRAPHIC”
• Worried about alienating your regular Twitter followers? Make a new user on Twitter just for your protest support tweets
• If you have a dedicated user account for Twitter protest tweets, use of Automated Services comes into play – tweet while you sleep! See this article: 15 Free Services to Schedule Tweets on Twitter

4: Use Facebook

• Start or join support groups – always best to search for a group first before creating one
• Use your status to spread the word
• Post interesting articles to your wall
• Create an application if you have the skill

5: Get Creative

• Write a poem
• Create artwork
• Make a video (eg music, art, or a personal statement)
• Design a T Shirt
• Make a gallery or slide show
• Create jewellery
• Design e-cards, postcards or posters
• Do you have free postcards in your cinemas? Contact the marketing company & ask them to help
• (remember to post your creations on Twitter and Facebook!)

6: Translate. If you speak another language, volunteer to translate.
7: Lobby. Contact your local and national government representatives, non-government organizations and human rights groups. Ask them to support, take part in actions, or become a volunteer.
8: Evangelize. Spread the word about Psiphon, an anti-filtering program that was spun off from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, and Herdict, a project out of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University that allows Internet users around the world to report on the status of which websites are blocked around the world.
9: Communicate. Use your email / address book / social circle to spread awareness.
10: Donate. If you can afford it, or can find a way to raise funds, then please consider donating to your cause – but make sure you know where the funds are going.

Please add more ideas in the comments section