I’ve narrowed down the focus of my semester-long project. In my first post, I talked about looking at different commenting systems and the role they play in spreading information. I’ve decided to narrow down my focus to link spamming — links to sites that incite civic action placed in comments of content that isn’t intended to incite civic action.

One of the most substantial examples of this was the 2008 U.S. beef protests in South Korea. when South Koreans stopped banning the import of beef from the United States. Many South Koreans opposed the lifting of the ban, saying that U.S. beef wasn’t safe from the bacteria that causes Mad Cow disease. It even escalated to the point where the President’s entire cabinet submitted resignation letters.

Attendance at protests increased as the result of link spamming. To reach a large active audience quickly, a group of teenage girls started posting information about protests on a popular Korean boy band website, Dongbangshingi. As a result, messages of the protests reached a very large network, and many students attended protests, against the wishes of their parents. A report of the incident can be found here.

I’m working on tracking down more information, especially statistics on this incident. If you have any information or links that could be relevant, let me know!