Expanding Twitter’s Reach in Kyrgyzstan

In the lead up to last year’s revolution in Kyrgyzstan, the state of press freedom in the country could only be characterized as dismal: reporters suffered violent attacks, newspapers were suspended, broadcasters were pressured to drop critical programming, and access to online news websites were blocked.

Only five years earlier the Tulip Revolution—a month of protests following fraudulent parliamentary elections—brought down the government of President Askar Akayev. But despite promises of democratic reform, press freedom remained on shaky ground.

In April 2010, civil unrest began again. First in the city of Talas on April 6 and then spreading to Bishkek, Tokmok, and Naryn in a matter of days. By April 15, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev had fled the country and announced his resignation.

Despite similarities, one of the differences between 2005 and 2010 was the active use of social media by critics of the government. In the few weeks before April 2010, Twitter coverage of events in Kyrgyzstan expanded significantly. The April 2010 revolution only highlighted the weakness of traditional media to provide credible, up-to-date information and the importance of platforms like Twitter to provide space for information sharing and civic journalism.

Before the April 2010 revolution, Twitter in Kyrgyzstan had its limitations. The country is land-locked, and external Internet traffic must travel through Russia and Kazakhstan—making even 140-character tweets prohibitively expensive for most of the country’s population. Updating Twitter via text messages was also problematic as local users had to text a British number. After the revolution, local NGO leaders were committed to finding a way to expand Twitter’s reach by making it more accessible and affordable in Kyrygzstan.

And so with the support of the Open Society Foundations in Kyrgyzstan, the Civil Initiative on Internet Policy began discussion with Twitter executives on how to aggregate tweets about Kyrygzstan and make the service cheaper for users. The creation of Tweet.kg brought together Kyrgyz twitter users into a single community and Kyrgyzstan became the first of the former Soviet Republics to have its own short code, allowing mobile phone users to send tweets at a reduced cost.

Tweet.kg—which displays messages from and about Kyrgyzstan—is now a resource not only for those residing in Kyrgyzstan but for people throughout the world interested in the country. By aggregating the content onto a single site, the page can load much faster, a critical feature in the region where most people have slow Internet connections that make downloading content from international sites very difficult. The service is based in-country, making downloads both cheaper and faster for users. Tweet.kg also made it possible for users to update Twitter via text messages, by using the short code 4040—a significant cost savings.

In order to promote Tweet.kg, the Civil Initiative on Internet Policy held a series of practical trainings on Twitter and new media around Kyrgyzstan. Over 300 people attended the trainings and Tweet.kg has helped increase exposure to other social networks and the Kyrgyz blogosphere. Twitter has also become a fixture in Kyrgyz politics—several members of Parliament are active, as is President Otunbayeva.

Of course, press freedom is still a concern in Kyrgyzstan but platforms like Tweet.kg are helping to ensure the spread of information and the growth of civic journalism.