A Facebook group calling for the resignation of the Malaysian Prime Minister has drawn over 200 000 people

 Facebook protest in Malaysia

In Malaysia, over 200 000 web users have joined this Facebook page calling for the resignation of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. The aim was to draw 100 000 people, but the group grew to over double this figure, in just a few days.

This campaign echoes the Bersih 2.0 campaign launched last month by members of the opposition and civil society. They are demanding electoral reforms ahead of the general election which must be held in or before 2013.

On the 9th of July, around 50 000 people dressed in yellow, the colour adopted by the movement, took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur. Over 1 400 people were arrested that day. People claiming to be victims of police brutality during the rally can share their experiences online, on the Bersih 2.0 web site.

Over the past few weeks, the wearing of yellow has been considered a subversive act by the authorities. And cyber activists in Malaysia were delighted when Queen Elizabeth II of England wore a yellow dress when she met the Malaysian Prime Minister at Buckingham Palace last week.

And the online campaigning continues. Opposition members have used social networks to launch an appeal to boycott state controlled media, which they claim is trying to play down the scale of the opposition movement. 13

The man who attacked Rupert Murdoch

HIs online pseudonym is « Jonnie Marbles, but his real name is Jonathan May-Bowles. This 26 year old activist tried to hit Rupert Murdoch in the face with a shaving cream pie, as the media tycoon testified before British parliament about the phone hacking scandal.

The incident triggered an avalanche of reactions on Twitter, with web users wondering who the pie thrower actually was. It was soon revealed to be jonnieMarbles, who was present at the hearing and had ‘tweeted’ his intentions prior to the attack.

On his profile, he describes himself as a comedian and activist, he also has a blog called anarchish which he has not updated since February. Web users have found videos he had uploaded to YouTube. In this sketch for example, he explains why, in his opinion, the British Electoral system is unfair and anti-democratic.

Jonathan May-Bowles is also a member of « UK Uncut », an organization which campaigns against budget cuts in public spending. The group has denied any ties to the attack on Rupert Murdoch on its Twitter account.

The pie thrower has been charged with a public order offence, but he is not the only one web users have their eye on. Rupert Murdoch’s wife, Wendi Deng, also caught their attention after she vigorously defended her husband. She even has a fan club on Facebook.

Women urged to strip to support Putin as president

This campaign has been launched on a Russian social network, urging women to support Vladimir Putin in next year’s presidential election by taking off their clothes. It is unclear who is behind the campaign which was posted on the blog of a MP from Putin’s ruling United Russia Party, but women joining the movement, known as “ Putin’s Army” will be in with a chance of winning an iPad 2.

Belgian papers to appear in Google searches again

Google began allowing the Web sites of French-language Belgian newspapers to appear in its search results again on Monday. After losing a copyright infringement lawsuit, the American giant had been ordered to delete articles from several Belgian newspapers from Google News, but the company proceeded to remove every mention of these newspapers from the search engine, causing their audiences to plummet until an agreement was found three days later.

Video of the day

Designer Kyle Jones decided to put an iPhone in his guitar and strum out a tune, and as we can see in this video, his experiment resulted in an interesting roller shutter effect, capturing some amazing visuals of the strings vibrating as the guitar is played.