Twitter drives Moldovan protests

Chisinau, the Moldovan capital, has been rocked by 10,000-strong demonstrations organised through social-networking websites.

The protesters have used the micro-blogging service Twitter to disseminate their message and organise themselves using a unique searchable tag on Twitter.

Over the past few days the tag, #pman, has been riding high on Twitter trends.

Moldovans are using this tag, which stands for "Piata Marii Adunari Nationale", the Romanian name for the biggest square in Chisinau.

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The protests, which started peacefully, are aimed at the country's communist leadership which was returned to power on Sunday.

EU observers said the election was fair although some concern was expressed about interference from authorities.

It is being called the first Twitter-driven revolution, although Twitter and other social networking websites have been used to rally crowds as was demonstrated during last years Greek riots.

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"Technology is playing an important role in facilitating these protests," wrote Evgeny Morozov, a fellow at the Open Society Institute, on the Foreign Policy blog.

Morozov said that as well as being used by protesters in Moldova, the country's exiles, roughly a quarter of Moldova's population, were using live feeds and social-networking websites to follow the protests.