Social networks maintain an accelerated pace these days, in Nicaragua, commenting on the event of November 7, in which the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo organizes a vote without political competition. Users are using memes, hashtags, educational campaigns and video clips to denounce these illegitimate votes.
“Electoral farce” denounced the users, who for the most part express with mockery and humorous comments about the “electoral contest”, the results of which are already known: Daniel Ortega will win, since only he is presented to the “elections”, since he sent to imprisonment for opposition candidates who have the greatest sympathy among the population. And in addition, their own employees of the FSLN party will count the votes.
Facebook is where the most activity of opponents of the regime is observed, because in addition to creating publications individually, civil organizations (all persecuted by the regime) have organized forums between nationals and international figures. Also on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, users create content, although sometimes they do not use the established labels.
The labels of the protest against the electoral farce
The labels that Nicaraguans who oppose the regime are using are: #NicaraguaNoVota, #YoNoBotoMiVoto, # Illegitimate elections, # Farsaelectoral, #HuellaLimpiaConcienciaLimpia, # FraudeNicaragua2021, #CircoElectoral, #NoAlFraude, #QuedateEnCasa, # MiCandidatoEstáPreso, among others.
These tags run through all platforms and in the search engines of each social network you can access the content of political protest for the “theft of the right to vote with dignity”. The opposition social organizations have not agreed to use a single hashtag and users adopt the labels that are most mentioned in their digital community.
Educational campaigns
Although most of the opposition content that denounces the fraud organized by Ortega is created by individual users, political and civic organizations have also created content using the educational campaign format.
The University Coordinator for Democracy and Justice (CUJD) publishes a campaign with posters using the colors blue, yellow and white where proper names stand out -Irela, Luis, Samantha, José, etc.- so that their followers can adopt them if they correspond with his same name. “I am (proper name) and I do not participate in the electoral farce.”
Another campaign that stands out is the one recently launched by AMA and No Olvida, Museum of Memory against Impunity and Be Human, a group that prefers to remain anonymous for security reasons.
“Be Human” is drawing attention to the conditions of suffering and torture experienced by the more than 150 political prisoners held by the regime. They are also sharing a website where they have published a letter of complaint to Ortega and invite the population to sign it.
But the most impressive thing about this campaign is that it has reproduced in real size a cell that has the dimensions of the cells of El Chipote, the regime’s torture center. It has installed this campaign in San José, Costa Rica.
Another campaign that runs through social networks is that of the Blue and White National Unity, which has distributed two video clips. One is titled: “Nicaragua can choose,” and calls not to vote and stay home to show the rejection of the regime. The other video clip has a professional invoice with original lyrics and music, plus a video that tells the story of a group of people who march protesting on a Nicaraguan street and all end up locked in their houses showing the empty street.
The video is titled “Let’s stay at home, this November 7 there is no one to vote for.”
#Official video / Nicaragua YES can choose this November 7.
?? Let’s stay in the house! ?#NicaraguaSiPuede # 7N #Stay at home pic.twitter.com/vFQ3kxD7wm– Mariángeles D. Lindo (@MaryChelis) October 26, 2021
In addition, Nicaraguans living abroad have also organized a World March in which, in each country, they will meet from November 3 to 7 to protest the fraudulent elections. They are summoned to carry out sit-ins in emblematic squares. And they are already communicating photos and short videos of their seedlings through social networks.
The Orteguistas in the doldrums
Meanwhile, supporters of the Ortega regime are in the doldrums and in the phase of recomposition on social networks after the company Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, eliminated a trolley farm made up of 937 false accounts, 140 pages and 24 groups, on Facebook; as well as 363 accounts on Instagram.
For Ortega users, this coup by Meta deflated a communication strategy that they had designed to disseminate the regime’s winning story through the platforms and, according to them, “invade social networks.” They intended to do so using the network that was shown to be made up of fake accounts that acted as trolls creating a harmful environment in civic and public debate. The Ortega accounts that survived continue to broadcast propaganda content in favor of Ortega, but without the false impact that they appeared before.
