OpenIDEO
Cancel
OpenIDEO is an open innovation platform. Join our global community to solve big challenges for social good. Sign Up / Login or Learn more
Phase: Concepting

Digital Detainment

To raise awareness around unlawful detention, Amnesty International will detain Facebook profiles. The profiles will be taken without cause, and detainees will not be able to communicate with their friends.

Photo of DeletedUser
4 9

Written by DeletedUser

Digitally Detained profile page. Digitally Detained profile page.

To raise awareness around unlawful detention, Amnesty International will detain Facebook profiles. The profiles will be taken without cause, and detainees will not be able to communicate with their friends.

In order to free the detainees, their friends must visit the Amnesty International Facebook page. A "like" on the page will equate to a signature on a petition to end unlawful detention. Additionally, once enough "likes" have been achieved, all of the digitally detained profiles will be freed.

What kind of resources are needed to get this idea off the ground and/or support it over time?

- A programmer to develop the Facebook app.

My Virtual Team

Katie Steward, Jessica Wong, Elizabeth Marks

4 comments

Join the conversation:

Comment
Spam
Photo of DeletedUser

DeletedUser

Very interesting idea! And it seems promising in creating a buzz! I fully support.
Detaining random people's profiles may be the ideal in creating a shock and hence, interaction and awareness, as this is what happens in real life, no one volunteers to be detained. One day they are free, the next they are not.
However, doing this as well may lead to other legal issues by the page owner against the campaign, so Vincent's idea of voluntary permission to detain the page sounds problem-free.
Individuals with high popularity, such as those with high number of friends or actively linked Facebook page to blogs and other social networking sites would generate higher participation.
Yet, I still think the individuals should be picked at random from the world, mostly individuals that are not related to the human rights field.

link
Spam
Photo of Meena Kadri

Great thinking around freedoms we take for granted, Jessica!

link
Spam
Photo of DeletedUser

DeletedUser

Congrats on a very interesting idea! The thing that concerns me is that if not enough people "like" the page in a timely manner, the "detainee" will have lost the easiest way to reach out and remind them. It's not as effective if the person is never freed. I wonder if there might be a way to incorporate automated amnesty-related status updates into it. Such as,

Detainment: Day 1
To free Detained Person's Name from detainment, please go to www.facebook.com/... (the amnesty FB page).

You could even incorporate some type of link to a real detained person's petition or something into the automated status updates. Very neat concept :-)

link
Spam
Photo of Vincent Cheng

Creative idea Jessica! I assume the "detention without cause" would actually be voluntarily enabled by the profile owner as a way to raise awareness?

link