Change For The Better

Change For The Better

The creator of an online petition site talks about how technology can mobilise social activism and urge people to stand up to injustice

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE
Change For The Better

As a founder of Change.org, Ben Rattray knows only too well that social activism and technology are a match made in heaven.

"We all deal with frustration, with the inability of laws and government to address the most important problems we face, and new technology now allows us to connect and enforce change," he said.

Change.org now reigns as the world's biggest petition platform with more than 20 million users in 196 countries. It is an open site for anyone to launch a petition on a wide range of social, political and personal issues. The site has acted as a starting point and mobilisation for several monumental changes, from dropping a bank fee in the US to encouraging the South African government to tackle "corrective raping" of lesbians.

Started in 2007 by Rattray and his friend from Stanford University, Mark Dimas, Change.org has gone through several phases from social networking for social activism, a blogging platform, to an online petition outlet. The current format started in 2011, and it earns revenue from advocacy organisations and advertisements from social enterprises.

Change.org allows anybody to launch a petition to gather supporters, and the team generates emails to those who are the focus of the petition, if there are any, to display a united front, and urge them to take action.

"Our organisation is about empowering people and bringing them together. It doesn't have a direction that we make opinions. We actually care about letting the people voice their own opinions," said Rattray.

The success of the site has landed Rattray, 32, on many influential lists including this year's Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World and Businessweek's list of America's Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs among others.

The Thai version of the site, run by former a Bangkok Post journalist, Tul Pinkaew, was launched in July this year. The site has now marked up 150,000 socially concerned individuals, and more than 40 campaigns a week. Notable achievements so far include the ban of violent/sexually explicit movies shown on buses (once a normal practice here) and cyclists who have managed to get Bangkok Metropolitan Authority to fix steel grating potholes. The cyclists are still coordinating with the BMA regarding where potholes need fixing, and exploring other bike-related safety issues.

Rattray revealed that he was surprised to see such a rapid growth of his site in Thailand. After all, he first started Change.org at his house in the US.

"What we're doing crosses cultures in a very significant way. I think there are only a few cultures where people don't want to come together to stand against injustice and influence change. It's a fundamental human desire. So if you just have that open tool set, and you have someone who understands local cultures, we just advise them," he said.

Being an agent of change wasn't exactly what Rattray, who came from a family of business people and investment bankers, had in mind.

He went to Stanford University with the purpose of becoming an investment banker who would later go into politics. But a conversation with his gay younger brother during his senior year at Stanford altered the course of his life.

''I went home, and one of my younger brothers came out. He said the thing that hurt the most was how people wouldn't stand up against those who are hateful, and do something about it _ people like me. I cared about the issue, but I never did anything about it. I never stood up. It was a really powerful moment in my life. I felt ashamed of what I had not done. I [thought deeply] about my life, what I wanted to do, and what kind of impact I wanted to make. I decided I didn't want to be an investment banker entirely,'' said Rattray.

After graduation, he tried to come up with a way for people to address injustice, and take action, but he couldn't quite figure out how. Rattray's parents doubted their son's decision not to join the Wall Street rat race.

''They were sceptical at first. It was a big shift for them. They thought it would end at some point, that I would get tired of it. It was only six months ago that my mum recognised that it was exciting when she saw my face in Time magazine, which was too large. It was ridiculous!'' he said.

After Stanford, Rattray studied for another degree from London School of Economics, and returned to Washington to figure out where he should be heading. Stuck with no solution to bring his idea to life, Rattray applied for law school to specialise in public law in the hope he might be able to affect changes at policy level. He paid part of his tuition fee, but suddenly dropped a bombshell on his parents for the second time when he saw what a powerful tool Facebook, then in its initial phase, can be. ''I was really frustrated with the inability of people to make change, and that's when I started to think about Change.org and how to use technology, but I couldn't figure it out, so I applied to law school. But about a month before I had to go to law school, a light bulb came on that social media could be used for social issues. I decided to not go to law school, to instead work on the idea,'' he said.

''My parents were sceptical again for the second time. First I decided not to be an investment banker, and then I decided not to go to law school, and started this crazy company.''

It took years of hard work before Change.org began to take off. The site came to prominence in 2011 for the overwhelming response to the campaign against corrective rape in South Africa.

''In the beginning, there was scepticism. People didn't think it would matter. They just thought it was just an online petition _ who cares? It made sense because historically, it hadn't really made an impact. But two things have shifted. One is social media, which helps the petition explode more rapidly, and now the campaigns are more specific. That inspires more campaigns.

''Two years ago, there were about 100 petitions a month when we first started, and last year, it was about 5,000, and now it's about 25,000 a month. So now it's a huge increase because it has changed the way people think about their own power. People now recognise they can make a difference, and that increases activity,'' he said. Just as technology can bring out social good in people, the internet can sometimes be a murky territory, and surely there are undesirable petitions or off-the-wall campaigns. Rattray said those that are too far out or painfully biased usually drop off the radar.

''It's interesting because the ones that take off are the ones that have broad appeal. There are a lot of petitions that you think are strange, not interesting or ineffective, but they tend not to get a lot of signatures. So, it's almost like a self-selection process.

''There's no censorship on the site, but if there are campaigns that are dangerous or violent or hateful, we remove those, but otherwise we're pretty much like YouTube. Anyone can flag the content, and then they can go under review. But it's very, very rare for us to remove a campaign. We have about 25,000 campaigns a month, and we only have to remove about a single-digit amount of them,'' he said.

Thailand's campaign director Tul said that the Thai Change.org site started as a serious venture, so local users knew from the get-go that this was not another Pantip where one can just come in, rant and leave. Extreme political campaigns are also welcome.

Rattray added: ''Oftentimes, there are two opposite petitions. They just disagree with each other. We think that is fine. It's a healthy debate. The petitions that are successful, and get really big are [the ones that are] clear. More and more people start getting involved when they see that they can get a response. They recognise the possibilities.''

Rattray's favourite campaign of late aren't the ones that make headlines, but rather a small victory in India. A student was asked for a bribe, and he refused to pay. The student recorded the conversation between him and the official on the phone, and his petition on Change.org resulted in the suspension of that officer. There were around 400 signatures towards his cause, but the victory created a long-lasting impact.

''The reason I am excited [about this campaign] is because it further inspired people to start their own campaigns against corruption. Now the public officials know that if they ask for a bribe, they might be publicly shamed. It's a huge shift in the psychology, and that will eventually change the officials,'' he said.

With a plan to expand its Thai office in the near future and the launch of a mobile version of the site, Rattray encourages those who see injustice to stand up for what they believe in by combining online resources with offline persistence.

''It's not just 'sign your name'. It's a gathering of people who are engaged with the issue. It's not just a one-time thing. It's a recurring movement.''

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