BART Protests: ‘V’ For ‘Very Few People Showed Up’

Last night, San Francisco’s BART transport system prepared itself to be swamped with Guy Fawkes masks as hacking collective Anonymous urged concerned citizens to take to the streets tracks to protest authorities’ earlier shut-down of the network’s cellphone service.

The hackers had already fired their opening salvo: hacking the BART website and releasing the private user data of thousands of ordinary subway riders. The big question, though, was how many of Anonymous’ “legion” followers would make it away from their keyboards and on to the streets. The answer, according to Wired

‘[A] demonstration at a San Francisco subway station drew what appeared to be less than a few dozen protesters Monday. Instead, the Civic Center station platform here was riddled mostly with riot-gear-dressed police officers and camera-wielding members of the media… Only a few protesters were seen wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, the symbol of Anonymous. ”I believe in free speech,” said one.’

In this week’s episode of Why Is This News, Sarah and Paul discuss the challenges of turning an online protest into offline action. There’s also a bit with a turtle. Video below…