Using SMS in an emergency situation

From TTC: Mobile Advocacy Toolkit Working Meeting wiki

SMS is a very powerful and efficient tool to organise groups and get quick responses in an emergency situation, where other means of communication are blocked or censored. General Musharaff's imposition of martial law in Pakistan, also known as a state of emergency, had numerous repercussions in terms of censorship and freedom of expression. The Society Against Internet Censorship in Pakistan started blogging live updates on the situation as it unfolded on the ground.

Amid fears of the Internet being taken offline and that there might be a clampdown of independent media in Pakistan, a coalition of various non-profit organisations, left-wing political parties, NGOs and human rights organisations, labour and trade-union federations, academics, students, and concerned citizens formed an umbrella group to resist the emergency in Pakistan.

With the use of print or traditional broadcast media out of the question, these groups turned to text messaging. Not only is SMS accessible by citizens in Pakistan, it also provides a channel to report and provide information to others overseas. In addition, SMS-based reporting and co-ordination system proved to be the most efficient way to provide support for a civil disobedience movement since many activists groups knew that SMS couldn't be censored.