Photo: Dan Patterson (flickr)

Tiny European country Moldova grabbed headlines this week as post-election dissent went viral on Twitter and Facebook, prompting a crowd of 15,000 to take to the streets in the capital city of Chisinau.

After news emerged that the country’s Communist party captured a majority vote in national elections, a small group of demonstrators gathered outside the parliament and government buildings to show their outrage at what they claim was a rigged election. But as the BBC reported, when the Moldovan government shut down mobile phone and cable news networks, broadcasting a soap opera and dance program instead of political coverage, local activists turned to the Web to spread the word.

Users flooded Twitter with tweets tagged "#pman," referencing the protest site Piata Marii Adunari Nationale, the biggest square in Chisinau. Youth NGOs Hyde Park and ThinkMoldova led the online charge for a peaceful demonstration.

At the time of this post, the dialogue on #pman was still on Twitter's short list of Trending Topics.

Most Twitter updates were in Romanian, alerting local readers with a play-by-play of the protests as they unfolded, rallying people to join efforts that turned violent as activists clashed with police. "I am terrified," wrote a Moldovan woman, "but i hope that the revolution will happen and that our country will be free at last... after years and years."

A few English posts helped journalists and supporters outside the country track the protests. A post from Romania read "Is Moldova closed? Borders, Internet, phones? Is it legal? Isn't it against human rights?"

While the protests were politically motivated, Moldova’s dire economic situation helped spur activists, according to the BBC. Moldovans earn an average of $250 per month, the lowest wage among Europeans. The country's floundering economy is dependent almost solely on agriculture and remittances. The New York Times says a quarter of Moldova's young workers send money from abroad, but as their jobs are eliminated in the wake of the global financial crisis, many young Moldovans are returning home, anxious to see their country move away from Communist rule.

Natalia Morar, a ThinkMoldova activist, posted regular updates on her "Blog for Democracy". As the protests unfolded, she reiterated the firm demands of her group, called "I am not a Communist":

We demand the formation of a civil coalition made up not just of politicians, but members of civil society. If the parties insist on playing their political games, we call on our young people not to let themselves be manipulated by them.

Wired reported that Morar has been charged with "calls for organizing and staging mass disturbances." But efforts like hers show a clever mass appeal using networking tools to dodge government blockades, especially in a country like Moldova where freedom of speech hasn't always prevailed.

Moldova gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and has since been divided between Communist loyalists and those seeking closer ties to Europe's economic benefits. Moldova's economic isolation has been magnified since next-door neighbor Romania — a nation closely linked with Moldova in language and history — joined the EU in 2007.

How will the so-called "Twitter Revolution" will play out in Moldova? Writing for Foreign Policy's tech blog net.effect, Evgeny Morozov says it may not have the impact as the 2004-2005 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, which was largely aided by mobile and text messaging technology. Yet in a place where media is state-controlled and censorship is commonplace, online social networks, he says, provide a space where people can feel relatively free.