In what is being heralded as the fastest-growing online petition in history, people across the world — from Rio de Janeiro to Rome and New York to New Delhi and Vancouver — have signed up to put pressure on China for a dialogue with Buddhist spiritual leader, The Dalai Lama.

The online-petition campaign launched by global advocacy network Avaaz.org has so far obtained nearly 1.3 million signatures pressing China to discuss Tibet with The Dalai Lama.

“One million signatures in seven days is unprecedented,” said Avaaz campaign director Ben Wikler. “We believe it is the largest global online petition in history and the fastest growing Internet petition ever — obtaining over a million signatures in just seven days.

“If all the signatories of this petition joined hands in a line, it would stretch from London to Rome,” added Wikler.

Hard copies of the protest petition — addressed to Chinese President Hu Jintao and carrying all the 1.3 million signatures — will soon be stacked up outside Chinese embassies in most countries across the globe.

The Avaaz petition has been signed by citizens of every country on earth, as well as every inhabited, dependent territory. The only exception is Antarctica, where scientists are not allowed to participate in political activity, explained Wikler.

The greatest response to the petition has come from France, where 376,568 people have signed the petition. That’s six signees per 1,000 French citizens and more than one per cent of all Internet users in the European nation, Wikler pointed out.

Avaaz — which means ‘voice’ in many Asian, Middle Eastern and Eastern European languages — itself exists as a virtual organization on the Internet and its staff reside in London, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, New York City, Geneva, and Panama. It is legally incorporated as an NGO in the state of New York in the United States, Wikler said.

The Avaaz petition, which is just one facet of a larger campaign to free Tibet from Chinese rule, illustrates just how quickly the Internet is shaping the front lines in today’s battles for the hearts and minds of world citizens.

“There are two wars going on today,” said Peter-Chow White, a communications professor at Simon Fraser University. “Analog wars between people, which are brutal and nasty, and then the information wars, which are nasty in different ways but are equally important in many ways too.”

The Internet has taken on an extremely large and significant role in global activism, he added, explaining that the choice of forums and modes of communication are now nearly endless.

“The Internet has been a source of alternative media, not just in terms of alternative institutionalized forms of media, but in terms of everyday people using technology to spread their own information,” he said.

“FaceBook, YouTube and My Space are all central to how activists now work,” he added, referring to social network sites.  

FaceBook alone is home to over 500 groups related to Tibet, with the group Free Tibet boasting over 80,000 members.

Richard Smith, associate director of SFU’s school of communications, says the Internet has leveled the playing field — anybody, no matter his or her position in society, is readily able to access and disseminate information.

“The Internet allows average people to get involved in a mass dialogue of politics in a much broader scale,” he said. “It expands the number of people and the ways in which they can participate.”

Indeed, there is something ironic about a global digital revolution taking place for a region only beginning to explore the Internet’s full capabilities. Tibet has the lowest Internet population among China’s provinces, according to freelance journalist Ron Gluckman.

The American reporter was recently in Tibet and spoke to several Internet cafe managers who are involved in the risky business of providing bandwith to the repressed.

“Because of the Internet, we in Tibet aren’t isolated from the rest of the world. That’s been our fate for centuries, and was one reason China could take over,” said the manager of one Internet cafe in the capital of Lhasa. “This has totally turned things around for Tibet. Before, nobody knew about us or cared. Now, we’re connected, free.”

Since the Tibetan uprising began March 10, the Internet community has called for greater public awareness of Tibet’s plight using words and images to blast their message through the background noise of the digital age.

“The Internet is an interesting hybrid between point-to-point technology, like telephones, and point-to-multipoint, like television and radio so that anybody. . . can get their word out to a large number of people,” said Prof. Smith. “The individual can reach out through YouTube and  effectively become a television station for a brief moment of time. Anyone can operate it and it has global reach.”

Type “Tibet” on YouTube and 48,000 results appear, representing every perspective in the political spectrum.

In an aggressive post claiming to educate all the “ignorant bandwagon jumpers,” Nzkof lists a series of “facts” including how the Central Intelligence Agency continues to sponsor The Dali Lama in an attempt to overthrow the Chinese government. The video, entitled, “Tibet Was, Is and Always Will Be A Part of China,” has been watched by over 2.5 million people worldwide.

As hordes of Internet groups vie for the public’s attention, executive director of the Canadian Tibet Committee (CTC), Demod Travis said the amount of signa tures on the Avaaz petition is staggering.

“When a politician sees that 1.4 million people signed up worldwide in what is probably the fastest growing serious, political petition . . . it sends an important message,” he said. “This is not a small issue. It’s one that needs to be dealt with.”

While NGOs are reaching out to the public via Internet, newspapers have not been forgotten either. the CTC recently placed a full-page ad in Toronto’s Chinese newspaper, Da Zhong Bao, in a bid to reach out to Chinese Canadians and dispel doubts planted by the Chinese government that pro-Tibetan groups are turning the recent violence into an ethnic issue.

“We are troubled by recent statements from the Chinese government that serve only to manufacture ethnic strife,” Travis said.

“We hope that by publishing The Dalai Lama’s message in Chinese, we can open a direct and constructive dialogue between our communities in Canada, and ultimately with Chinese citizens within Canada.”

But despite the CTC’s efforts, not all Chinese newspapers across Canada agreed to publish the advertisement. Vancouver-based Chinese-language daily, Sing Tao declined the ad for “business reasons,” said Travis.

Efforts were made to contact Sing Tao, but there was no response by deadline. 

The CTC also contacted Vancouver’s Ming Pao Daily News, another Chinese-language daily, but the paper asked for changes to be made to the advertisement, said Travis.

“Depending upon what those changes are, we may have to say no,” said Travis.

“It’s very important to us, especially in regards to what happened on Sunday on Parliament Hill,” he added, referring to the 3,000 demonstrators who coalesced via the Internet and then gathered in the nation’s capital to call for Ottawa’s support of the “Tibetan separatists” China has accused of fomenting violence.

“It’s not an ethnic question,” said Travis. “It’s about human rights and democratic reform. We want to work with Chinese Canadians on these issues and not be put in a position where the Chinese government tries to divide Chinese Canadians from their Tibetan friends.”

— with files from Indo-Asian News Service