Founded in Sweden on 1st January 2006, the Pirate Party (Piratpartiet) now boasts more than 45,000 members, making it the third largest Swedish political force in number of affiliates. This rapid growth is due in part to the role the group played in the protests against the Swedish police’s shut-down of the Pirate Bay P2P exchange server and because the party represents a challenge to the establishment and formal politics. In other words, they defend very specific interests and, at the same time challenge with their critical vote the entirety of the political and electoral system.

When both Barack and Michelle Obama said during the 2008 campaign that they wanted to leave politics changed in their wake, do you think this is what they had in mind?

As Germany prepares to go to the polls this Sunday, eyes are on a bit of voter-generated content. "Steini Girl" is a German version of the so-called Obama Girl's "I've Got a Crush on Obama" video. Replacing Obama as the object of removed affection is 53 year-old Social Democrat (and silver fox) Frank-Walter Steinmeier, contending for the position of chancellor. What's probably no coincidence at all is that, like in Obama's journey, Steinmeier's main political opponent is a woman. Playing the role of Hillary Clinton is, in this case, Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The German political class is, by and large, utterly fascinated with how Barack Obama, an underdog candidate, used the Internet to propel himself to the White House. But Berlin's buttoned-down political culture has largely resisted embracing online politics. Establishment caution, though, was no impediment to the unnamed 22 year-old law student in the video. In the clip, she celebrates Steinmeir's masculinity while running her fingers through her hair in front of the Brandenburg Gate and rolling in the lawn of the Bundestag. "Steini Girl" told the German news organization Deutsche Welle that her goal "is to get people voting on Sunday, and maybe I'll get a few lucrative jobs out of it too." (Via the Huffington Post)

Germany is on the verge of censoring its Internet: The government – a grand coalition between the German Social Democrats and the Conservative party – seems united in its decision: On Thursday the parliament is to vote on the erection of an internet censorship architecture.

Yesterday's panel on global digital activism at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference in Washington DC, moderated by moi, was a great chance to learn about powerful examples of online organizing that aren't as well-documented or as high-profile some others. (Video is here.) One case study in particular stood out: the "Freedom Not Fear" privacy campaign that drew more than 75,000 people to the streets of Germany in 2008. The campaign is ongoing, and the keys to its success thus far, said organizer Ralf Bendrath, are a simple message, persistent photographic documentation, a great deal of humor, this Stasi 2.0 street stencil, and, yes, Twitter. (A particular favorite from Bendrath's talk: this web overlay that empowers supporters to back the cause with a few lines of Javascript code.) If you're a student of digital activism, the Freedom Not Fear example is worth a deeper dive. (Photo by fabnie)