A phenomenon that has paralleled the rise of Twitter is the backchannel, a line of communication powered by Twitter hashtags, at lectures, speeches and conferences.  If you are unfamiliar with the concept, you can read a previous post I wrote about the topic by clicking on this post – Back channel Unleashed.

Now, it appears that enterprising and activist  communicators have taken the backchannel to a whole new level. Members of the animal cruelty prevention group PETA recently staged a hashtag takeover, by tweeting objections to NASA’s planned use of monkeys in long term radiation tests.

NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz was speaking at an event in New York using the #TWTRCON hashtag. During her presentation, tweets (from PETA supporters) objecting to the use of the monkeys began flooding the phones and computers of conference participants. The tweets included a shortened bit.ly link to a web page urging conference participants to confront Schierholz about the planned experiment.

Was the hashtag takeover successful? TWTRCON organizer Tonia Ries (@tonia_ries) talks about the incident and its ramifications, pro and con, in this post from her blog, The Realtime Report.

Is this a new trend? Perhaps a well timed and organized hashtag takeover during next year’s political conventions will sway the electorate one way or another. Or maybe virtual activism of this type will bring to light a humanitarian disaster during next year’s Super Bowl. What other ways could the Twitter hashtag be used to market, promote, or raise awareness?

Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments.