Ruffini argues that the right better understands social network activism:
With viral distribution through Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, it's a lot easier to get a message out from an organizational baseline of zero. Riffing off Clay Shirky, it's the power of organizing without organizations. In the Age of Email, those who could aggregate large lists had all the advantages when it comes to organizing. This is still somewhat true, but word can spread faster through networks of influentials with hundreds and thousands of Twitter followers than it can one-to-many through a large list. There was always the hope that people would forward the e-mail to their friends, but one of the dirty little secrets of e-mail is that the "forward to a friend" button on most e-mail blasts is at best an orphan child. Only the most scurrilous (Obama's a Muslim) or funny e-mails tend to spread purely virally.
What about the November 15, 2008 Prop 8 protests across the country? They were organized through online social networks, but they also had a clear purpose. Protests help shape agendas, but they have to have an agenda of their own first.