Excerpted from an account by Bernardo Gutièrrez, in OpenDemocracy:

“Despite a catastrophic job market, growing unemployment and record corporate profits, a different divide accounts for the #spanishrevolution: the digital one. 92% of Spain’s young people are Internet users (12 points above the European average). But only 10% of Spanish MPs use Twitter. This goes a long way to explain why Ángeles González-Sinde, Minister of Culture adopted one of the most antiquated internet laws, the “Ley Sinde”, which allows the shutdown of a website without court permission within four days.

The law provoked a cyber-revolution. In January 2010 Sustainable Network – a digital platform of resistance – was born. A year later #nolesvotes (Don’t vote for them), a platform that called to punish parties who supported the Ley Sinde followed. Soon after, the group Anonymous joined, as did Alex de la Iglesia after having resigned from his position as president of the Spanish Film Academy. #nolesvotes became the focal point of the online movement.

But something was missing. A spark to light the fuse. Unemployment was still on the rise. Companies continued to announce huge profits. The parties revealed their candidates for the regional elections, including figures who had illegally profited from the housing boom (and subsequent bust). When the conservative Francisco Camps, who the New York Times would later term “the Spanish Berlusconi” who provoked the revolt, smiled for the cameras unapologetically, the bomb exploded.

How and when did the digital and economic divides cross? How did the digital outrage turn into analog protests? The collective Franconohamuerto.com offers a nice illustration. Its initial goal was to raise money on the Internet for advertisements on buses in support of Judge Baltasar Garzon, famously removed from the High Court for investigating the crimes of the Franco regime. The cause of Garzon had revived a number of leftish people. The non-existing separation of the judiciary from politics fed the outrage.

But Franconohamuerto.com was just one out of many protest groups. Hundreds of movements emerged on the internet. The hurricane was approaching. The group Estado del Malestar (State of Discomfort) called its members out into the streets with megaphones. Juventud Sin Futuro (No Future for the Youth) filled the streets in April. The revolution was knocking at the door, but no-one seemed to take notice.

Until Real Democracy NOW called a demonstration for May 15th, taking place in over 50 cities under the slogan: “We are not puppets in the hands of politicians and bankers.” And the protests became a huge success with ten thousand people in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol on May 16th. And Spain finally woke up on the 17th with major protests taking place all over the country.

Crisis. Greedy bankers. Corruption. Unemployment. And the #spanishrevolution set Twitter on fire. A cartoon by El Roto for El País offered the best summary: “The youth took to the street, and suddenly the parties were sidelined.”

The results of the elections revealed another, more dangerous divide than the digital or economic: the democratic one. The international press highlighted the demise of the Socialists. The national press declared the Conservatives winners. But the most important political force were those who abstained, a majority of 33 percent of the votes.”