Activists To Launch Sochi "War Room"

Via the #CheersToSochi Facebook page:

LGBT activists, allies, social media experts, and journalists are invited to participate in the #CheersToSochi War Room in New York City at Boxers Bar HK during the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games this Friday. The purpose of the #CheersToSochi War Room is for participants to monitor the Opening Ceremony and other Olympic-related broadcasts and to: provide alternative commentary using Twitter, Facebook and social media networks; expose Russia’s continuing human rights violations and the oppression faced by LGBT Russians, political dissidents and artists in Russia; and, challenge the pro-Russia, pro-International Olympic Committee (IOC) and sponsor-driven messages broadcast by NBC. The #CheersToSochi War Room will use social media to tell the truth about the Russian government's oppression of LGBT Russians, artists, political dissidents, and others.

More from the New York Times:

Activists angry about a law in Russia against “homosexual propaganda” are intensifying efforts to mock and minimize the Winter Games. Some intend to operate what they call a #CheersToSochi War Room on Friday, during the NBC coverage of the opening ceremony, in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. The name refers to a hashtag in social media promoted by McDonald’s that was co-opted by protesters to the point where McDonald’s stopped using it. The war room initiative will give participants a chance to “provide alternative commentary, using Twitter, Facebook and social media networks,” an invitation on Facebook reads, and “challenge the pro-Russia, pro-International Olympic Committee and sponsor-driven messages broadcast by NBC.” Scott Wooledge, a leader in the appropriation of the #CheersToSochi hashtag and member of Queer Nation NY, introduced a parody site, cheerstosochi.org, attacking the major sponsors because, its home page declares, “they’ve all betrayed the ideals in Olympic charter.”

I'll be there in Hell's Kitchen tonight.