"The way they communicate internally sounds sometimes as if they are at war," said Flemming Steen Munch, a Copenhagen police spokesman.
American activists have yet to adopt text messaging in large numbers. Incompatibility among U.S. cellular networks has stalled the technology, and many find the dial pad a cumbersome, thumb-tying experience.
But they have put a new twist in virtual protest.
Last month, 400,000 protesters who conspired online made fixed line telephones their tools. They clogged the White House and U.S. Senate's switchboards, preventing occupants from making outbound calls.
On the streets of San Francisco, 52-year-old Web designer John Parulis lugged more than 40 pounds of technology in his backpack the day after the war started. He transformed himself into a mobile streaming video link to the Internet.
Connected through a wireless Internet access point, or WiFi, at a coffee shop, Parulis beamed protest footage to the Web from his Sony digital video camera.
"People are increasingly looking to the Internet for their news," Parulis said. "There's a perception, and it's based on a lot of truth, that the mainstream media has a bias of corporate values."
Technology has even given a voice to activists in countries without a tradition of free expression.
In Qatar, where U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks directs the war in Iraq, locals have used SMS to unleash anti-American protests and a boycott of American and British products.
In Beijing, a British expatriate set up a Web-based bulletin board and organized an anti-war rally last Friday in a downtown park. Other expatriates spread the word via mobile phone messages.
But technology can be notoriously fallible.
On Feb. 15, cell phones jammed in downtown Stockholm after 35,000 protesters overloaded the network with multiple short messages and quick calls.
"Not a single phone worked," said Christina Hagner of Stockholm-based Network Against War. The group had to settle for walkie-talkies and word of mouth.
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Associated Press Writers Matt Moore in Stockholm and Ron Harris in San Francisco contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
San Francisco protest site: http://www.indybay.org
Parulis' video of protesters: http://www.brightpathvideo.com
Weldon's bulletin in Beijing: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BeijingPeaceAction
