#hashtagactivism

[anetasblog]

The Role of Social Media in Social Justice Movements: Marketing with a Conscience

In recent years, social media has evolved into a powerful tool for amplifying voices, fostering awareness, and driving social justice movements. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook provide activists with an unparalleled ability to connect globally, share real-time information, and galvanize support for their causes.

For businesses, this evolution presents an opportunity to engage in marketing with a conscience. By aligning their brand values with social justice causes, companies can foster authentic connections with socially conscious consumers. However, it’s crucial for brands to approach these issues genuinely, ensuring their support is not performative but rooted in real action and change.

Hashtags have become more than just a marketing tool; they are a symbol of solidarity. When used effectively, they amplify messages and allow movements to reach a broader audience. Brands using hashtags like SocialJustice or Equality should ensure they are contributing meaningfully to the conversation, rather than exploiting it for commercial gain.

In this era, marketing is no longer just about selling products it's about standing for something bigger. Social media offers brands a platform to make a difference, but with that comes responsibility. To truly market with a conscience, companies must be active participants in the fight for justice, not mere spectators.

#SocialJustice

#MarketingWithPurpose

#StandForSomething

#EqualityMatters

#AmplifyVoices

#HashtagActivism

#BrandsForChange

#MarketingForGood

#SocialImpact

#ConsciousMarketing

[emergingmediaculture]

Graphic created by Kiersten W. on Canva.

I feel as though we have discussed a good bit about the issues of internet life and some of its negative effects, however, that leaves out the entire story. I find it just as important to highlight the benefits as well. One of the most notable is the communities and cultures that have been given a voice when they otherwise had none.

For centuries, it has been mostly those with some form of influence or power whose voices were the loudest. Those were the only ones that mattered. Even more, those were the only people who could afford to get their voices and opinions out there. Historically, the makeup of those people has been white men.

The digital age we now live in, however, has provided opportunities for marginalized groups of different races, ethnicities, sexualities, and more.

Sarah Jackson, Moya Bailey, and Brooke Foucault Welles discuss in #HashtagActivism the power online platforms like Twitter have given to those who would otherwise be voiceless. These platforms give these groups the power to hold the powerful accountable.

More so, it allows for a collection of people with similar backgrounds, experiences, or concerns to connect with one another or spread awareness through the very powerful tool of the #hashtag. It is the hashtag, as the authors believe, that helps collectives form, make people visible to one another, and cohere and sustain movements against injustice.

Movements such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter are specifically named after their hashtags that spread across social media platforms allowing individuals to share their own experiences, call for justice, offer support, and more. It is the reach that hashtags have across all platforms that helps propel these movements exposing them to wider audiences.

History is always said to repeat itself and, to me, this instance of groups having to utilize the tools they have and put it upon themselves to get their experiences out there because it is common for them to not have the opportunities to share them in many ways mirrors the past, specifically the creation of what was referred to as the "Black Press". As African-American journalism is a topic of this book as well, it is only right to mention it.

For the longest time, it was extremely uncommon to find newspapers reporting on anything about black people or anything happening within the black community outside anything negative. After getting tired of hardly ever seeing their stories or anything regarding their community included in the newspapers, in the early 1800s a group of African-Americans decided they would create their own. This started what came to be known as the Black Press, whose contributors included the likes of Ida B. Wells, Frederick Douglass, and the "First Lady of the Black Press", Ethel Payne.

I see similarities in what the lack of a voice in the flow of society for marginalized groups has birthed across history. In so many instances it has started movements and I feel now the accessibility to do so is so much more apparent. Though everything comes at a cost, so many more people have access, resources, and reach, unlike any time before us.

[lavieestbellebelle]

Examples of Hashtag Activism Promoting Gender Equality (#9)...

Continuing on from my previous blog post on political engagement, platform publics, ‘clicktavism’ and hashtag activism, I thought I would feature some more detail on a couple of the hashtag activism movements that were mentioned in my last post...

#HeForShe - this campaign was initiated by the United Nations in June 2014, with the main goal to achieve equality by encouraging both genders to partake as agents of change and dismantle toxic and demeaning gender stereotypes and behaviours. The campaign includes Emma Watson and Justin Trudeau as spokespeople. 

You can read more about the #HeForShe movement here: https://www.heforshe.org/en

#MeToo - Tarana Burke was the first person to use this hashtag in 2006 to ‘promote empowerment through empathy’, however the hashtag truly reached viral status in 2017 when famous Hollywood actresses began encouraging other women to share their experiences with sexual harassment and assault on Twitter. The #MeToo movement continues today, with the overall aim of significantly reducing the stigma around speaking about sexual assault and to ultimately end the violence inflicted upon women from the patriarchy. 

You can read more about the #MeToo movement here: https://metoomvmt.org/

#DressLikeAWoman - this hashtag activism movement was instigated after a report alleged that President Trump preferred women to “dress like women”. Women took to Twitter to turn this phrase on its head, posting photos of themselves wearing their interpretation of the dress code and to promote an empowering message - that women are equal to men, nothing less. 

You can read more about the #DressLikeAWoman movement here:

https://www.bustle.com/p/dress-like-a-woman-twitter-hashtag-nails-the-absurdity-of-dress-code-double-standards-35341

[taylorafergus]

#yesallwomen

Sasha Weiss of the New Yorker weekly magazine offers an in-depth interpretation and anecdote into the #yessallwomen hashtag. Her elucidation provides a deeper analysis of the events that lead to the emergence of the #YesAllWomen hashtag on Twitter.

If you are interested in reading the article I have attached a URL below:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-power-of-yesallwomen

[emilyg12-commclass-blog]

Activism VS Slacktivism

         The influence of social media has skyrocketed and continues to advance on a daily basis. The amount of people that are connected on social media, which is millions, makes the internet a great platform for bringing awareness to issues in our world today. Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram make it easier to see what celebrities are thinking about, doing and even promoting. Social media as a whole,  gives many celebrities a mass following of fans that wouldn't have been possible to have in the past before technology. Since America was created we have been standing up for what we believe, in recent years we have gone back to being activists. We as a people have gone out in the streets with signs and speeches to make necessary changes to our society. Now with so much access to technology with millions able to see our posts, we brought our activism to these social media platforms. Online it can be known as #Hashtag Activism, people will create hashtags to start a trend and bring awareness to a movement. The most known were movements such as the  #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, #HandsUpDontShoot, #BringBackOurGirls, and the #YesAllWomen movement. The amount of hashtag activism that these movements received was out of this world, the question still stands to ask if the online circulation made a change.

[lrsundevil]

When asked how important social media is to them personally as a venue for political and civic engagement, only a minority of social media users describe these sites as personally important. But blacks and Hispanics are especially likely to value these sites for helping them vocalize their opinions or get involved with issues that are important to them.

Pew Research Center

[turnanewpaige]

Hashtag Activism

There is a substantial push in today’s generation to make real social change, utilizing online platforms. The term “Hashtag activism” applies to the use of social media hashtags to reach a large audience through which to spread social justice initiatives. Examples of this in recent years would be #blacklivesmatter, #stopasianhate, and #metoo, all of which have spurned real world movements that have had tangible consequences. With that being said, the real changes come not from just retweets and shares but the concentrated efforts of activists to contact politicians and protest to demand change. Hashtags and social media activism are powerful tools to garner attention for a cause and get more people involved, but without effort outside of the social media sphere, hashtags mean very little. 

[apattiproduction]

Have you ever superimposed a flag over your Facebook profile picture? Retweeted a #hashtag? Signed an online petition? Or shared a video of social injustice or economic inequity? If you answered yes to any of these, you may be guilty of slacktivism. But in my opinion, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

[giofvcks]

#HashtagActivism is tomorrow! Time: 11 am to 1 pm Location: Factory Two RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hashtagactivism-how-to-use-social-media-to-influence-change-tickets-35494504017 #activist #activism #civicengagement #volunteer #socialmedia #media #paneldiscussion #entrepreneur #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurlifestyle #FlintLivesMatter #FlintMichigan #facebook #instagram #tumblr #twitter #regram #repost #retweet #Reshare #FactoryTwo (at Flint, Michigan)

[rajachanpreetsingh]

"Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you won't do anything with it." # “Don't bury your failures. Let them inspire you.” # "Intuition is the very force or activity of the soul in its experience through whatever has been the experience of the soul itself."  hashtag#activism hashtag#soul hashtag#lettings hashtag#inspiration hashtag#life hashtag#datamining hashtag#scientist hashtag#carleton hashtag#university hashtag#canada hashtag#ottawa hashtag#careerservices hashtag#careerfairs hashtag#humanservices hashtag#HCI hashtag#CHI #2019 hashtag#brainstorming hashtag#artificialinteligence hashtag#artificialneuralnetworks 

[onceuponahashtag-blog]

#HashtagActivism

#The #Power #Of #A #Hashtag

This blog post illustrates and analyzes the impact that digital media has in forming and implementing a political movement or campaign. In particular, it discusses the role which the hashtag uses to initiate and to spread the movement or campaign. This act or process is commonly referred to as hashtag activism. The political movements demonstrated are #FeesMustFall and  #Sidibouzid in relation to the Arab Spring uprising. In addition, this blog post depicts the #MeToo campaign and the motives behind it.

A ‘hashtag’ is a word or a multiword phrase that is preceded by a hash symbol (#). Hashtags are included in a post or caption that individuals upload or share on social media, websites and mobile applications. However, they are predominantly used on Twitter and Instagram (Kricfalusi, 2009).

When one is searching for a specific topic, one can type in the specific hashtag to find all the posts that are related to that topic. This can be achieved as hashtags are used to categorise content and as a means of tracking the topics. The cycle of an individual adding a specific hashtag to their posts, as well as their continuous sharing and retweeting of them, is what transforms the hashtag into a trend. This ultimately aids in the hashtag becoming a popular topic on social media (Kricfalusi, 2009). This idea displays how the constant use of hashtags enables the pushing and spreading of an idea or topic which has become known as hashtag activism (Kricfalusi, 2009).

The #FeesMustFall Movement epitomises the impact that social media has in pushing and reinforcing certain beliefs and values. This hegemony was achieved by tweeting, sharing or retweeting posts, which started trending in twitter by using the hashtag #FeesMustFall, thus immediately reaching Facebook as well as many other social media platforms (Findley, 2015). The trending hashtag is what made users aware of the movement, thus including what the movement stood for and the ways in which they wanted to influence the universities decision regarding the fees (Findley, 2015).

Students and reporters could broadcast the events before mainstream media became aware of the happenings (Findley, 2015). This type of hegemony is shown as the power was shifted from mainstream or authoritarian figures onto students whom were actively involved in broadcasting the events on social media platforms.

Even though the protests started because of the accounts end of the fees increase which led onto the issues involved in the lack of funding from the government for those individuals in a low socio-economic position, to continue attending university. These protests were initially put in place and implemented via Twitter and the trending of #FeesMustFall on multiple social media platforms involving peaceful tactics, such as sit-ins, barricading of access points and vehicles (Findley, 2015). However, as the protests continue it progressively turned violent with the use if stun grenades, teasers, coloured gas, tear gas, rubber bullets and the burning of campus property including equipment and buildings. However, despite the consequences of those whom were injured or suffered with detrimental physically or emotional damages, these issues spiralled into broader socio-economic and racial inequality affairs (Findley, 2015). The majority of the students were despondent and felt strongly about the fact that they felt that even in South Africa post-1994, government still have not recognised and addressed the inequality that heavily exists especially in the territory setting (Findley, 2015). The 2015 protests ended when South African President, Jacob Zuma announced that there would be no tuition fee increase for the upcoming year. Nevertheless, in 2016 the #FeesMustFall reoccurred when the South African Council of Higher Education stated far there would be a fee increase of eight per cent for 2017 (Findley, 2015). As a result of the statement, it was decided upon by each of the institutions to determine by how much their tuition would increase their fees.

Similar to the #FeesMustFall Movement, social media also played a significant role during the Arab uprising, otherwise referred to as the Arab Spring, as it spread awareness and initiated interactions regarding political concerns (Howard et al, 2011). Those whom were actively involved on social media are the individuals who organised the demonstrations and protests as a way of raising local and global awareness of the on-going events (Howard et al, 2011). Civil society leaders in Arab countries accentuated and emphasised the role of ‘the internet, mobile phones and social media in the protest’ (Howard and Muzammil, 2011). Additionally, digital media was used in the means of exercising their freedom of speech as well as used as a space for civic engagement (Howard and Muzammil, 2011).

The sudden uprising in the Middle East was a direct response to the incidents of a vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi  who set himself on fire on the 17th of December 2010 in the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid as a means of expressing his dissatisfaction with the government for confiscating his fruit stand, which he heavily relied on as his sole income (Howard et al, 2011). The event of Mohamed Bouazizi was immediately documented on social media, especially on Twitter and then reached Facebook, YouTube, blogs and independent media organisation platforms before reaching mainstream media. In total, there were 13,262 Tweets using the hashtag #Sidibouzid (Howard et al, 2011). This sparked angst and frustration to protest against the government in the Middle East due to their disapproval of the economic status of the countries that they live in. Unable to control the demonstrations and the aggressive citizens, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia fled the country in January 2011 after 23 years in power (Howard et al, 2011). Ben Ali’s resulted in the consequences of similar nature of uprisings across the Middle East (Howard et al, 2011).

Arab spring timeline

Another example of how powerful the usage of hashtag is is demonstrated by #MeToo. The #MeToo campaign started to trend virally on social media in the beginning of October 2017 (Chuck, 2017). The hashtag was in response to sexual assault and harassment in coloration to the sexual misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein, whom is a well-known film producer in the United States of America.

The New York Times recently published an investigation in which indicated that Weinstein has been accused of sexually harassing female actors, especially those of a young age, which has been ongoing for decades (Chuck, 2017). This including inappropriate messages and physical conduct as well as several reported encounters of rape.

Actress Alyssa Milano encouraged the use of the hashtag, #MeToo, after the accusations against Weinstein had surfaced. This was done as an initiative of creating a campaign in the means of spreading the awareness of incidents regarding sexual harassment. 

Milano tweeted: "If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote '#MeToo.' as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem." 

Milano attributed her spreading of #MeToo, for victims to share their experiences, to social activist and community organizer Tarana Burke. Burke was the one whom initially created the phrase "MeToo" on the MySpace social networking site in 2006. This was done in association with a campaign in the promoting of "empowerment through empathy" among women of colour, in particular those belonging to underprivileged communities, whom have been victims of sexual assault.

Burke explains that the term ‘Me Too’ was inspired after a thirteen year old girl confined in her and expressed that she had been sexually abused. At the time, Burke was too bewildered to reply. However, she later regret not replying with “me too”. 

It was noticed that within the first twenty-four hours of Milano’s tweet, the hashtag was used by over 4.7 million people in over than 12 million posts. In addition, by the 16th of October 2017, there were over five-hundred million tweets with the #MeToo hashtag included (Chuck, 2017). This spread of the hastag caused it to trend in at least eighty-five countries through social media. These posts included both the victims’ experiences as well as support for those whom have suffered as a result of sexual assault (Chuck, 2017). This included a range of celebrities. 

Furthermore, the hashtag enabled those whom were affected by Weinstein to stand forward.  

On the 28th of October 2017, Actress and director, Asia Argento, tweeted “This is the list of all the 82 women who were sexually assaulted/raped/molested by #HarveyWeinstein. We,the victims, have compiled this list”.

The trending of #MeToo  also allowed an open space for all individuals whom experienced sexual assault to share their stories. It also exposed many other public figures across the globe involved in sexual harassment incidents, both the victims and the abusers.  

In conclusion, this post depicted the concept of hashtag activism and the significant role in which the hashtag plays in initiating and the spreading of a particular political movement or campaign. Hashtag activism has developed due to digital media as the spreading and the trending of a specific hashtag is predominantly due to Twitter and Facebook. in demonstrating this specific type of activism, the blog discussed #FeesMustFall, #Sidibouzi movement as well as the #MeToo campaign.

Bibliography:

Chuck, E. (2017).  #MeToo: Hashtag Becomes Anti-Sexual Harassment and Assault Rallying Cry. [Web blog]. Retrieved October 29, 2017 from: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/harvey-weinstein-scandal/metoo-hashtag-becomes-anti-sexual-harassment-assault-rallying-cry-n810986

Findley, K. (2015). The birth of a movement: #FeesMustFall on Twitter. [Web blog]. Online, retrieved  October 17, 2017  from: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-10-30-the-birth-of-a-movement-feesmustfall-on-twitter/

Howard, P. N., Duffy, A., Freelon, D., Hussain, M.M., Mari, W., and Maziad, Marwa, (2011) Opening Closed Regimes: What Was the Role of Social Media During the Arab Spring?.Online, retrieved October 16, 2017 from:  https://ssrn.com/abstract=2595096 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2595096

Howard, P.N., and Muzammil M.H., (2011)  "The Role of Digital Media." Journal of Democracy. Retrieved October 16, 2017 from: http://aihr-resourcescenter.org/administrator/upload/documents/22.3.howard.pdf

Kricfalusi, E. (2009). The Twitter hash tag: What is it and how do you use it?. Online, retrieved October 16, 2017  from:  http://tinyurl.com/bw85z2

Scott, D. (2017). Harvey Weinstein’s victims release list of 82 women who say they were sexually abused. Weinstein's victims sought to compile a full picture of abuse. [Web blog] Retrieved October 28, 2017 from: https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/10/28/16564486/harvey-weinstein-sexual-abuse-list-twitter

[daintydame]

😐 Scary af. #codeblue #indivisible #tyt #hashtagactivism #resist #womensmarch #wnyc #blacklivesmatter #tyty #stephenmiller #notmypresident #puppet

[lavieestbellebelle]

Political Engagement, Platform Publics, ‘Clicktavism’ & Hashtag Activism (week 9)

A core aspect of digital citizenship is political engagement, such as voting, as well as “engagement outside the election process” (Stickels 2020), including activism and campaigning. According to Luke Stickels, a campaigner, communication consultant and community organiser, a campaign can be defined as a “project of linked actions organised towards achieving a particular goal”, whether this be political, social, business or marketing (Stickels 2020). According to The Change Agency, a theory of change can “help guide campaigners, their teams and communities” (Whelan 2020). The Change Agency propose a three part format to train campaigners to clarify their theory of change and ensure it will have their desired impact on society. This strategy includes – “if” (we implement these tactics and activities), “then” (this will create change or lead to a political outcome), and “because” (some persuasive causal logic, such as why).

Due to the enormous reach afforded by social media platforms, campaigns can quickly develop online, particularly through hashtags such as #WomensMarch, #BlackLivesMatter, #BringBackOurGirls and #HeForShe. Amongst many others, these campaigns originated from hashtag activism. Brooke Foucault Welles, assistant professor of online activism, explains her perspective on hashtag activism, as where people “use hashtags in order to denote things or issues of political or personal meaning in order to gain traction in the mainstream” (SAGE publications 2019). Continuing on, Welles notes that “hashtag publics capture mainstream news attention”, which is perhaps what makes them so powerful (SAGE publications 2019). Therefore, these aforementioned examples of hashtag activism have been developed to bring people together on a global scale through the power and reach of social media networks. It’s also worth noting that the majority of these campaigns have also been promoted and backed by well-known celebrities and spokespeople in this field, including Emma Watson and Michelle Obama, which helps the campaign’s messages reach more people.

Another key aspect of digital communities relating to political engagement and activism are platform publics, which are facilitated through social media channels, including Tumblr, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. For example, writer and media expert, Luke Stickels analyses the platform publics formed on Twitter in this week’s lecture, describing the platform as a place with users create strong and defined identities, ‘hashtag battlefronts’, and accessible archives of their thoughts and opinions on various topics (Stickels 2020). Another important point Brooke Foucault Welles raised is the idea of networked counterpublics, which Welles believes “essentially fill a gap in our understanding of how people communication online (SAGE publications 2019). Therefore, the term counterpublics has been coined to describe the way that people considered on the margins of society, who aren’t necessarily included in mainstream conversations, particularly in the news and other media, can come together and form their own online communities (SAGE publications 2019). Ultimately, Welles explains, these online interactivity is intended to advance their counterpublics by “pushing them into these mainstream publics” in order to have their voices and stories heard by a wider audience.

In a similar vein to platform publics and hashtag activism, ‘clicktavism’ is another term used to describe the rise of political engagement, especially online activism. However, this terminology has been met with mixed opinions from media scholars and activists. For instance, in an interview with The Guardian, Larissa Ocampo, online community manager at ‘One Girl’ and specialist in the not-for-profit space, describes ‘clicktavism’ as a step towards activism, arguing in favour of this new movement. Ocampo explains that “the ease and convenience of online actions (clicks, likes, tweets and shares)” is an innovative and game-changing way of introducing more people to activism in ways that aren’t intimidating and are accessible for the majority of people (Banning-Lover 2014). Whereas, Micah White, the original creator of the Occupy Wall Street protests, believes ‘clicktavism’ is “fatally flawed”, reducing this new wave of activism to “meme wars” and “propagat[ing] a false theory of social change” (Banning-Lover 2014).

Therefore, it is clear that terminology relating to online activism has created polarizing perspectives on the validity and effectiveness of the increasing popularity of digital activism. However, despite these varied opinions as to the benefits and consequences of online activism, digital communities formed on these social media platforms are evidently helping pave the wave for change in society. This can be in the form of incremental or huge ways, including raising awareness, helping reduce stigma around particular issues or raising significant funds for their associated charities.

Image Credit: ‘For All Womankind’ Illustration Poster by Deva Pardue 2016.

References

Alvarez, N, Lauzon, C & Zaiontz, K 2019, ‘On sustainable tools for precarious times: An introduction’, in N Alvarez, C, Lauzon & K, Zaiontz (eds), Sustainable tools for precarious times, Palgrave Macmillian, Switzerland, pp. 1-25.

Banning-Lover, R 2014, ‘How to campaign online: 15 dos and don’ts’, The Guardian, 15 July, viewed 14 May 2020, <https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/jul/15/16-dos-and-donts-of-online-campaigning-clicktivism-digital-activism-kony>.

Foucault Welles, B 2019, Researching online activism using social network analysis, SAGE Publications Ltd, London, viewed 14 May 2020, <https://methods-sagepub-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/video/researching-online-activism-using-social-network-analysis>.

Hitchings-Hales, J & Calderwood, I 2017, ‘8 massive moments hashtag activism really, really worked’, Global Citizen, 23 August, viewed 16 May 2020, <https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/hashtag-activism-hashtag10-twitter-trends-dresslik/>.

One Girl 2020, Why girls?, One Girl, viewed 15 May 2020, <https://www.onegirl.org.au/our-impact/why-girls>.

Stickels, L 2020, ‘Week 9. Digital activism and campaigning’, MDA20009 Digital communities, Learning materials via Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology, 13 May, viewed 13 May 2020.

Whelan, J 2020, ‘Theories of change’, The Change Agency, 21 April, viewed 15 May 2020, <http://www.thechangeagency.org/theories-of-change/>.

White, M, Alvarez, N & Zaiontz, K 2019, ‘Protest after Occupy: Rethinking the repertoires of left activism’, in N Alvarez, C, Lauzon & K, Zaiontz (eds), Sustainable tools for precarious times, Palgrave Macmillian, Switzerland, pp. 27-40.

[viralnews-1]

There Is No Replacement for Black Twitter

There Is No Replacement for Black Twitter

Of course, that kind of loss would be immeasurable. “Black Twitter has reflected a fuller scope of Blackness, and a rejection of respectability,” says Sarah J. Jackson, a professor of communications at the University of Pennsylvania and coauthor of #HashtagActivism. “It has modeled what a healthy public sphere might look like, from the call-ins and callouts to the community debates about…

[emilyg12-commclass-blog]

pt 2 - Real Acts of Activism

            The actual act of activism is described as a continuous and vigorous campaigning used to make a social change. With the addictive use of social media with millions of people always online, it doesn't take long to use social media to try and make a social change. “Hashtags get a lot of flak, often typecast as frivolous symbols used by lazy millennials, but a deep dive into the hashtag activism of the past few years proves that they can be more impactful than you’d expect” (Marie Claire, 2018) As stated earlier, regular activism has shifted to Hashtag activism to reach a larger platform across the world. The movement that has shown the most activism online and offline is the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Online activism includes proactive actions to achieve a common goal or reactive actions against certain controls and the imposing authorities (McCaughey and Ayers, 2013) On the Black Lives Matter website there is a tab that takes says, “Take Action”, this is where you can look and find where marches or speeches are taking place near you. This movement is much more consistent and rewarding because they bring up the positive outcomes of the movement, as well as the corruption that people are trying to hide, all gets brought to the light online. With all good acts that can help make a change there will always be people who take advantage of that power. It is becoming more and more common to find people online that look like they are promoting for a movement. However, not everyone is all of a sudden a full blown activist, they will pretend to be online to get attention as well as boost their reputation.

[solidarishkeyt]

In the absence of working-class institutions that could build and exercise political power, capital benefits from Twitter’s ability to distract, isolate, and anesthetize users, precluding an environment of solidarity and instead perpetuating an impotent discourse that is fundamentally corrosive to the political and social formations necessary for productive movement-building.

Any information or activity more complicated and less disposable than a hashtag will eventually require stable institutions that can grow, build, and recruit in real space and real time. These institutions do not resemble the tyrannically structureless and voluntarist cattle calls of whatever fleeting online mob has made the rounds this week. Any use of the internet for movement-building should be considered with the ultimate goal of social media’s obsolescence, and its supplantation by unions, parties, and political organizations.

Activism must return to the traditional strategies of organizing and institution-building that have demonstrated a true record of success. This work will not move quickly, and most of it won’t be cinematic or produce a flurry of media attention, online or off. Most important, it cannot rely on the very platforms over which we have the least amount of control. Some seem to think that social media will act as the proverbial capitalist that sells us its own hanging rope — and this does have some small truth in it, to the degree it can be used as a bulletin board for promoting real-life events, but such organizing is the most flimsy and minor outreach. A desperate activist tweets. An aspiring activist uses Facebook. A fledgling organizer emails. An established organizer has phone numbers. A successful organizer is offered addresses.

It’s appropriate that #HashtagActivism is dedicated to “those who insist on being heard.” Social media may provide an immediate connection to a mass of sound and fury signifying nothing, but you do have a voice, however impotent, and you can insist on being heard. For those of us insisting on power, however, it offers less than nothing.