As the age of technology rapidly advances and changes, the face of global politics is quickly and noticeably changing along with it. One prominent aspect of this change can be observed through the ways that social media has reformed modern-day political activism. Gone are the days of relying on handing out flyers and knocking on doors in order to mobilize the masses. The growing influence of social media has made activism more accessible and widespread than ever by increasing both the speed and reach of social and political movements. Over the last decade, politicians and activists alike have witnessed social movements turn more and more towards apps like Twitter and Instagram as an important, if not essential, tool for organization and mobilization. Two recent, notable examples of this global media impact are the 2019 Climate Strikes and the 2020 Black Lives Matter Protests. These movements, which were driven by the usage of platforms like Twitter and Instagram, demonstrate how social media can democratize activism and ultimately create international political change.
Black Lives Matter (2020)
On May 25, 2020, the name George Floyd went from being unknown to becoming the face of a movement that sparked worldwide outrage practically overnight. The Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 are a clear example of how social media can ignite and fuel the flame of political movements, as mobile apps like Twitter and Instagram were crucial to its momentum and tenacity. By posting a video of Floyd’s murder to her Facebook and Instagram, then-17-year-old Darnella Frazier called on everyday people to witness and call out the act of fatal police bruality. The video quickly went viral, and a study by Pew Research found over 215,000 tweets containing the #BlackLivesMatter posted just one day after George Floyd’s death (Anderson et al.). These hundreds of thousands of tweets show the exponential speed and reach of social media when used properly, enabling people all across the globe to speak out in support of George Floyd. Soon after the social media boom, people began taking to the streets. The subsequent Black Lives Matter protests that occurred in the United States were the country’s largest racial justice protests since the Civil Rights Movement, and the movement continued across the globe, in countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, France, and Colombia, just to name a few (Silverstein). These protests called out police brutality and institutionalized racism, and demanded action from governments and law enforcement. This global reckoning with racism was all started by the posting of one video, demonstrating the sheer power of the digital sphere in confronting real-world issues.
Fridays for Future (2019)
Another key impact of social media on global activism movements is the potential for demographic expansion. Social media removes barriers for many groups who typically are not able to engage with politics and activism by making information both easy to access and easy to share. One clear example of this is the Fridays for Future movement, started by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, which revolutionized young people across the globe to go on school strikes raising awareness for the climate crisis. In the week of September 20-27, 2019, over 2,500 events were scheduled in over 163 countries on all seven continents, with millions of people in attendance, making this likely the largest climate protest in history (Barclay & Resnick). What was notable about these climate strikes is that they were largely represented and run by young people, which meant that a majority of communication and organization occurred using social medias like Instagram and Twitter, platforms very familiar to this generation. This week of worldwide strikes had a goal of gaining the attention of the UN Climate Action Summit, but once the week of striking was over, there was still much more to be done (Neuman & Chappell). The prior familiarity with social media enabled the Fridays for Future movement to adapt and persist when the COVID-19 pandemic halted group gatherings. These young climate activists used strategies like online petitions, YouTube live broadcasts, webinars, and hashtags such as #DigitalStrike and #ClimateStrikeOnline to maintain the movement’s momentum (Igini). These approaches were able to expands FFF’s network and spread their message to reach more people despite all of the challenges that the pandemic rigged against them.
Challenges
It is clear that social media platforms are useful and effective ways of driving international awareness and government consideration. However, these platforms also come with some evident challenges. The lack of barriers to social media users means that anyone can post almost anything, making the abundance of misinformation is a huge and dangerous problem. A study by the Massachusetts Institue of Technology found that false news spreads six times faster on Twitter than real news stories (Dizikes). This is likely because the ‘clickbait’ nature of social media posting makes it very incentivizing for facts to be exaggerated to increase shock value and content interaction. Former CIA analyst, diplomat, and Facebook employee Yael Eisenstat spoke on this issue, stating that “social media companies … depend on provoking a strong emotion to keep us engaged, often incentivizing the most inflammatory and polarizing voices, to the point where finding common ground no longer feels possible.” (Deleon et. al) This polarization is another significant problem of social media, as personalized algorithms can make a user’s feed function like an ‘echo chamber’, where social media companies are able to “profit off of segmenting us and feeding us personalized content that both validates and exploits our biases” (Eisenstat). Athough these problems seem potentially detrimental to an activist’s campaign, they can be mitigated by continuing to bring awareness to their presence and working with social media platforms to implement counteractive measures like flagging or deleting misinformation.
By leveraging the power of social media, activists and social movements are now able to transcend geographical boundaries and connect like-minded individuals across the globe for a common cause. Information is able to spread faster than ever before, causing politicians and governments to immediately be aware of what issues people care about. In this way, social media has democratized activism by enabling almost anyone to engage in political discourse and giving a voice to people who have historically been silenced. Despite some pitfalls of this new age of social media activism, like manipulation of information and polarization of ideas, the undeniable influence of the internet on global politics cannot be ignored. There is no possible future where social media does not play an indisputable role in the understanding of global political issues, so the only option is to continue working with it. As technology continues to advance and social media becomes increasingly prominent in the international political sphere, it is imperative for activists, politicians, and society at large to both embrace the opportunities and address the challenges that arise from this digital landscape.
References
Anderson, Monica, et al. “#blacklivesmatter Surges on Twitter after George Floyd’s Death.” Pew Research Center, 10 June 2020, www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/06/10/blacklivesmatter-surges-on-twitter-after-george-floyds-death/.
Barclay, Eliza, and Brian Resnick. “How Big Was the Global Climate Strike? 4 Million People, Activists Estimate.” Vox, 20 Sept. 2019, www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/9/20/20876143/climate-strike-2019-september-20-crowd-estimate.
Deleon, Jasmine, et al. “How Social Media Influences Global Political Movements.” The Diplomatic Envoy, 16 Aug. 2021, blogs.shu.edu/thediplomaticenvoy/2021/02/11/how-social-media-influences-global-political-movement/.
Dizikes, Peter. “Study: On Twitter, False News Travels Faster than True Stories.” MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 8 Mar. 2018, news.mit.edu/2018/study-twitter-false-news-travels-faster-true-stories-0308.
Eisenstat, Yaël. “Dear Facebook, This Is How You’re Breaking Democracy.” Dear Facebook, This Is How You’re Breaking Democracy | TED Talk, 2020, www.ted.com/talks/yael_eisenstat_dear_facebook_this_is_how_you_re_breaking_democracy.
Igini, Martina. “Fridays for Future: How Young Climate Activists Are Making Their Voices Heard.” Earth.Org, 24 May 2023, earth.org/fridays-for-future/.
Neuman, Scott, and Bill Chappell. “Young People Lead Millions to Protest Global Inaction on Climate Change.” NPR, 20 Sept. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/09/20/762629200/mass-protests-in-australia-kick-off-global-climate-strike-ahead-of-u-n-summit.
Silverstein, Jason. “The Global Impact of George Floyd: How Black Lives Matter Protests Shaped Movements around the World.” CBS News, 4 June 2021, www.cbsnews.com/news/george-floyd-black-lives-matter-impact/.