Social Media: The Rise and Fall of Digital Activism
Some might say that activism was what defined 2020. Indeed, 2020 was a year when more voices emerged across the globe regardless of age, race and gender, urging the international community to delve into more meaningful discussions about the issues that have been silenced over the past few decades. The rise of social media activism has quickly become the dominant driving force to spread and discuss crucial subject matters such as racial injustice, political ineptitude and social awareness, on platforms ranging from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and even TikTok.
Why does it matter?
Social media has always been a platform for individuals to not only express themselves, but also boundlessly connecting with friends and families from all around the world to stay informed. Though digital or online activism is not a completely novel situation and it has been scattered around in history, this movement has reached its peak in the summer of 2020, when social media has become the heartbeat for digital activism.
It is undoubted that such a movement is able to reach a much wider range of audience, connecting like-minded people on certain values despite one being at the other end of the world. It is delightful to see that in the generation of empathy, more young adults are now acquainted with global affairs, and increasingly creative ways of conveying these sentiments blossoming, such as artistic infographics and graphic posts.
Could there be a potential of misinformation?
Unfortunately, online activism is not perfect. While everyone is keen to bring about positive changes to our communities and keep each other informed, the potential of misinformation should not be disregarded. This includes the concern of oversimplification, hate speech, racist conspiracy theories, and more.
Many Instagram accounts began making infographics and graphic posts with tinges of visual aesthetic to better grab the public’s attention. While these posts were made with good intention by the designers and the people who are reposting them, the fashion of which these posts were popularized and the nature of some of the graphics quickly escalated to a concern. Some are worried that this would oversimplify the subjects at hand, risking Instagram users to look at these crucial matters lightly. This has also unfortunately served as a tool for certain brands and influencers to promote their business alongside, diluting the original sentiment of such movement. An Instagram post by Eve Ewing raised such concern and strongly suggests users to not be overly-dependent on what is demonstrated on social media but also encourages further independent research and understanding towards the mentioned topics.
The act of reposting these graphics onto one’s Instagram story also raised skepticism as we do not exactly know the intention of the users behind these reposts. This has opened up to another worrying phenomenon called ‘performative activism’, when an individual only joins in the social or digital movement to increase their own social capital instead of a genuine devotion to spread public consciousness about the issues raised.
Shortly after the surge of Black Lives Matter movement in April 2020, a loose network of Facebook groups across the United States organized protests against the aforementioned activism and the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. One Facebook group renamed itself to “California Patriots Pro Law & Order”, sneering the Black Lives Matter movement by calling the protestors “animals” or “thugs”, and changing their slogan to “White Lives Matter”, which is believed to have subsequently sparked the support for white supremacy extremism. Other groups even suggested that the death of George Floyd was staged and the people protesting were paid to do so.
The same groups have also been spreading misinformation about the coronavirus, claiming that face masks are “useless” and that the virus is a hoax just to jeopardize the United State’s presidential election (both of which have been proven wrong).
Albeit the problems mentioned above, there are plentiful more fake news that Facebook has yet to inspect and moderate, indirectly allowing these false claims to flow in the sea of misinformation.
All in all, these informational graphic posts on social media should not be the sole source of information to rely upon, but rather a stepping stone to prompt everyone to inspect deeper into the message and origin that these posts are trying to advocate for. If you spot something that appears to be false, comment about the accuracy of the post, and report it to the social media platform or offer factual counterevidence. It is important to be mindful that we speak with a purpose, no matter online or offline, and this purpose serves the overarching desire to inform others, to empower for a positive change.
[Written by: Emma Chee]
