Hashtag activism
The social media site posted that "these things were for nerds"[7] but later that year saw the impact with use of the #sandiegofire which allowed users to track content related to the fire, the safety of loved ones, and general updates.
The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag was first started by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi as a response to the trial and later acquittal of George Zimmerman who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
[8] The hashtag saw a revival in 2014, after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and after a grand jury did not indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner.
IstandwithAhmed: In 2015, a teenage student named Ahmed Mohamed was arrested at his high school in Irving, Texas after his teacher mistook his reassembled clock for a bomb.
Shortly after his story hit the news, a tech blogger named Anil Dash tweeted a picture of Ahmed being arrested in his NASA T-shirt along with the #IstandwithAhmed.
This movement ultimately led to #BoycottNFL and controversy that resulted in the NFL ban requiring players to stand for the national anthem, or stay in the locker room.
[24] Eventually, #BrownAsiansExist came to prominence following an open letter written to The New York Times expressing their disappointment in the lack of South and Southeast Asian Americans in their "#thisis2016" video.
[58] The hashtag was initially first used in 2007 by Tarana Burke[59] but was later popularized and brought to the attention of the media on October 15, 2017, when Alyssa Milano, using Twitter, encouraged individuals[60] to speak up about their experience with assault and say 'Me Too'.
[72][73][74][75] After the November 2021 disappearance of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, the hashtag #WhereisPengShuai appeared on Twitter[76] and was Tweeted by athletes such as Serena Williams[77] and Naomi Osaka.
[91] Suey Park is a freelance writer who is most known for her Twitter campaign to cancel the Colbert Show, while Juliet Shen ran a blog on Asian American feminism.
They started the hashtag town hall as a way to create a platform for structured conversation around misogyny and issues specific to Asian American women.
In response to this question, writer and domestic abuse survivor Beverly Gooden started the #WhyIStayed campaign via Twitter in an effort to "change the tone of the conversation".
The hashtag, #FakeNews, gained major popularity in 2016 when Donald Trump claimed that the negative press coverage he received was due to the spread of false stories.
Since the emergence of this hashtag, there has been an increase in policy-related bills and laws regarding the proliferation of inaccurate information globally, which further politicized the issue and raised concerns of impending censorship.
[110][112] Protect Our Winters or POW calls for people to not only be aware of the effects global warming but to take action by volunteering, voting for legislature or donating to the cause.
The campaign was meant to encourage a national conversation about the invisibility and vulnerability of the female Indigenous demographic and call attention to the minimal efforts of the Government in investigating the murders and disappearances.
[124][125] Holly was personally inspired to carry out the campaign as her cousin, Loretta Saunders, an Inuk woman from Labrador, went missing and was ultimately found dead on the side of a Canadian highway.
The idea was originally championed by Olympic athlete Bjorn Ferry and gained momentum after teenage activist Greta Thunberg's mother, the opera singer Malena Ernman, publicly announced she would stop flying, with various Swedish celebrities following suit.
[135] Prior to 2020 #humanizethebadge was primarily circulating on Twitter and Facebook by organizations promoting stronger bonds between law enforcement and the communities they serve, such as the nonprofit group Humanizing the Badge.
Richard also worked with Everytown's digital team to create a tool to allow participants to send postcards to their senators, congressional representatives, and governor containing the phrase "Not One More".
[151] Saki Barzinji and Imraan Siddiqi started #NoBanNoWall in an effort to rally Muslim, Latino, and other communities to stand up against xenophobic immigration policies.
The hashtag was utilized again starting in late November/December 2015 to bring attention to renewed Oromo protests and the Ethiopian government's violent crackdown on students, journalists and musicians.
[176] The use of the hashtag and social media has been instrumental in spreading Idle No More's message to indigenous people around the world giving those who otherwise would be voiceless a means to participate in activism.
[177] The response of the umbrella became a symbol in Admiralty, Mong Kok and Causeway Bay districts, Hong Kong to protest about the free election systems in China.
Within a short period of time, T-shirts were produced with the hashtag, with Mardani denying that the movement is a political campaign due to a lack of a supported replacement.
The encouragement of the challenge is to circulate the video or photo on social media websites and applications with their community, friends, and family to show their support in raising awareness of ALS/MND.
[198] The involvement of #icebucketchallenge with the global audience of social media generated so much awareness and support that in early August 2014, the national ALS charity foundation president Barbara Newhouse, directly attributed the movement to a fundraising "surge" of $168,000 that accumulated in just a week.
Eventually, public figures such as James Franco, Charlie Rose, and even former president George W. Bush took an activist role in raising money for research and awareness of the ALS disease.
[217] Identifying shared experiences builds rhetorical connections between people who would never otherwise meet, enabling users of hashtags such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter to support and validate each other and helps to expand and enrich awareness by providing access to multiple narratives.
[217] Supporters such as Bev Goodman, who initiated the #WhyIStayed movement about domestic violence, believe that hashtag activism can begin a chain of events that can lead to sustained engagement and political action.
