On April 15th, several
hundred girls were kidnapped in northern Nigeria after extremist Muslim
group Boko Haram carried out a raid and attack at the girls’ school. The girls are reported to be sold into forced
marriages with militant members of the group.
In the days and weeks following the tragedy, the Nigerian government and
international organizations were slow to respond. This inaction changed when the Twitter
hashtag #BringBackOurGirls erupted over social media. Ibrahim M. Abdullahi , a Nigerian
lawyer, started the hashtag which quickly gained traction as notable
individuals began to take part- including former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama.
The hashtag garnered thousands of tweets over just a few hours and
worked to bring the issue, the kidnapped Nigerian girls, into public
purview. The U.S. is now in the process of sending
military help to aid in the investigation and
search for the missing girls- an action that perhaps is a result of the massive
internet attention.
This case exemplifies the
extensions of “Hashtag Activism,” a type of political involvement characterized
by electronic, not public action.
Despite the seemingly successful use of the hashtag for raising
consciousness, scores of criticism have been levied against “Bring Back Our
Girls” and other similar types of activism.
Namely, “Hashtag Activism” has the tendency to de-politicize and
de-contextualize complex, interconnected issues of which many in the western
world remain uneducated.
What do you think? Are there benefits of “Hashtag
Activism”? Or does it reinforce notions
of the “white-savior complex” where individuals in the western world attempt to
co-opt and appropriate movements and struggles without understanding root causes
and cultures? In what ways can we use
technology to bring awareness and then use that awareness to act and create
justice?
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