The Verge: Why activists get frustrated with Facebook. “On Monday morning I met with a group of activists who live under authoritarian regimes. The delegation had been brought to San Francisco by the nonprofit Human Rights Foundation as part of a fellowship focused on the relationship between activism and Silicon Valley. And the big question they had for me was: why do social networks keep taking down my posts?”
social change
Phys .org: Activists use shocking social media imagery to inspire action in the fight against plastic pollution
Phys .org: Activists use shocking social media imagery to inspire action in the fight against plastic pollution. “New research into the fight against plastic pollution, published by the Academy of Management Journal, reveals the influencing power of social media as activists use emotions to convert viewers and enact change.”
New York Times: Twitter Made Us Better
New York Times: Twitter Made Us Better . “Rightful critiques of social media, and Twitter in particular, shouldn’t obscure the significance of the conversations that have happened there over the past 10 years. As we enter 2020, powerful individuals and societal problems can no longer avoid public scrutiny. That’s thanks in part to those who have demanded attention through the website.”
Political Activism and Social Media: Friends or Foes? (McGill International Review)
McGill International Review: Political Activism and Social Media: Friends or Foes?. “Political awareness and political activism must go beyond the realm of social media. Although holding judgmental views about politicians with controversial beliefs bodes well for ensuring the legitimacy of political awareness in contemporary American politics, censuring these politicians solely through the use of social media may have undesirable effects. In light of the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Obama unsurprisingly fears that the Democrats will ‘have such a small party and will not be able to win’ if assessments of candidates are based on such purity tests.” This article does a great job of laying out all the problems with and arguments for social media activism and its accompanying mechanisms like cancel culture. But it doesn’t come to concrete conclusions, and who can blame it? Informative but unavoidably frustrating.
France24: In Algeria, political cartoonists turn to social media to protest repression
France24: In Algeria, political cartoonists turn to social media to protest repression. “Since the beginning of the popular protest movement in Algeria, press cartoonists have supported it by publishing their satirical images on social networks. But after the conviction of one of their own and the election of Abdelmadjid Tebboune as president, they fear increased repression.”
Cornell University: Einaudi program promotes nuclear freeze movement’s legacy
Cornell University: Einaudi program promotes nuclear freeze movement’s legacy. “Forty years ago this month, disarmament advocate and researcher Randall Caroline Watson Forsberg told peace activists assembled for Mobilization for Survival’s annual meeting that a bilateral nuclear arms freeze ‘could change the world.’ Forsberg’s vision launched a powerful local- and state-level grassroots lobby for a U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms freeze in the 1980s.”
Outlook India: Govts using new tactics to confuse social media dissidents
Outlook India: Govts using new tactics to confuse social media dissidents. “Governments the world over are learning new tactics to quash dissent on various social media platforms, responding with tweets designed to distract and confuse like longer hashtags, according to a team of political scientists.”
