Digital Activism – Friend or Foe?

When you think of the word ‘activism’ you see the image of mass crowds, marching for common purpose, homemade placards bearing serious and witty messages, chanting and, occasionally a lonely flare.

With Covid-19 still ravaging the world, large scale gatherings are either illegal or extremely discouraged in many places. The rise in digital activism during 2020, was unprecedented, providing people with a way to still feel like they are making a difference, from the comfort of their own isolation – but is it that simple?

Some of the most striking examples of digital activism would be #ClimateStrikeOnline – which has adapted Greta Thunberg’s school striking movement for climate change into online experiences, ranging from people sharing placards and videos of them cleaning up beaches to mass zoom gatherings and online walking protests, For 2020’s Earth Day, a 72-hour, live-streamed “digital march” with protests, speeches, took place and was attended by more than 200,000 viewers.

In the wake of the death of George Floyd, whilst huge physical protests did take place, there was also #BlackoutTuesday on Instagram. Encouraging users to post just a plain black square on their feeds in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. 28 million users participated – ‘real people’ and brands alike but the move was criticised as being more ‘slacktivism’ that anything meaningful and drowning out the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag which provided actual support and information.

Allegations of ‘slacktivism’, could be unfair to throw around in the age of a pandemic, especially if one is not willing to break lockdown rules. Whilst #BlackoutTuesday faced shouts of ‘virtue signalling’ and ‘performative allyship’ The Brooklyn Community Bail Fund received $1.8 million in donations in 24 hours, because of social media. So real world activity was still happening and making a difference.

According to Change.org, the UK is in the top 10 countries for engagement on it’s platform. Seeing petition growth of 118.94% since March 2020, alongside signature growth of 115.63%, and user base growth of 19.79%.

With apathy about digital protest or petitions not causing real change and physical protest potentially becoming financially and legally a burden, it begs the question if the short attention span of digital activism actually plays into the governments hands in controlling the narratives

Petitions have become the bread and butter of digital activism in recent times. Easy to share and bundle into a visibly appealing infographic on Instagram. But also criticised for dangling the illusion of making change without doing so.

The thought process of ‘Well I’ve done my part by signing, if it doesn’t happen, there’s nothing more I could do.’ This illusion of change was particularly apparent with university students championing petitions to lower fees because of the switch to online learning. Whilst looking aesthetically pleasing on social media, and gaining traction before ultimately falling on deaf ears – it’s this level of digital activism which is why the real thing could never be replaced.

However, is apathy and disillusionment the establishment’s end goal? Digital activism doesn’t run the risk of violence, or the destruction of property. As the UK has seen with various petitions, no matter the volume of signatures, the government still has the end say. The Stop Brexit petition, gaining the most signatures in history – 6,103,056, was brushed off in minutes. During the Covid-19, pandemic temporary laws around physical protest were brought in to stop the spread of the virus, such as gathering limits, noise limits and curfews, a new Policing Bill drafted aims to make some of these temporary measures permanent.  

Police chiefs will be able to put more conditions on static protests and even apply these rules to a demonstration by just one person, an individual holding a protest placard, while shouting through a megaphone, refusing to follow police directions over how they should conduct their protest, could result in a £2,500 fine. It will also become a crime to fail to follow restrictions the protesters “ought” to have known about, even if they have not received a direct order from an officer.

A backlash against these measures have already been seen with a violent physical protest in Bristol. With apathy about digital protest or petitions not causing real change and physical protest potentially becoming financially and legally a burden, it begs the question if the short attention span of digital activism actually plays into the governments hands in controlling the narratives.

After the initial flurry of activity Black Lives Matter and Climate Strike dropped in its engagements and haven’t reached the heights of last summer. Groups such as Extinction Rebellion have hardly been seen since large scale physical protest hasn’t been allowed. Could that be the tactic of the future, wait until the internet moves on and lock up anyone who dares go on the streets?

Feature image by Jasper Conway.