Abstract

The paper explores how the anti-racism activism present on Twitter has had a profound impact on influencing social change within society. Twitter has amplified the Black Lives Matter movement, and it addresses the racial discrimination faced by African Americans. The deaths of Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd were all key events that revolutionised the movement and led to a call to action against racism in society. The paper also demonstrates the importance of hashtags that are used on Twitter, such as #BlackLivesMatter and #ICantBreathe, which gained widespread global attention and spread awareness about the issue. Despite the positive impact that Twitter has had on the movement, the platform has limitations such as the spread of misinformation and the emergence of counter movements such as the ‘AllLivesMatter’, which has brought a setback to BLM. Thus, this paper argues that Twitter has been vital in driving awareness and gaining support for social change within society.

The issue of racism in marginalised communities has proven to be a real issue that is prevalent in our society. The racial discrimination against people of colour is seen to be unjustified and unreasonable. The stream that resonates with this issue is online Networks and social change because Twitter has played a vital role in fostering important attention towards racial discrimination that faces many people in the world who feel as though they are not seen or heard and are treated as inferior beings. Twitter had an essential role in driving the momentum of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement following the tragic death of George Floyd in 2020. Through the use of hashtags and tweets that are created by anyone around the world who has access to social media, it has made for a significant change for social issues like the BLM movement. Twitter turned these local protests within America into a global movement that has challenged deeply rooted racist views within society. Twitter has the power to allow voices of marginalised people to be heard within this online forum that connects people all around the globe, and this helps to create a community and shared interest and values relating to the racial discrimination of African Americans. In this paper, it explores the history of the black lives matter movement and how Twitter has positively impacted the BLM movement through spreading awareness and gaining wider reach globally. Despite the positive impact that Twitter has on the activism for the Black Lives Matter movement, there are some limitations that have come to light, such as misinformation and opposition groups that were formed that are prevalent on the platform and have the impact of causing a setback within the movement to a certain extent.

Social media has been a valuable source for societal activism. Jones (2023) Social media platforms such as Twitter have helped to embrace personal identity and have made it very easy to share views and opinions of people from all around the world about an important topic. Within the platform of Twitter, users are able to like, comment and tweet, which helps create connectivity and bond over shared interests to help achieve a cause. Rizal, P. (2024). Activism within social media allows for quicker and wider reach globally and it helps advocate for social change. Rizal, P. (2024) An issue that has plagued society for years is the racial discrimination that is faced by marginalised groups. For many years, people of colour have been segregated and have experienced unjust racial inequality. The discrimination against Black people has a legacy of enslavement in the United States, and while progressive views have put an end to this, there is still embedded racial views that plague society today. Human Rights Watch (2022) Black Lives Matter is a social and political international movement that began in 2013, and it was the result of George Zimmerman’s acquittal of second-degree murder after he fatally shot an African American man, Trayvon Martin. This caused a huge upset within society and largely within the African American community. The beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement had the effect of preventing racial profiling within American society, where racism was highly prevalent. Breonna Taylor was yet another African American who was a victim of racial prejudice when she was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky home on March 13^th 2020. This happened when police officers raided her home after a search warrant was filed. Another example of unjust racial violence within the US that got a lot of attention was the murder of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, by US police officer Derek Chauvin on the 25^th of May of 2020. ‌Hughes, S. (2023). The shocking incident broke the internet, and soon many people scheduled rallies and protests to show support for the black lives matter movement. Hughes, S (2023). Twitter is seen as a mobilisation tool to spread awareness and important information about the Black Lives Matter movement. Australian National University. (2022) A prime example of this was the case study of the Ferguson protests, when African American teenager, Michael Brown, was killed in his apartment complex by police officer Darren Wilson in 2014. Rosenberg, S. (2015). This caused a severe upset within the African American community, and people were fed up with the unjust way of how law enforcement was treating people of colour. This continued and amplified the social movement when a serious of protests and riots were carried out in Ferguson to challenge the racist and unjust treatment of African American people.  In 2014, Twitter became a hub for conversations as there were more than 18 million tweets about the Ferguson protests. McDaniel’s, S. T. (2017).   The hashtag Ferguson was a widely used hashtag that became trending in 2014, and this hashtag on Twitter primarily focused on the discussion about Michael Brown, the scheduled protests and also looked at how authorities were responding to this issue. Rosenberg, S. (2015)  

Twitter has had a large impact in amplifying the movement through the use of hashtags that promote awareness of racial discrimination and bring to light all the different violent altercations that have been motivated by racist views in America. The most popular hashtags in the Black Lives Matter campaign included #BlackLivesMatter, #GeorgeFloyd, #BreonnaTaylor, #Black and #ICantBreathe. Australian National University (2022). All of these Hashtags have brought about global discussions focusing on the racial injustice faced by African Americans. These hashtags became known all around the world and they have helped the Black Lives Matter content to become incredibly popular and viral on all different social media platforms, especially Twitter. The hashtags are a way for the BLM movement to gain attention and spread awareness of the racial inequality that is being experienced and the police brutality that is evident in America towards people of colour. The hashtag #blacklivesmatter, spanning back to the beginning of the movement in 2013, has 44 million tweets in total. Pew Research Centre (2023). When George Floyd was killed by the hands of US police officer Derek Chauvin, Twitter saw a massive growth in the usage of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter as there were about 18,000 tweets under this hashtag, one day after his death. Pew Research Centre (2023). On May 27^th, the hashtag passed 1 million tweets. Pew Research Centre (2023) A case study found that nearly 10 million distinct users posted or retweeted a tweet containing the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag between 2013 and 2023. Atske, S. (2023). Thus, these BLM tweets helped with increase engagement with the BLM movement. Twitter offers the function to retweet information that has been said on the platform, and retweeting is a way that messages on Twitter are shared, which can then gain a lot more attention and become viral on the platform. The Pew Research Centre (2023) states that Tweets containing the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag over the last decade were retweeted an average of 18 times each. Twitter also has real time updates that tell users any important news about the issue very quickly through its easy global reach. Real time updates also make it easy for people to know the time and locations of riots and protests that have been planned so that people can show support for the movement. Twitter also has the function of allowing everyday people to comment and share their own experiences and stories regarding racism and police brutality to further provide evidence in pushing positive change within the Black Lives Matter movement.

While Twitter has played a vital role in advancing the Black Lives Matter movement, it has also encouraged the rise of both right-wing and left-wing activist groups, particularly as the BLM movement gained widespread attention and focus. Australian National University. (2022) The left wing activists who voiced their concerns on social media platforms have a progressive view that focuses on spreading awareness and driving social change to end racial discrimination and challenge racial injustice. While the right wing activists have more conservative views and are challenging the Black Lives Matter movement on social media platforms by discrediting African Americans’ views on racial discrimination. This is further developed through the creation of the “All Lives Matter movement”, which was created as a negative response to the black lives matter movement. Capatides, C. (2020). Many people wanted recognition and justice for the unfair, recurring violence against black people. However, when ‘All Lives Matter’ started to trend, it was seen as dismissing the concerns of African Americans and downplaying the horrific experiences and discrimination they have faced throughout the years. Capatides, C. (2020). There has been a positive impact of Twitter’s hashtag system that has allowed for marginalised groups to voice their opinions and concerns and drive change within society.  However, there is an increasing problem with hashtag activism within the social media platform of Twitter.  Frost (2020) argues that the rapid growth and spread of online-borne movements may be a potential obstacle and have the potential to hinder needed action. The overuse of hashtags might make it harder to read and negatively impact user experience on the platform. According to Frost (2020), Twitter is on the way out as more millennials are increasingly turning towards Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.  A case study found that 22 per cent of American adults use Twitter, and they tend to be younger and more progressive than the average American. Frost (2020) A problem with Twitter is that it can spread misinformation that can go viral around the world. ‌Hughes, S. (2023). This has an impact on activism for the BLM movement because it can hinder success and confuse activists if there is false information that is being spread around. An example of this was after the death of George Floyd, there were conspiracies arising that falsely asserted that George Floyd was alive. A 22 minute video was made by JonXArmy stating that he was alive, and this video reached 1.3 million people which had the effect of making people question the truth. Georgacopoulos, C., & Poche, T. (2020). Another example of misinformation was right wing activists who accused the protests of the BLM movement of being violent which discredited the movement and the concerns of African Americans by deflecting the issue at hand.

Social media platforms such as Twitter have played an important role in bringing awareness to the Black Lives Matter movement and it serves as a catalyst to bringing to light the racial injustice and prejudice faced by people of colour. Racial injustice has been an issue, particularly in America, for hundreds of years, where people of colour were unfairly discriminated against due to their race. The police brutality in America towards African Americans on several occasions since 2013, such as the murders of Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, brought about the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement. This movement has challenged the years of racist views within society and has worked to create social justice for people of colour all around the world. Through the use of hashtags that have been made and shared on Twitter, it has had the effect of bringing significant social change and fostering a sense of community within society. The Twitter hashtags have encouraged protests and riots to be organised to push positive change and stop racial injustice. Despite the positive impact Twitter has had on bringing awareness to racial discrimination within society, it is not without its limitations, as misinformation is easily spread on this forum, which can cause a setback in the Black Lives Matter movement. Another example is the opposition groups formed, such as the All Lives Matter movement, used to discredit the progress made and to try and devalue BLM.

Reference List:

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