Hashtag activism refers to the use of Twitter's hashtags for Internet activism. The Hashtag, has become one of the many ways that social media contributes to civic engagement and social movements. The use of the hashtag on social media provides users with an opportunity to share information and opinions about social issues in a way that others (followers) can interact and engage as part of a larger conversation with the potential to create change. The hashtag itself consists of a word or phrase that is connected to a social or political issue, and fosters a place where discourse can occur. Social Media, provides an important platform for historically marginalized populations. Through the use of hashtags these groups are able to communicate, mobilize, and advocate for issues less visible to the mainstream.
Supporters of the power of hashtag activism believe that it allows users to connect with individuals from all over the world and share information quickly. Critics, on the other hand, doubt that hashtag activism leads to real change, as users are simply indicating that they care enough to post a hashtag, rather than taking practical action to make a difference.
History
The Hashtag, as it is currently used across social media sites was first proposed on Twitter by former Google developer Chris Messina, in 2007. The purpose of the invention was to create a meta tag that allowed users to track dynamic content in relation to a particular event or topic. Twitter's initial response to the use of the hashtag for such purposes was negative. The social media site posted that "these things were for nerds" 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 use of the hashtag has now spread to other social media sites including Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok. Since 2007, the hashtag has been used to coordinate conversations online, find supporters, and arrange protests allowing for users to be active participate in social and political movements.
Notable examples
The following notable examples are organized by categories: human rights, awareness, political, and trends.
Race
#BlackLivesMatter
The Black Lives Matter movement calls for an end to police brutality and the killings of African-Americans in the U.S. 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. 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
President Obama @POTUS44 Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great.
September 16, 2015
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. Ultimately, he was not convicted of any crimes, but he was suspended from school. 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." His tweet went viral and drew accusations of racism and Islamophobia against the school. It sparked an online movement where many individuals, including scientists and engineers, tweeted their support for Ahmed under the same hashtag.
#TakeAKnee
#TakeAknee has been a movement since 2016 and was created with the intention of calling attention to the police brutality and racial inequality taking place in America. This movement was enacted primarily by NFL athletes, most notably Colin Kaepernick, through kneeling for the duration of the national anthem; this act has stirred significant controversy because it is interpreted by nationalists as being a disrespectful act that insults the American flag, veterans, and the values the flag represents. 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. #TakeAKnee is often known as “the U.S. National Anthem Protest”, and is often compared to protests during the civil rights era, lending to a chain of protests led by athletes in different sports. While the police brutality being faced by African Americans was being protested, white American athletes were also seen taking a knee. As a whole, the #TakeAKnee movement created controversy questioning the legal and constitutional rights of individuals and their ability to protest the U.S. National Anthem.
#MyAsianAmericanStory
In August 2015, " a 15-year-old high student named Jason Fong created #MyAsianAmericanStory to highlight immigration stories of Asian Americans after presidential candidate Jeb Bush made a remark about Asian people and their "anchor babies." Fong stated that he started the hashtag to show that "Asian-Americans are part of the American narrative." Users of the tag tweeted about their diverse family immigration histories and encounters with racism. Fong said he was inspired to start #MyAsianAmericanStory in part by hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter and participated in other hashtag campaigns such as #Asians4BlackLives in order to show his support for dismantling “a broken system that protects police misconduct.”
#thisis2016
In October 2016, following an anti-Asian incident in New York City and the subsequent open letter to the victim from Michael Luo, The New York Times released a video entitled "#thisis2016: Asian-Americans Respond". The video featured Asian Americans who had experienced racism. #thisis2016 subsequently emerged as a hashtag to highlight racism Asian Americans faced. 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. #BrownAsiansExist more broadly highlights the erasure of South Asian and Southeast Asian Americans in the American media's portrayal of Asian Americans.
#OscarsSoWhite
#OscarSoWhite is a hashtag campaign started by BroadwayBlack.com managing editor April Reign and was sparked by the Oscars nominees in 2016. All of the 20 actors nominated for lead and supporting actor categories were white, despite multiple films that year starring African American leads that had received critics' prizes and guild awards. The campaign sparked a conversation about diversity, representation, and racism in the film industry. The movement is connected to causing enough external pressure to significantly change the racial composition of Academy membership. Following the peak of the hashtag's popularity, the Academy instated 41% minority voters and 46% female voters. Production companies felt the pressure as well, and subsequently diversified their casting and staffing decisions as well, hiring Ava Duvernay, an African-American female director, to head the production of A Wrinkle in Time and hiring non-white actors in the traditionally white Star Wars series.
#PublishingPaidMe
Women's rights
#YesAllWomen
YesAllWomen is a Twitter hashtag and social media campaign in which users share examples or stories of misogyny and violence against women. #YesAllWomen was created in reaction to another hashtag #NotAllMen, to express that all women are affected by sexism and harassment, even though not all men are sexist. The hashtag quickly became used by women throughout social media to share their experiences of misogyny and sexism. The hashtag was popular in May 2014 surrounding discussions of the 2014 Isla Vista killings.
#ShoutYourAbortion
#ShoutYourAbortion is a hashtag and social media campaign used on Twitter that encourages women who have experience with abortion to break the silence surrounding it. The hashtag was created by American writer Lindy West and friends Amelia Bonow and Kimberly Morrison in response to the US House of Representatives efforts to defund Planned Parenthood following the Planned Parenthood 2015 undercover videos controversy.
#ilooklikeanengineer
In August 2015, the #ilooklikeanengineer campaign started. The movement was started by Isis Anchalee to promote discussion of gender issues. Anchalee created the hashtag in response to backlash regarding her face being featured in an ad campaign for the company she works for. One year after the creation of #ilooklikeanengineer 250,000 people had used the hashtag.
#MeToo
#MeToo is a Twitter hashtag that raises awareness about sexual assault by encouraging survivors to share their stories. The hashtag was initially first used in 2007 by Tarana Burke but was later popularized and brought to the attention of the media on October 15, 2017, when Alyssa Milano, using Twitter, encouraged individuals to speak up about their experience with assault and say 'Me Too'. Initially meant to simply raise awareness but has developed into a movement and as of October 2018, the hashtag has been used 19 million times. The movement has sparked many other movements like #HowIWillChange and has also led to certain punishments towards the perpetrators. As a reaction, the #HimToo hashtag was created. It that refers to the social media campaign for false rape allegation.
#MosqueMeToo
In February 2018, the Mosque Me Too movement started, following the Me Too movement which gained worldwide prominence in October 2017 and the following months. Muslim women started sharing their experiences of sexual abuse at Muslim holy sites and on pilgrimages such as Hajj, Mecca, Saudi Arabia, using the hashtag #MosqueMeToo.
#WomensMarch
On January 21, 2017, an estimated 2.6 million individuals marched around the world in response to the rhetoric of newly elected President Donald Trump. The march was organized primarily online through Facebook. Now occurring annually, the goal of the Women's March is to raise awareness and advocates for human rights through peaceful protest.
Similar to other hashtag movements, #WomensMarch has an online presence. The movement has a Facebook page that is active, verified under the name Women's March, that was created on November 20, 2016. As of April 2, 2019 the page is liked by over 800,000 individuals and has a following of more than 850,000 users. Outside of the official page, there are multiple pages defined by geographic region including but not limited to Women's March on Connecticut, Women's March on San Diego, and Women's March Milan. In addition to Facebook, the Women's March Movement has an active profile on Instagram and as of April 2019 the page has 1.2 million followers.
#EleNão
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On September 19, 2018, the Ele Não movement ("Ele Não" is Portuguese for "not him"), also known as the protests against Jair Bolsonaro, were demonstrations led by women which took place in several regions of Brazil and the world. The main goal was to protest against Bolsonaro and his presidential campaign and his sexist declarations.
#WhereisPengShuai
After the November 2021 disappearance of Chinese Tennis athlete, Peng Shuai, the hashtag #WhereisPengShuai appeared on Twitter and was Tweeted by athletes such as Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka.
Other examples
A 2012 Twitter discussion among women working in games, collated under the hashtag #1reasonwhy, indicated that sexist practices such as the oversexualization of female video game characters, workplace harassment and unequal pay for men and women were common in the games industry.
The hashtag #NotYourAsianSidekick was initiated by Suey Park and Juliet Shen in December 2013 on Twitter. 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 less than 24 hours, #NotYourAsianSidekick had been used over 45,000 times.
DeafTalent is a hashtag used to highlight through social media the capabilities of the deaf and hard of hearing community. Prior to the hashtag's emergence, in the creative industry, hearing actors had been cast in deaf roles. The SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia wrote, "In response to this, the social media hashtags #DeafTalent and #POCDeafTalent were created. The hashtags, while originally used to point out problematic portrayals of deaf characters and sign language in the media, are now also used to celebrate the wide breadth and multiplicity of deaf actors, artists, and other talent in the world."
The hashtag, #Boymom, has taken to social media platforms in order to display the so-called "chaotic" and "messy" experiences mothers of boys go through. Instagram appears to be the platform with the most #Boymom hashtags, with nearly 12.9 million hashtags. Interestingly, #Girlmom falls significantly behind in numbers with only 4.8 million. Currently, there is much speculation surrounding this hashtag. People argue that it creates an environment for children where they feel unable to fully express their gender. Some people even go as far as to say that it perpetuates the sexist idea that sons are valued more than daughters.
Awareness
#Kony2012
Kony 2012 is a short film produced by Invisible Children, Inc. (authors of Invisible Children). It was released on March 5, 2012.
The film's purpose was to promote the charity's "Stop Kony" movement to make African cult and militia leader, indicted war criminal and the International Criminal Court fugitive Joseph Kony globally known in order to have him arrested by the end of 2012, when the campaign expired. The film spread virally through the #Kony2012 hashtag.
#WhyIStayed
In 2014, a media release of security camera footage that appeared to show NFL player, Ray Rice, punching his then-fiancée, Janay Rice, sparked public conversation on why victims of abuse stay in abusive relationships. 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 began to trend nationally five hours after its creation and was used more than 46,000 times that day. Beverly appeared on NPR's All Things Considered to discuss hashtag activism.
#BringBackOurGirls
Boko Haram kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok, Nigeria in May 2014, refusing to return the girls. The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls was created and used in hopes of keeping the story in the news and bringing international attention to it. The hashtag was first used by a corporate lawyer named Ibrahim Abdullahi, and has also been used by the likes of First Lady Michelle Obama, who used it to raise awareness for the kidnapped girls. The hashtag in itself has received 2 million retweets.
#AmINext
In the Fall of 2014, a Canadian Inuit woman named Holly Jarrett created the #AmINext hashtag campaign to raise awareness about the Canadian Government's lack of response to the high rate of violence against Indigenous women. The campaign involves people taking photos of themselves with signs holding "#AmINext" and posting it to social media. 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. Holly was personally inspired to carry out the campaign as her cousin, Loretta Saunders, an Inuit woman from Labrador, went missing and was ultimately found dead on the side of a Canadian highway. After the campaign, the government filed a national DNA missing person's index and introduced 30 safety initiatives to help indigenous women.
#PrayforParis
The epicenter of Paris encountered unexpected terrorist attacks, leading to worldwide efforts to spread awareness about this incident. During this event, terrorists were wearing suicide belts and the subsequent violence was shocking. The terrorists were planning to enter the stadium along with other people. Despite the person being prevented from entering, it demonstrated the severity of how people are risking their own lives, indirectly affecting others. Following the incident, more than 70 million people began to share this news on various social media platforms in order to reach a broader audience. For example, on Facebook, the social media platform enabled users to change their profile picture to a transparent overlay of the French flag. The purpose of changing a user's Facebook profile picture was to indicate support to the victims of this unfortunate event. Twitter was also utilized. However, rather than creating a transparent overlay on a Twitter's user profile, a hashtag was created to emphasize support. This simple hashtag of #PrayforParis allowed users to spread support so that audiences were not only informed about the event, but could also click on a hyperlink to learn more about the cause and other user's perspectives. Although social media platforms were useful in spreading awareness, the effect of younger individuals were just as notable. For example, a young child drew his thoughts on paper, including the message: "Shot after shot, bang after bang, wasting innocent lives!"
#FakeNews
While "fake news" or politically motivated disinformation (PMD) is not a new occurrence, the sentiment and spread of distrust of news coverage has become more notable since the 2016 U.S. elections cycle. 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. The emergence of social media has allowed for "fake news" to spread much quicker than regular news and information, pushing technology companies to take a more active role in detecting and removing "fake news".
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An example of #FakeNews comes from a website named WTOF 5 News. The headline reads: “Pope Francis shocks world, endorses Donald Trump for president” With the help from Facebook, this fake news article received over 960,000 engagements from the popular social media site, making it one of the post popular fake news articles of 2016.
#ProtectOurWinters
Protect Our Winters is a movement and a nonprofit organization started by snowboarder, Jeremy Jones and other winter sport athletes to raise awareness about global warming and climate change. The movement started in 2016 as a response to it being one of the hottest years. The movement demonstrates the effects of global warming with data about the winter sports industry and rise in carbon dioxide percentage. 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.
#FreeBritney
In April 2019, the Britney Spears fan podcast Britney's Gram uncovered the first alleged abuses within her conservatorship arrangement and created the hashtag #FreeBritney. The term itself had been in use by certain fans since 2008. Alongside advocating for the termination and investigation of Spears's conservatorship, the hashtag and accompanying social movement have been used to raise awareness of guardianship and conservatorship abuse across the United States. The hashtag has led to legislative change in California surrounding legal procedures within conservatorship, and has inspired various bipartisan inquiries of guardianship and conservatorship law in Congress.
#flygskam
Flygskam is a Swedish word that literally translates as “flight shame”. It's the name of an anti-flying movement that originated in Sweden last year, which encourages people to stop taking flights to lower carbon emissions. 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 the following suit. Thunberg herself traveled largely by train during her recent two-week tour of Europe. The activism has seen real results in Sweden as the sales of airline ticket sales declined by 4% in January 2020 due to the increasing public awareness to the carbon footprint resulted by commercial flights.
#CoronaVirus
#Coronavirus, #COVID-19, and #Covid_19 represent a few of the most common hashtags referring to Coronavirus 2019 that started in Wuhan, China. The Hashtag has increased rapidly with the World Health Organization's (WHO) declaration of the virus as pandemic on the 11th of March, 2020. Looking at the trajectory of this Hashtag on Twitter from Symplur, it shows a notable decrease in the number of Hashtags from 50763 on 13 April 2020 to 35795 on 18 April 2020.
#PublishingPaidMe
Created in 2020 by L.L. McKinney, this hashtag was used by authors to discuss the pay differences received by publishers for black and non-black authors.
Political
#ArabSpring
#ArabSpring spread across social media early 2011, spreading awareness of the anti-government protest in the North Africa and the Middle East. The #ArabSpring is Twitter hashtag used in anti-government protests across the Middle East in 2010.
#NotOneMore
The hashtag #NotOneMore developed shortly after the May 23, 2014, shooting in Isla Vista, Santa Barbara, California. During this incident, six students attending the University of California, Santa Barbara, lost their lives. Richard Martinez, the father of one of the victims, quickly spoke out about gun control, calling for stricter gun control during memorial ceremonies and rallies, chanting "Not One More!" The phrase became a hashtag on social media afterwards. 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."
#NODAPL
#Oromoprotests
In 2014, IOYA (The International Oromo Youth Association) created the #Oromoprotests hashtag to bring awareness to Oromo student protests against the Ethiopian government's plan to expand Addis Ababa and annex areas occupied by Oromo farmers and residents. 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. While the Oromo held protests before, this was the first time the Oromo could be united across the country by using new social media platforms.
#Sosblakaustralia
In March 2015, an activism campaign took hold in Australia. #Sosblakaustralia was a campaign started in a small aboriginal town in Western Australia. This campaign was to combat an initiative that would close down 150 rural aboriginal communities. Though this movement started in a rural community of 200 #Sosblakaustralia with poor Internet connection, it eventually spread to thousands of followers including Australian celebrities such as Hugh Jackman, this caused the movement to expand as far as London. In 18 days this movement had over 50,000 followers and had reached over 1,000,000 people worldwide.
#IdleNoMore
In the Winter of 2012–2013, in Canada, a campaign was started by Canadian indigenous activists using #IdleNoMore in order to combat future legislation that would threaten indigenous land and water. The movement has continued to grow and unify native communities and the hashtag has made expansion possible. Idle No More started in Canada it has spread to native people around the world including the United States and Australia where indigenous people face similar issues. 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.
#UmbrellaRevolution
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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. The protestors had been camped on the streets and the public parks. The umbrella was used to protect the protesters in defence of the democratic political process in 2014 when police used tear gas in attempts to get them to leave. "Umbrella Revolution" and "Umbrella Movement" have been used to identify this event through British media outlet BBC. through social network services such as Twitter and Instagram made the events in Hong Kong reach many other people not directly involved with the protest with the use of #UmbrellaRevolution and created a worldwide social awareness to how Hong Kong was responding to support of the democratic process.
#MarchforOurLives
The March for Our Lives protest began after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018. In response to a surge of gun violence in schools and the 17 dead after the Parkland shooting, people began to rally around the hashtag #neveragain. The hashtag, indicative of the larger movement against gun violence, spread across social networks and went viral in early 2018.
Additionally, the movement organized walkouts in remembrance of the lives lost due to gun violence. In March 2018, hundreds of marches were organized across the country in support of stricter gun laws, many of which were met with resistance from anti-protesters. Since February 2018 there have been 123 laws passed nationwide at the state-level to address concerns of gun control.
On February 17, 2018, a Facebook page was started by students to encourage their participation in the movement; and as of April 2019 the page has been liked by more than 280,000 individuals and has a following of more than 300,000. The Instagram page @marchforourlives is live and as of April 2019 has over 200 posts and just over 360,000 followers.
#PutItToThePeople
The United Kingdom-based People's Vote campaign group was launched in April 2018 and calls for a confirmatory public vote on the final Brexit deal between the United Kingdom and the European Union and uses #PutItToThePeople as its activism hashtag.
#EndFathersDay
In 2014, some editors spoofed being black feminists, spreading the meme, #EndFathersDay. Fox News picked the hoax to denounce. After much research, the fake accounts were outed.
#NoBanNoWall
#NoBanNoWall is a hashtag and social media campaign created in response to Donald Trump's purported "Muslim ban" and 2016 presidential campaign promises to build a physical wall on the US-Mexico border. In 2017, President Donald Trump issued multiple executive orders threatening to break up families and turn away refugees. Saki Barzinji and Imraan Siddiqi started #NoBanNoWall in an effort to rally Muslim, Latino, and other communities to stand up against xenophobic immigration policies. On January 25, 2017, protestors gathered at Washington Square Park and chanted, “No ban; no wall,” which inspired the Twitter hashtag #NoBanNoWall to protest Trump's travel ban. The impact of the movement was seen in airports immediately after the hashtag started trending. A judge in New York accepted a request from the ACLU to provide a warrant blocking deportation in airports. The movement became a platform for people to share stories of them or their families immigrating to the US, and worked to combat the growing public fear of certain foreigners.
#FireDrillFridays
Inspired by Greta Thunberg and started by Greenpeace and Jane Fonda, #FireDrillFridays brings awareness to the climate change crisis. Calling for a Green New Deal in the United States government, the movement organized protests on the Capitol every Friday beginning in October 2019. The campaign also advocates for complete stoppage of new fossil fuel projects and to phase out existing fossil fuel projects. #FireDrillFridays gained popularity with celebrity arrests. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fonda moved #FireDrillFridays online to continue rallying for government action.
#WalkAway
Other examples
In September 2014, The Hokkolorob Movement (Let The Voice Raise Movement) started. It is a series of protests initiated by the students of Jadavpur University in Kolkata, India that began on September 3, 2014. The term "hok kolorob" ("make some noise") was first used as a hashtag on Facebook.
Trends
#icebucketchallenge and #ALS
The #icebucketchallenge is an act where a bucket of ice water is dumped over the head of an individual and documented by videos or pictures, and a "challenge" is issued to another person (or persons) to do the same. The "challenged" individual then either has to respond by dumping ice water on their head, or donate money to a Motor neuron disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease) charity. However, doing both is also an option. 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. 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. That figure contrasted with the $14,000 raised in the same time the year prior prompted the CEO and her 38 years in the industry to view the difference in support as "crazy." A month after the August 2014 fundraising week the number of videos that were directly associated with the #icebucketchallenge was tallied on the Facebook website from June 1 to September 1 at 17 million, according to the Facebook Newsroom. As the videos continued to climb, so did the challenges. 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.#Hallyu
The Hallyu Wave, which literally translates to “flow of Korea” (or more commonly known as the Korean Wave) represents the social movement in connection to South Korean culture and entertainment. Economically, Hallyu is tremendously profitable, attracting millions of tourists and fans per year and produces many forms of entertainment, such as Korean pop music and television drama series, ultimately generating billions of US dollars in annual revenue which further strengthens its economic prosperity and stability. Furthermore, being a powerful social movement in its own right, Hallyu holds considerable influence in politics as well. The ninth president of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, once stated that Hallyu can be used to improve or repair the tense relations between the Koreas. Still, North Korea does not have its own rendition of Hallyu and even rejects it; for example, when Psy's "Gangnam Style" was released in 2012, North Korea viewed the song with contempt because while South Korea was attracting positive attention, it was also undermining the impoverished conditions of North Korea at the same time.
LGBT rights
In 2014, protests of the then-recently enacted anti-gay laws included targeting the corporate sponsors for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi Russia. Among the sponsors was McDonald's, whose marketing included the hashtag #CheersToSochi, which was hijacked by the queer activist group Queer Nation.
In June 2015, The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide. This led to the creation of the hashtag #lovewins. This hashtag earned over 4.5 billion impressions on Twitter. President Barack Obama joined in and tweeted using the hashtag.
#Girlslikeus
Started by Janet Mock in 2012. This hashtag was used to support Jenna Talackova during the Miss Universe pageant.
#DignidadLiteraria
#OwnVoices
This hashtag is used to showcase authors from marginalized or underrepresented groups who write characters from those same groups of people. This hashtag represents stories being told by people who have lived those experiences.
Effectiveness
Hashtag activism has been referred to by critics as a form of slacktivism. Slacktivism is using social media as a vehicle to provide minimal support for a political or social issue. Hashtags, likes, shares, and re-posts are all seen by critics as superficial support that provide minimal change and require little effort. The ease of hashtag activism has led to concerns that it might lead to overuse and public fatigue. Critics worry that hashtag activism allows participants to be satisfied with a public symbol of concern, rather than taking action. The passive nature of the practice can lack the passion once displayed in movements from earlier eras.
Other critiques of hashtag activism stem from the belief that online social movements are often started by privileged individuals, rather than by those who are most affected by the cause itself.
Notable critics of hashtag activism include former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell, and Nigerian American writer Teju Cole, who all have argued that hashtag activism encourages lazy, ineffective participation that does not elicit any change.
While critics worry that hashtag activism results in a lack of true action offline, supporters believe it to be an easy and effective way for users to share their opinions, find information, and provide moral support to issues. The hashtag allows users to interact with one another to mobilize efforts without supporters needing to be in the same physical location or the same time of day. As posting a hashtag or reading posts linked to the hashtag requires little effort, more people are able to participate. This can build awareness by connecting it to personal stories, experiences, emotions and thoughts. 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.
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. For instance, in 2012 when the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation decided to stop funding mammograms through Planned Parenthood, social media users tweeted, #standwithpp, and #singon; later that same week, Komen reversed its decision. Social media fosters a fast-paced environment that allows organizations to quickly see how individuals react to policies and decisions, which in turn creates the opportunity for those responses to be taken into account if the organization is open to changing the policy or decision.
