The use of social media for activist purposes is a much debated and derided subject. Yes, Twitter, Facebook and online petition sites are useful tools for raising awareness of important issues, and make it easy to express how you feel about – say – trees being cut down in the Amazon or climate change. But they also stand accused of taking genuine outrage or emotion and channelling it into something that makes you feel like you’re ‘doing something’, without actually achieving anything than salving your conscience. Slactivism, clicktivism – call it what you will.
Except that for once it looks like angry people on the internet may well be doing some good.
Ever since the horrific abduction of 257 Nigerian school girls from their dormitory in Chibok three weeks ago, people have been using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls to try and keep the story in the news and pressure the government of Goodluck Jonathan to step up its efforts to find them.
Last week, Boing Boing editor Xeni Jardin wrote a desperate piece asking why their story had fallen off of the news radar and was judged of little interest.
Then something extraordinary happened. A concerted effort by the likes of Amnesty International, Unicef and Facebook activists to get people tweeting, blogging and adding their Likes to the #BringBackOurGirls campaign started by Nigerians immediately after the kidnappings began to trend in a huge way. Over a million tweets are now recorded with the hashtag, and even US first lady Michelle Obama has got in on the act.
That would mean nothing in itself, except that over the last couple of days the UK and the US have both had offers of military help accepted by the Nigerian government, and will hopefully be turning their drones and spy satellites onto the region before all the girls are sold into slavery and enforced marriage – as threatened by their abductors in a video released on Tuesday to AFP.
The issue was even discussed in a packed Houses of Parliament in the UK yesterday, with many female members of parliament showing support by wearing red.
Social media alone certainly didn’t make all that happen. The surge of support was triggered by a ‘Million Woman March‘ in Nigeria to campaign for more action from the government, which was then repeated elsewhere in the world once the online buzz took off.
The girls were kidnapped by extremist group Boko Haram. The war of Boko Haram on the Nigerian people has been so bloody for so long – last night it was reported that “hundreds” have been killed in another attack in the North East and it’s blamed for more than 10 000 deaths over the last 12 years – that the story of the missing girls seemed likely to be lost as just another atrocity in a series that president really doesn’t like to talk about. After all, when you’re desperate for overseas investment and want to focus on the vibrant fast growing business opportunities in the south of the country.
It’s way too early to be self-congratulatory. The girls are still missing, and in incredible danger. Twitter hashtags won’t stop groups like Boko Haram and there’s no guarantee that outside help will rescue the schoolgirls or even be delivered upon. We don’t even know what the full story is – even the number of girls missing isn’t certain, and some have already escaped.
But it’s clear that internet campaigning has made a difference in keeping this story alive and bringing leaders from Nigeria and the outside world together to try and do something about it. And that’s got to be a good thing.
