How marginalized groups use Twitter to advance counter-narratives,
preempt political spin, and build diverse networks of dissent.
The power of hashtag
activism became clear in 2011, when #IranElection served as an
organizing tool for Iranians protesting a disputed election and
offered a global audience a front-row seat to a nascent revolution.
Since then, activists have used a variety of hashtags, including
#JusticeForTrayvon, #BlackLivesMatter, #YesAllWomen, and #MeToo to
advocate, mobilize, and communicate. In this book, Sarah Jackson,
Moya Bailey, and Brooke Foucault Welles explore how and why Twitter
has become an important platform for historically disenfranchised
populations, including Black Americans, women, and transgender
people. They show how marginalized groups, long excluded from elite
media spaces, have used Twitter hashtags to advance
counternarratives, preempt political spin, and build diverse networks
of dissent.
The authors describe
how such hashtags as #MeToo, #SurvivorPrivilege, and #WhyIStayed have
challenged the conventional understanding of gendered violence;
examine the voices and narratives of Black feminism enabled by
#FastTailedGirls, #YouOKSis, and #SayHerName; and explore the
creation and use of #GirlsLikeUs, a network of transgender women.
They investigate the digital signatures of the “new civil rights
movement”—the online activism, storytelling, and
strategy-building that set the stage for #BlackLivesMatter—and
recount the spread of racial justice hashtags after the killing of
Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and other high-profile incidents
of killings by police. Finally, they consider hashtag created by
allies, including #AllMenCan and #CrimingWhileWhite.