Hashtag activism
Hashtag activism refers to the use of hashtags on social media platforms as a form of Internet activism. It has become a significant tool for civic engagement and the advancement of social movements. By attaching a hashtag to a post, users can share information and opinions on social or political issues, enabling others to engage in a broader online conversation that has the potential to drive change. A hashtag typically consists of a word or phrase related to a specific cause, creating a space for public discourse. Social media also serves as a critical platform for historically marginalized groups, allowing them to communicate, mobilize, and advocate for issues that may be overlooked by the mainstream media.
Supporters of hashtag activism argue that it enables users to connect with global audience and disseminate information rapidly. Critics, however, question its effectiveness, suggesting that it often amounts to symbolic support rather than meaningful action, as users may simply post a hashtag without engaging in concrete efforts to create change.History
The modern use of hashtag on social media was first proposed in 2007 by former Google developer Chris Messina on Twitter. His intention was to create a meta tag system that would allow users to track dynamic content related to specific event or topics. Initially, Twitter dismissed the idea, stating that, "these things were for nerds". However, later that year, the hashtag #sandiegofire gained traction during the California wildfires, helping users share updates, locate loved ones and monitor safety information. This success demonstrated the hashtag's potential, leading to its broader adoption across platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Since then, hashtags have been widely used to coordinate conversations, build communities and organize protests, empowering users to actively participate in social and political movements.Notable examples
The following notable examples are organized by categories: human rights, awareness, political, and trends.Race
United States origin
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. During the summer of 2020, the hashtag saw another resurgence due to the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police.#IStandWithAhmed
I stand with Ahmed: 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
Black Women's Rights
United States origin
#SayHerName
#SayHerName originated in 2015 by the African American Policy Forum spearheaded by Kimberle Crenshaw. The purpose of #SayHerName was to bring media and public attention to the abuse and murder of Black women at the hands of the police. The alleged suicide of Sandra Bland after being taken into police custody made the hashtag viral and allowed for the exposure, sharing, and investigation into the stories of other Black women who died as a result of police violence. #SayHerName was also associated with the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Aura Rosser, Tanisha Anderson, and many others.Women's rights
United States origin
#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.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, #MeToo developed into a movement and as of October 2018, the hashtag had 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.