How Social Media has Started a Movement

The impact of social media on the Black Lives Matter movement and how staying connected online can be a form of activism

The Black Lives Matter movement, although it started in 2013, really took off after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. His death was recorded and broadcasted to the public, being shared and talked about by millions around the world. The use of smart phones and social media allowed the people to expose cracks that have existed in our society for years and to rise up and do something about it.

Social media has been used as a tool for many aspects of this movement. For starters, many people in the beginning of the protests were talking about the looting that occurred specifically in Minneapolis. Some people who stayed silent about the murder and systemic racism chose to speak up about the looting and how it was affecting small businesses. These people expressed that peacefully protesting was okay, but that they drew the line at violence or looting. Although most of the protests were entirely peaceful, the looting was used as propaganda against the movement. To combat this, people used their platforms on social media to draw comparisons to the way that Colin Kaepernick was treated when he was in the NFL. Kaepernick chose to respectfully take a knee during the national anthem at games in honor of police brutality victims and was villainized by the media for it. I have attached a tweet comparing two articles by the National Review that accurately sum up the way he was treated for using his right to free speech.

Social media has also been used to spread different petitions that need signing, places that need donations and places we can call or email to demand justice. Many twitter users have taken the time to compile threads of different petitions and organizations so you can stay up to date and do your part to help the movement. Having a place where these resources are neatly compiled has made it easier to stay engaged and has made it possible for this movement to grow as large and as quickly as it did.

Social media has also been used to uplift black voices and promote black owned businesses. New apps are being put out to be able to see black owned businesses in your area, and threads on twitter are highlighting black owned small businesses that you can support. This has given a space for a group that has been consistently marginalized to have a platform to promote their endeavors and speak their mind. The “black out day” that occurred on instagram had the intention of uplifting black voices, but it ended up just being a cheap display of performative activism for a lot of people.

A great resource that I have used is one of the many instagram accounts that have surfaced compiling protests in my area. Since I live in the bay area, there are many different protests I can attend but it’s often hard to know which ones to go to since I live in a smaller town. Following an instagram account that compiles all this information has made it easier to attend protests in my area and keep up to date with what is going on where I live. Without social media, it would have been much harder for these protests to mobilize and gain traction, especially in less densely populated areas or smaller communities.

Another great way social media has been used is to show real footage from the protests across the country. Since both sides of the news media have an agenda while reporting, it’s hard to know what is really going on at the protests. Social media, specifically TikTok, has been a great way for people to show the brutality that they have been met with while exercising their right to peaceful assembly. In this day and age, it’s hard to trust any news source since you don’t know what biases they are upholding. Social media provides real time footage straight from the source that is impossible to ignore.

This movement has also provided allies the opportunity to further educate themselves and educate their white friends and family members. For as long as this country has existed, African American history hasn’t been taught in schools and it has allowed our racist institutions to persist. Racism is often framed as an issue of the past, but this movement has allowed us to see that it is alive and well and we must actively work to stop it. Social media has been a great way for people to share resources to further educate ourselves on our country’s racist history and the institutions that continue to marginalize and disenfranchise black people in this country.

In conclusion, social media has given this movement the opportunity to mobilize and become something that impacted the entire world. It started with George Floyd, but this movement addresses all of the injustices that have gone on for far too long in our country. The various ways that social media has impacted this movement has allowed it to become the largest social justice movement in US history and something that will be talked about for generations to come.

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