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Arab Spring
The Arab Spring was a movement rising against the civil wars happening in the Middle East. This was the first time that social media was really utilized in a protest. Teenage and young adult protestors were with smart phone in hand posting in real time on sites like Facebook and Twitter about the protest and what was happening on the streets at the time. -
Black Lives Matter
This was a HUGE protest where social media was the main platform. This was a protest against police brutality due to violence against black people. This was a movement promoting race equality. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter was tweeted at least nine million time in the year 2015. -
#PrayForParis
After two very brutal terrorist attacks in Paris, France there was a worldwide movement on social media "praying" for Paris. Activists used Twitter with the hashtag #PrayForParis more than seven million times as well as Facebook where people were changing their profile pictures to the French flag. -
Marriage Equality
The fight of same-sex marriage brought about a large outbreak of protests over social media resulting in a huge win where same-sex marriage was legalized in Ireland and the U.S. More than 26 million people took advantage of the rainbow filter on their profile picture on Facebook. In addition, the hashtag #LoveWins was used a few hundred thousand times on Twitter. -
#MeToo
Women came out on social media bravely sharing their stories of sexual assault and harassment using the hashtag #MeToo to share their stories. We realized how commonplace sexual harassment actually is. More than ten thousand people relied to one tweet that started this movement. It started with women and then men got involved too where Kevin Spacey was rightfully accused for his wrong doings.
