Hashtag activism

Hashtag activism is a term coined by media outlets which refers to the use of Twitter's hashtags for internet activism.

The oldest known mention of the term is from The Guardian, where it was mentioned in context to describe Occupy Wall Street protests.

Hashtags have a history on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. The hashtag originated as "a means to coordinate Twitter conversations" between individual Twitter users. Chris Messina, a San Francisco resident, is credited with coining the term "hashtag."

Kony 2012 is a short film produced by Invisible Children, Inc. (authors of Invisible Children). It was released on March 5, 2012. The film's purpose was to promote the charity's "Stop Kony" movement to make African cult and militia leader, indicted war criminal and the International Criminal Court fugitive Joseph Kony globally known in order to have him arrested by the end of 2012, when the campaign expired. The film spread virally through the #Kony2012 hashtag.

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.

In 2014, a media release of security camera footage that appeared to show NFL player, Ray Rice, punching his then-fiancee, Janay Rice, sparked public conversation on why victims of abuse stay in abusive relationships. In response to this question, writer and domestic abuse survivor Beverly Gooden started the #WhyIStayed campaign via Twitter in an effort to "change the tone of the conversation". The hashtag began to trend nationally five hours after its creation and was used more than 46,000 times that day. Beverly appeared on NPR's All Things Considered to discuss Hashtag Activism.

...
Wikipedia