#stopkony

As the modern world trends towards social networking and the widespread use of the internet, people around the world have adapted their use of a multitude of new technologies; computers, mobile phones, and other smart devices, into tools that can be wielded in the battle for social and political change. From the word activism, meaning “the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change” comes the term “digital activism”, a form of activism that uses the internet and digital media as well as content as key platforms for mass mobilisation and political action. Digital activism can appear in different variations like hashtag activism, for example, the #metoo, another variation is clicktivism, like Kony 2012, where users show support by liking and sharing content related to activist movements.

KONY 2012 is as viral example of clicktivism which appeared in early 2012 as a documentary produced by Invisible Children, who say it started as an experiment (Invisible Children), to see if online video could make a war criminal famous, in an attempt to bring him to justice and save the Ugandan children he had abducted into his ‘Lord’s Resistance Army’. The Kony 2012 movement was a transnational feat of civic engagement, with $28 million raised in 2012 alone, which Invisible Children used to expand their operations within Central Africa in their attempt to #stopkony. As of 30th May 2019 their video has 102,440,024 views, but Joseph Kony is still free, his “Lord’s Resistance Army’ still exists and Invisible Children have shifted their work away from just Kony, to focus more intensively on their programs in the border region of the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan, where multiple armed groups like Kony’s operate. Thusly, the ‘awareness’ or maybe more appropriately, clicktivism, the campaign has wound down as people stopped donating. In this case, unfortunately, the digital activism campaign didn’t change a whole lot, it certainly didn’t #stopkony.