Digital Platforms as a Catalyst for Social Change – Strengthening or Limiting?
Digital platforms have become essential to the evolution of social movements, changing how advocacy is shaped, mobilized, and supported. These platforms have played a significant role in shaping and influencing the outcomes of social movements, allowing millions of individuals to connect and advocate for ongoing social causes and issues. These tools have not only streamlined the way social movements communicate but have also magnified their global impact and efficiency, helping spread information to diverse audiences. Helping various global campaigns, the dynamic relationship between digital platforms in contemporary society and social movements shapes the way in which individuals interact, communicate, and endorse social change. This intersection serves as a prominent catalyst for advocacy, presenting substantial opportunities for further development and growth. The relationship between the digital and physical spheres helps push towards the direction of justice. We see this elucidated prominently through the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in 2020, as well as through Fridays For Future (FFF), a youth-led climate movement initiated by Greta Thunberg, that harnessed social media to move beyond geographic barriers and drive worldwide participation.
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From 2018, FFF grew into an international force through the use of platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, whose large user base made information more accessible, allowing activists to share critical information and connect with a variety of individuals worldwide with the ability to organize synchronized climate strikes across over 100 countries. These protests succeeded in changing consumer behaviour, persuading individuals to eat less meat and take fewer flights. The rapid spread of the movement exemplified the power of digital tools in amplifying calls to action in issuing an active response to climate change and its long-term effects. All the data that is acquired from the digital sources we use daily, including all types of text from the internet, ranging from academic books to Reddit comments, is what is referred to as “big data”. Big data can provide crucial insight and deeply analyze behaviours, including subtle details making it particularly valuable for identifying patterns and trends in addressing global issues.
This inherent advantage, however, is accompanied by a number of challenges. Subjective beliefs and biases are embedded in what people write and how they categorize things, as well as design choices, something which huge language models can not filter. Certain biases and discrimination can worsen existing inequalities in regard to social groups and movements. Algorithms prioritize content based on engagement metrics with the potential to marginalize underrepresented voices and mould visibility for certain narratives. With this, comes a risk of selective advocacy, whereby the digital reach of social movements is subject to biases embedded in platforms’ histories.
More recently, digital surveillance presents itself as another obstacle, where state and government surveillance monitor ongoing digital activism, posing a major threat to privacy and the freedom of expression. The use of digital surveillance, as well as strains and algorithms holding back different types of information from reaching a wider range of audiences, can result in the suppression of important voices based on these aforementioned biases. While big data can benefit social movements and advocacy, it is difficult to rely on this tool to completely shape the direction of social movements while also providing the assurance of equality and protection to all communities involved. Unlike traditional movements, which are primarily driven by economic-based issues, contemporary social movements such as FFF emphasize intersectionality and identity-focused issues. In general, most social movements are focused on social inequality and justice, with groups of people organizing to bring about or resist social change using non-institutional strategies and tactics.
Digital technologies grant platforms a space to raise awareness for online campaigns and fundraising initiatives for social movements. The BLM movement in 2020 highlights the immediate power of social media, through the initiation of a “blackout” campaign to raise awareness for the death of George Floyd. This movement was an undeniable catalyst for social change. Digital platforms allow individuals to spread awareness by sharing personal stories and documentation to further the reality of all that was being witnessed online. The escalation rate and rapid emergence of the BLM movement was through the hashtag “#BlackLivesMatter”, allowing individuals to come together globally. Digital platforms have promoted collaboration, unity, and resilience across all parts of the world. Addressing algorithmic biases, ensuring data privacy, and upholding equitable representation are all crucial to harnessing the dual nature of digital advocacy, which is therefore subjectively both empowering and hindering.