Digital Activism is a form of political activism that generally takes place online and has at its core the defence of digital rights, however it may also refer to activism of any kind from the material world, such as Human Rights movements, that may be using digital tools to enhance or augment their real-world activism. What is activism? Comes from the word \u2013 \u2018active\u2019 \u2013 the opposite of passive, sitting idly by while things happen around you. Outrage. That is a word associated with activism. It is the notion that, as an individual, you may see something happening around you that makes you feel uneasy in your bones, you don\u2019t agree with it, but you\u2019re not sure why. Eventually, this things keeps happening around you \u2013 you\u2019re letting it happen and you feel a sense of outrage that \u2018enough is enough\u2019 \u2013 you can\u2019t allow this to continue \u2013 you want to do something about it, there may be something you can do to stop it. But what? Direct intervention? Going up to someone and physically restraining them or even assaulting them in some way to get them to stop what they\u2019re doing? Or rallying together with a group of other like-minded individuals who also believe that this person or organization needs to be stopped from continuing to do what they\u2019re doing \u2013 to behave in such a way that causes outrage to so many people. What are they doing that\u2019s so bad? Behaving \u2018unethically\u2019? According to who? Infringing on people\u2019s rights? Causing damage to people, animals or perhaps the environment? Abusing people in some way? Acting unfairly \u2013 abusing positions of authority \u2013 making money illegitimately or by exploiting others? Committing social, legal or otherwise injustices? What is unjust? If enough people feel offended or outraged enough by someone\u2019s actions to protest about it in some way, then there\u2019s obviously something to it.
\nBut in what ways may people protest? Civil disobedience. Peaceful protests. Verbal and physical protests. Media campaigns. Self defence. Fighting back. Counter-strike. War. There are many ways to protest, but in terms of digital activism, these may variously take the form of electronic civil disobedience, spamming online forums and comment sections, hacking websites and changing homepages, putting up fake websites that look real, sending parody domain names to legitimate sites, fake videos, posters, radio interviews, any kind of digital media that is intended to act as a form of protest. Why protest? To ultimately get someone to stop doing something, start doing something, do more of something or do less of something else \u2013 it\u2019s about changing behavior. Trying to persuade or even force someone to behave differently. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Digital Activism is a form of political activism that generally takes place online and has at its core the defence of digital rights, however it may also refer to activism of any kind from the material world, such as Human … Continue reading