I am fully aware that this article may ruffle a few feathers – after all, for a lot of you reading this it is probably not what you want to hear – but unfortunately I am here to say it. Online activism is not real activism. Unless you are organising the next Arab Springs, (which I can guarantee you are not) sharing an AI generated image of ‘ALL EYES ON RAFA’ does, and means nothing. In fact, I think it is rather insulting.
I have reiterated this slightly controversial opinion to some of my friends, who were unhappy with what I had to say, but the fact of the matter is ‘slacktivism’ has become all too commonplace, and it is destroying purposeful and meaningful direct action. Whilst yes, not all forms of social media advocacy are inherently unuseful, for instance citizen journalists living in Palestine who use social media to document the atrocities they face daily, posting a black square for Black Lives Matter is not sharing awareness. Instead this is merely signalling to your followers that you perhaps are not a racist, however, to truly be anti-fascist you must take a stance on this in the real world, not just online. Whilst those who are avid slacktivists often defend their actions, stating that it does raise attention, this attention is only temporary as polls reveal support for BLM had decreased from 67% to 55%, just three months after the trend of posting black squares. This further supports the fact that many participants and slacktivists view movements such as BLM as no more than a passing trend, instead of an important political movement.
Slacktivism for many acts as virtue signalling. The likelihood is that most of your friends have the same opinions on certain political events as you do, so reposting mass images is not creating change through debates within the public sphere. It is merely a meaningless action done in an attempt to look like you want social change – whilst not putting in any effort to get there. Sure, share news articles, gofundmes, and details for protesting, but activism must be multifaceted to make any major change. The suffragettes sure as hell did not put a black square up on their door (I’m using this comparison because obviously the suffragettes did not have social media), they took to the streets.
Governments do not shit their pants when 100,000 people like or share an AI generated image, but when 600,000 people turn up outside Downing Street demanding Starmer stops sending weapons to Israel, that is when we see some slight change. Still, for politicians without a moral compass in sight, this hasn’t been enough for serious change, which is why we need to protest in larger numbers. I started going to protests at the age of 15, and seven years later, I still notice a real lack of young people. At these demos it seems the average age is about 40+, and I feel embarrassed that my generation cannot leave the comfort of their homes, to participate in real direct action. Action which does make a difference. If you feel called out I hate to say it but good, you should – you know what you need to do. It is definitely impossible to attend every major protest for every injustice out there, and we cannot all be the next Greta Thunberg, but participating in direct action does a hell of a lot more than sharing an instagram post to your friends, who have already shared the same thing.
With capitalist oligarchy owning the all spaces online to share ‘slacktivist’ content, under techno-feudalism, our ability to freely share what we want online will continue to diminish as time progresses. We have already seen this happen to ‘X’, as Musk freely heils, and with Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg attending Trump’s inauguration, we cannot rely on social media for progressive change, because the owners of these online spaces simply won’t allow it – and neither will the mainstream media. This paradigm of modern activism is weakening important critical thinking skills and long term engagement with crucial political issues, in an era where anti-intellectualism is on the rise.
As Palestine crumbles and trans women lose their rights – now is the time to fight back.
