Taking it to Twitter: Countering State-sanctioned Violence

• In Event: 022 - Regular Session. Internet and Society

Abstract

In the past couple of years, we have seen many people and groups take to social media to stage walk-outs, sit-ins, rallies, and challenge police, the local and federal government. More recently, there has been an increase of people using social media to (re)tell incidences and occurrences, both locally and globally, especially when being censored by institutions of power, including but not limited to corporate media. In the current moment, after the killing of two unarmed Black men in Ferguson and Staten Island, women and men of color have used twitter to admonish (negative) ideas of Blackness that mainstream media outlets are enforcing. Considering the aforementioned, this paper attempts to shed light on the ways people of color are using social media to challenge systemic racism. I examine a few popular and contemporary case studies to explore this shift in social media use and challenge to corporate and government agencies.

Author

• Latoya Lee, SUNY Binghamton University