Throughout the years, the progression of civil rights issues and how it is handled has completely evolved. When comparing the past to present, the methods or the ways that these issues transform into movements have changed tremendously however, the results still remain the same. One element that holds a high responsibility for the many differences would be technology, more specifically social media. With social outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and many others, information whether positive or not can be accessed by anyone by only the push of a button. Beginning in 2015, social media caught on to the trend of #BlackLivesMatter, due to the result of many unexplainable deaths of African American males. After videos of these injustices surfaced and were shared on the social media outlets, it sparked many conversations and debates on #BlackLivesMatter and why it was important. Though there are hindrances when discussing the influence of social media on civil rights movements, there has been an overall positive influences allowing for more unity and power of the oppressed.

In the past, civil rights movements relied more on physical protesting because of the lack of technology. When evaluating civil rights movements during the time of Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, or Nina Simone, one should look at the defining moments. Which were the numerous protests or the acts of physically refusing to cooperate in peaceful manner. At that time they were fighting for a change, fighting for an opportunity, fighting for embracement, or fighting to be seen for once. According to Bijan Stephen the process for reporting went as such, “You’d dial the WATS number, much like a general 800 line and the call would go directly to the organization. An activist would be on the other line ready to take down your report along with other witness. Following that your report along with many others would be compiled into a WAT report and mailed out to organization leaders, the media, Justice Department, lawyers, and other supporters of the movement across the country” (“How Black Lives Matter Uses Social Media to Fight the Power.”). When comparing the methods of referral between the past and present, one can see the differences and how technology was beneficial. This especially shows how hard it was to relay information to all of the country or the world for that matter which coincides with the aspect of unity. Author, Jean Van Delinder, also discusses civil rights movements in the past by outlining the difference in “forgotten” civil rights protests by saying, “Studying this type of protest helps to illustrate how individuals embedded in specific situations are also linked to social structure without forgetting that individuals and society are inseparable” (6). This is important to note because it shows how movements took a lot more than contributing to a trending hashtag or more than just recording a video and going viral. It required for people to go out and join the protests and marches under someone who had a strong affiliation and whose voice would be heard, which is a major difference when outline the contrast in time periods. In Delinder’s book, the author builds on this idea and describes the numerous “forgotten” civil rights protest, explaining that they were forgotten because of the lack of communication and unity. Though there are many protests that paved ways to the changes today over the many decades, technology did serve as a hindrance. 

The means of a present day civil rights movement are now defined by social media, allowing for a better opportunity of communication and unity. Social media allows for many people to see the issues and the different movements from anywhere in the world, giving them that quality of unity. “Social media has completely changed the game,” quoted from an activist by the name of Ida Bae Wells when interviewed on internet activism and social change (“Civil Rights: Internet Activism and Social Change”). Wells further discusses how this allows for more discussions, platforms, and overall more areas of representation for African Americans in the media to fight this stigma (PBS LearningMedia). Not only is it key for communication amongst general supporters, but it has also helped activists especially in their attempts to reach supporters or other activists. When interviewed, Samuel Sinyangwe, creator of WeTheProtesters.org, says that social media has helped him and others alike, communicate (“How The Internet Advanced The New Civil Rights Movement”). Sinyangwe continues to elaborate by saying that with the accessibility of social media has given people the opportunity to choose who can receive information and who cannot (“How The Internet Advanced The New Civil Rights Movement”). He [Sinyangwe], when interviewed by Laura Ling, gives Facebook as an example, explaining that if someone wants to publicly share a certain issue or situation they have that option, but that same person can also choose to share that information with a secured and private group of activists. The element of social media in civil rights movements has allowed for more platforms of opportunity, communication, and accessibility which has essentially changed the game.

An example of how a movement that has been driven by social media would the #BlackLivesMatter trending hashtag. This surfaced around July 2013 and became more popular after the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner (Niraj Choksi). With this becoming a trend on all outlets of social media all over the world, its use soared towards the end of both 2014 and 2015. As quoted from Lee Raime, “This is a powerful example of how a hashtag now is attached to a movement, and a movement, in some ways, has grown around a hashtag — and a series of both painful and powerful conversations are taking place in a brand-new space,” (Niraj Chokshi, The New York Times). This simple hashtag eventually transformed into a movement with people beginning to share videos and images of any injustice being done to the oppressed. Information soon began to lead to local and even national news channels, airing a censored version of the killings and riots that were happening. Ultimately #BlackLivesMatter which, according to The New York Times was created by Alicia Garza in 2013, helped fight stigmas against African Americans and helped their voices become heard. (Chokshi, “How #BlackLivesMatter Came to Define a Movement.”) The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag is a great example of how social media has a positive influence on civil rights movements and provided more communication along with unity. 

Overall, social media’s presence within civil rights issues does affect it to a certain extent however, it is also at the point that damage is done. As stated, there are both positives and negatives to social media’s presence. Positives would include more platforms for discussion, accessibility, the power to share moments concerning the oppressed with anyone at anytime. Along with the positive qualities, there are also negative outcomes due to dependency on social media. Considering that recent actions in civil rights issues have been through the internet, a negative effect would be that it is controlled by all types of people. As a result, the subject at matter can be altered completely to make the intended purpose different. Prime example of this would be when #BlackLivesMatter was trending and the #AllLivesMatter was created along with #BlueLivesMatter, which surfaced around December of 2016 (The New York Times). These hashtags, while the purpose behind them individually were positive, was a result of social media getting distracted, misconstruing the intended purpose and having millions of voices behind this cause, but all with different interpretations. People began to shift focus off of the reminder that black lives matter and took defense to those inflicting the violence which included the police (#BlueLivesMatter) and shift focus towards all life in general (#AllLivesMatter). In a social experiment directed by JoeySalads, he creates two signs that have “Black Lives Matter” on one and “All Lives Matter” on the other (“Black Lives Matter vs All Lives Matter Supporters”). He then went to a white neighborhood with the “Black Lives Matter” sign and to a black neighborhood with the “All Lives Matter” sign, then stood on the sidewalk amongst bystanders in order to see their reaction without them knowing he was recording. To his findings, the people who were willing to cooperate in the white neighborhood either did not support it or did along with the statement that they felt the exclusion of black lives was a form of segregation and that all lives should matter. In the black neighborhoods, however everyone who passed showed more of an emotional approach and either chased him away, began to fight him, or told him that he had to leave immediately. This is an example of social media misconstruing the meaning of certain topics and also an example distraction from billions of different types of people trying to give their input. Mainly because the reactions given by white people were not emotional, they had no personal understanding of what the hashtag meant to those oppressed. This is especially evident because of those that did answer and supported #BlackLivesMatter all said that is should be #AllLivesMatter. When evaluating the black neighborhoods the black people told him that he had to leave and began to chase him away. This social experiment shows how easily things can turn or stray from its true meaning and build upon the wrong ideals in social media. 

While social media has been helpful towards support a general change in civil rights, it also allows those who oppose to gain support. Historically, there has been groups of people who dislike change when it comes to civil rights so they create “hate groups” or groups that do not support their cause, for example the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). The KKK which was created by a group of white people who discouraged the new opportunities and freedoms that African Americans were beginning to receive around the time of the Reconstruction-Era. When thinking about the KKK, people tend to picture people riding around on horses and meeting in the dark old abandoned houses, though that might be true in the past social media has also impacted them. Just as the civil rights activists, the KKK now has the ability to access their members from all over, the now have a greater platform, and more representation. This would be an example of a hate group that has benefitted from the element of social media due to increase in attention that it has gotten.  On a smaller scale, there are also regional and local hate groups who have just as much of a common presence as the supporting groups all because of the element of social media. 

Another questionable aspect when studying the effectiveness of social media and civil rights, is to what extent can it truly help these issues. The term “hashtag activism” is used to describe the implementation of #BlackLivesMatter on society and the change it made by Yarimar Bonilla and Jonathan Rosa (6). In their essay they discuss how the problem of engaging in hashtag activism is the challenge of interpreting the context behind every single post, whether critical or support to certain groups. The example that they use is #Ferguson, which did receive millions of tweets, however it is hard to detect how many of those were in favor of black lives, lives of policemen, or negative in general. In this article they also go on to discuss the bias that does exist when using a hashtag as a civil rights movement, the number of people from different ethnicities that use these social media outlets. According to Rosa and Bonilla, African Americans (22%) use twitter more than white Americans (16%) (6). This could explain the reason as to why the hashtag itself was so successful in acknowledging and promoting change. In addition, a side effect of “hashtag activism” is how the view or presentation of those oppressed has changed into something negative. As stated by Morgan Maxwell, “Today, a young African American may view or perceive “racist events” by simply logging into their social media accounts. Many young African Americans are bombarded with often repeatedly shared content that highlight and discusses racism in America” (21). Within this quote, Maxwell is focusing on how the implementation of social media has also created a new way of racism or essentially cyber bullying. While it may not be direct, and also touching on the subject the popularity of hate group, but it also allows for people to pose individual threats towards people. In the example of Maxwell’s article is a tweet to which someone called the Ferguson protestors filthy and that #BlackLivesMatter supporters are terrorist, this is only one example of the many that are posted or tweeted. Therefore, hashtag activism has helped in making improvements towards civil rights however, there are also some setbacks. 

Granted that there are hindrances of civil rights being heavily built on social media outlets, it has proven to be a positive aspect of its progression creating more platforms, representation, and a power of voice. When comparing how civil rights issues were handled from the past to present one can see the dramatic change and how they were definitely beneficial. As stated from WIRED, the process of reporting police brutality alone was one very extensive and required a longer wait time that the modern day reports. Therefore the implementation of technology in civil rights generally, was an advantageous one that completely changed the game because it granted the oppressed more freedom, that was not necessarily there before. When hashtag activism was used in 2013 with #BlackLivesMatter, that in itself was one that struck many conversations both locally and globally as well as good and bad. This was a very important time period of civil rights because it gave everyone the opportunity to express their opinions and communicate about such. Videos, pictures, and stories of killings, or appreciations, or acknowledgements were all shared in accordance with the trending hashtag for almost two years. Not only did it help with communication among the supporters, but also the activist, giving them the ability to communicate with each other and unify. Social media is now the ideal tool for helping to inform on such topics, however it applies to everyone. Just as there was an increase with those who supported those who opposed also received attention. Therefore the amount of hate groups equally existed in numbers along with other hashtags such as #AllLivesMatter or #BlueLivesMatter. This was mainly a setback because it derived attention away from the support towards civil rights and focused it towards the aggressors and those who opposed. Distraction from social media occurred here and also in the image of African Americans overall by social media essentially creating a new form of racism because of misinterpretations and injustice occurrences. Again, when considering the different influences that social media has on civil rights, both positive and negative, it is evident that it has proven to be beneficial. It has brought powerful and painful conversations to light to the extent of a global level. It has also helped create unity among those oppressed as well as those who support a change in civil rights giving more power of voice. 
