TQS Staff
A campaign for the capture of an alleged Ugandan War Criminal has become a Youtube and Twitter sensation as it received mass celebrity backing.
A 30 minute video created by the organisation Invisible Children to raise awareness of Kony’s crimes has received nearly 40 million views on the web. The group also launched a Twitter campaign with the tag #stopkony which has been supported by celebrities such as Rihanna and Bill Gates. The campaign calls for Kony to be tried by the International Criminal Court for charges against humanity. Invisible Children claim that Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have abducted over 30000 children in northern Uganda and forced them to become child soldiers.
Wednesday 7th March 2012 is the day that everyone looked at their Facebook/Twitter feed and questioned: “Who the Hell is Joseph Kony and why does he want 30 minutes of my time?”. What we found was an emotive, stunning video that captured even the most non-political, uncharitable souls and urged them to make a stand against a war criminal. Whilst sceptics have their say on the issue, one cannot deny the awe-inspiring proof of the power of social networking that this campaign has given us. Last year we saw the full effect of social media throughout the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa. This week, Invisible Children’s video broke Youtube records for the most views in 24 hours. Whilst this campaign claims to be aimed at bringing down a cruel tyrant, one cannot help but wonder how such social media power could be exploited in the wrong hands.
If you haven’t seen the video yet, watch it below:
Jamie Fisher
