For 24 hours on Tuesday, photos of sunny and unassigned terraces have given way to a series of black frames on Instagram. The initiative, thought of as a mark of support for mobilizations against police violence in the United States (and sometimes in France), is not the only one to be massively shared online in this context. With calls for donations, advice for demonstrators, reflection guides, social networks are transformed, during this crisis, into militant platforms. And sometimes make debate.
The famous black squares, which appeared on Tuesday, are in fact from a project of two black American women employed in the world of music, recalls the New York Times. Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang, initially wanted to push brands and Internet users to stop their usual publications to "reflect" and initiate "a productive conversation on actions in favor of the black community".
On Instagram, the idea was interpreted quite differently, with millions of publications of dark squares stamped #BlackOutTuesday or #BlackLivesMatter. Rihanna, Katy Perry, and, in France, Omar Sy or Guillaume Canet… A slew of stars quickly copied and pasted the little square, making the theme jump up in the ranking of the most “trendy” subjects on Twitter. And resulting in the publication of almost 30 million images on Instagram in just over 24 hours.
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we ain't buying shit !!! and we ain't selling shit neither !! gang gang! #BLACKOUTTUESDAY AF !!! @fenty @fentybeauty @savagexfenty 💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿
A post shared by badgalriri (@badgalriri) on Jun 1, 2020 at 10:55 pm PDT
"This is not new," analyzes Nicolas Vanderbiest, columnist specializing in social networks. “Faced with crises, we always have mobilizations. We had #JeSuisCharlie after the attack on January 7, #BringBackOurGirls after the kidnapping of high school girls in Nigeria, #OccupyWallStreet against finance… We have a lot of hashtags, which, once a year, will be quite important ”, he recalls.
"Black screens do nothing"
Despite the good intentions, the idea of black squares quickly found its detractors. First, because of Instagram's algorithm, these images quickly wiped out all other publications on the same theme - resources deemed essential for raising public awareness. But also, because, for other activists, these squares are simply not enough. "Black screens do nothing for black lives," criticizes young activist Isra Hirsi, daughter of American senator and democrat Ilhan Omar.
In response, the schoolgirl offers a list of links, titled "How to Help." Donations, contacts with political representatives, petitions ... There are many strategies, and resources are constantly circulating on celebrity profiles. The singer Billie Eilish, for example, chose to distribute to its 63 million subscribers a list of associations to which to send donations. Actress Florence Pugh, for example, suggests pots for families of victims of police violence.
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In terms of influencers, we are also working to republish ready-made guides on all themes: how to support the anti-racist cause after the crisis, what to watch and read to get better information, on which lines of thought to move forward ... objective being to go beyond the only circle of stars and activists.
Police flooded online
In this panoply of links and images also circulate mass calls to join the demonstrations which, since Tuesday, have spread in the 50 American states - and even beyond. Advice is provided here and there on Twitter to protesters. "If you plan to go demonstrate, delete any personal information on your profiles on social networks," advises activist Breya Johnson. "Before leaving, deactivate your Face ID and fingerprint readers on your phones," suggests another user.
TURN OFF YOUR LOCATION SERVICES FOR EVERY SINGLE APP: DO NOT TURN YOUR PHONE ONTO AIRPLANE MODE BECAUSE YOU MAY STILL NEED TO STAY IN CONTACT WITH FRIENDS / FAMILY. JUST REMOVE LOCATION SERVICES FROM APPS LIKE GOOGLE / SOCIAL MEDIA ETC. +
- pj ✬ (@noloveformylove) May 31, 2020In a long thread, a young artist spreads tips and tricks for demonstrating without leaving traces, such as deactivating his geolocation, coming masked, wearing clothes that are difficult to identify… Information relayed several hundreds of thousands of times.
Other initiatives are more unusual and more radical. Like these raids, organized by the community (very powerful on social networks) of fans of K-Pop (South Korean pop). In order to counter the initiative of the Dallas police, which encourages citizens to film illegal actions during demonstrations and to send the videos via one of their applications, the fans simply had the idea of ... Sending them hundreds of montages of their favorite stars dancing. Embarrassed, the Dallas police had to announce this Sunday that the application was facing a "temporary malfunction", without saying if it was due to the famous raids by K-pop fans.
From the Internet to the street
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, police asked people to use a hashtag, #Calminkirkland, to tag videos of the violence and identify the triggers of the protests. The answer? Hundreds of images and videos of South Korean dancers flooding Twitter. This Wednesday, the fans - of all nationalities, including French - continued their fight, targeting, this time, the movements defending the American police and, more generally, Donald Trump.
According to specialist Nicolas Vanderbiest, these commitments, because they are better organized and linked to already existing structures, have every chance of materializing on the ground, via demonstrations, for example.
“The organizers (activists active online and in the field) understood that these movements had to be transformed in real life to have even more visibility. This is what happened with the Justice For Adama demonstrations on Tuesday evening, which still had a resonance this Wednesday morning online, ”he analyzes. Sometimes there is only one step between online and street protests. And vice versa.