White Noise and Black Boxes: Social Justice Discourses and Social Media Practices

Abstract:Social media has long been a powerful tool for marginalized individuals to connect and form communities. Yet the digital tools used to facilitate these modes of communication, including the hashtag, can also be overpowered by misuse from users outside of these communities. This essay analyzes recent efforts by people of colour in Germany and the US to curate digital spaces by creating and utilizing hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeTwo that center their voices, while also discussing appropriation and right-wing responses to progressive social justice activism that threaten the hashtag’s ability to make meaningful content available to the users who need it.