nfptweetup

With NFPtweetup just around the corner, I thought a great success story might inspire people to get in the digital mood and get out their tweeting thumbs. A lot of people talk about social media in terms of ROI and fundraising, but sometimes it’s worth something that you can’t put a price on.

Four days, 2.1 million signatures, 192 countries and 10 territories: Social media fights Ugandan anti-gay legislation

A social media movement has made history for Ugandan citizens, an international community of LGBT supporters and human rights activists across the world. Millions took to their keyboards and touchpads following news last week that Parliament in the Pearl of Africa were trying to re-introduce an ‘Anti-Homosexuality bill‘ which could sentence ‘offenders’ to death. Upon hearing the proposal, the global neighbourhood pulled themselves together through various social media channels and collected more than 2.1 million signatures in firm opposition to the Ugandan Parliament.

The bill was met with two powerful adversaries, AllOut, an organisation defending LGBT rights, and Avaaz, a political activism website who both set up powerful and wide-spreading campaigns through social media and other online channels. The weight behind the combined movements managed to successfully force out the genuinely threatening proposed law just four days after they launched.

Bishop Christopher Senyonjo in Uganda highlighted the importance of campaigning across the world.
“International pressure is necessary, these are issues of justice and love for other human beings … Personally, it means a lot to me to know that my brothers and sisters in the USA and Europe and other countries in Africa are in solidarity with us in opposing this bill.”

On 13th May, Avaaz posted this on their site: ‘Over 1.6 million of us signed the petition opposing the anti-gay bill, tens of thousands of us called our heads of state, and we helped make the attack on gay rights in Uganda a major international news story — and it worked.’ Similar triumph was felt from the AllOut team. ‘Over 500,000 around the world signed the petition to stop Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality bill. The international outcry was heard and Ugandan Parliament has adjourned for this session – but the fight isn’t over yet’

The success is testament not only to the power of the human spirit but also a well run campaign on a wholly suitable medium; an instantly updatable, global and straightforward mode of communication which people are already engaged with. AllOut co-founder Andre Banks attributes around 60% of their website traffic over those crucial days to Facebook and Twitter. This doesn’t even account for the huge amount of news and buzz offline or on other websites that was created thanks to the high public profile it was allowed through Facebook and Twitter. Social media has always been quite a successful medium for lobbyists and campaigners, but events this week have really shown how quick and impactful it can be in the face of injustice.

Personally, I noticed the AllOut campaign through my Twitter feed, and signed my name and email address to the bill so instantly and easily that I could’ve easily forgotten all about it had I actually ticked the ‘opt out’ box for notification emails (they’ve got me there). Having never engaged with the organisation before, I’m almost sure that I wouldn’t have had the chance to put my name to a campaign that I’m more than happy to support without hearing about how simple it was to get involved through social media. I don’t think it’s that people wouldn’t have cared about the campaign had it not been so accessible, it’s that even if they had had the opportunity to happen upon the news elsewhere, there are so many injustices that need changing, that a small clicktivist (although I’m hesitant to use that term as it’s loaded with negative connotations) task allows people to feel like they’ve really contributed – without getting lost in the ocean of tricky asks and long emotive copy that many of these equally (for the most part) worthwhile campaigns are inhabiting.

Lucy J – beautiful world.