Slacktivism, or “click activism”, is often mocked for the low involvement it requires.

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  • With the growing weight of social networks and the emergence of new platforms, online activism has grown in recent years, and has taken new forms.

  • In the third part of this series, “20 Minutes” focuses on “slacktivism”, or how to campaign “in one click” from your sofa.

  • “It is just as legitimate a form of activism as any other.

    It's like a person distributing flyers in the street ”, judge Tristan Mendès-France, associate lecturer at the University of Paris Diderot, specialist in digital cultures.

Those who surf on social networks could not have missed the many selfies of black and white women posted this summer on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, accompanied by the hashtag #ChallengeAccepted.

Or these countless black squares published on social networks last June by stars

and anonymous people in support of the #BlackLivesMatter anti-racist protests.

This form of online activism has a name, “slacktivism”.

A pejorative term derived from the words “slacker” and “activism”, which refers to online engagement that requires little effort.

Post a photo showing a raised fist in support of demonstrations against police violence, replace their profile photo with a blue background to show their support for the Uyghur people, add a filter using the colors of a flag after an attack, or even quite simply liking or sharing an article is considered slacktivism, or “click activism” in French.

"Likes on Facebook, retweets on Twitter or signatures on petition platforms correspond to very light forms of participation, where an opinion can be expressed in one click", analysis Romain Badouard, researcher in information sciences and lecturer at Panthéon Assas University, which has just published

 Les nouvelles lois du Web

 with éditions du Seuil.

The #ChallengeAccepted has generated over 6 million photos on Instagram and more with what is circulating on Facebook and Twitter.

A supportive gesture, of course, but also a nice demonstration of "slacktivism" and learning for facial recognition.

https://t.co/QJfLhV8QU1 pic.twitter.com/NZhwHFHXvl

- Bruno Guglielminetti (@Guglielminetti) August 1, 2020

A very often criticized “weak” activism

There are many who criticize this form of activism which achieves nothing except self-promotion.

Slacktivism, also referred to by the terms “performative activism”, is indeed often mocked for the low involvement it requires.

A Twitter user was indignant that more than 22 million black photos were published during #BlackOutTuesday on Instagram, but that the petition demanding justice for George Floyd [a black man who died of suffocation during his arrest by the police of Minneapolis last May] collected half the number of signatures.

For some, slacktivism is just a way to appease one's conscience without having to really commit.

It would not lead to real change on the ground, and would oversimplify complex problems.

“This form of activism, made possible through social media, is not new.

But in recent months, slacktivism has taken on more and more importance, it is a practice that has become widespread and whose impact is now considerable ”, underlines Baptiste Kotras, researcher in digital sociology at Lisis. (Interdisciplinary research laboratory dedicated to the study of sciences and innovations in societies) of the University of Paris-Est.

“Each social movement must today have a digital existence.

And slacktivism makes it possible to coordinate and recruit new supporters, ”explains the researcher.

22 million + black squares yet not even 12 million signatures for George Floyd.

are you seeing the problem here pic.twitter.com/YcMLvxF2mU

- zach (@xyzachh) June 2, 2020

"Make a cause visible to millions of people"

Despite what its detractors say, slacktivism would therefore have a real utility today.

"It does not necessarily imply a strong investment, like going to demonstrate in the street, but it is a way like any other to be militant.

In particular, it makes it possible to give visibility to a cause that would never have obtained so many audiences, ”adds Baptiste Kotras.

“It is just as legitimate a form of activism as any other.

It's like a person handing out flyers in the street.

The entire economy of online information on social platforms today is based on this "light" activism, ”also judges Tristan Mendès-France, associate lecturer at the University of Paris Diderot, specialist in digital cultures.

For many activists, slacktivism offers a real strike force.

"The hashtag #UberCestOver, which I launched last year following sexual assaults committed by Uber drivers, has, through its virality, made a concrete difference," admits feminist activist Anna Toumazoff.

“By retweeting a simple hashtag, you can advance a cause.

This form of activism is therefore essential today.

And it's also a way of including people who are sometimes put aside and who, through this activism, can express themselves, ”adds the influencer.

The "I like" and "share" tools of social networks are "a vector of inclusion for people on the fringes of public debate, especially those who have a poor command of writing," also explains researcher Romain Badouard

.

For others, if slacktivism will never replace grassroots activism, it is preferable to inaction.

“Even if an opinion cannot be directly changed by an image, by dint of seeing photos and hashtags, we normalize the problem,” explains anti-racist and feminist activist Rokhaya Diallo.

“Because, despite everything, it takes time.

For the BlackOutTuesday movement, we had to find the photo, put a hashtag, publish it.

It might take three minutes, but it's better than nothing.

And if we add up the three minutes spent by each person doing it, it becomes enormous, ”explained the essayist on BFMTV.

A real impact on mobilization?

Slacktivism is therefore not just a simple “sofa activism”.

This is also suggested by a study published in the journal 

Plos One

 in 2015. American researchers were interested in the impact of content relayed on Twitter during the “Occupy Wall Street” movement in the United States in 2011 (aimed at denounce social and economic inequalities) and the 2013 demonstrations in Istanbul (against the destruction of Taksim Gezi Park).

According to their findings, people who engage in slacktivism are key to increasing the reach of protest messages.

"Those who just retweeted a message once created virtual content at levels comparable to those who participated in the protests," the researchers concluded.

“We often tend to focus on the digital part of the mobilization, but in the case of the #BlackLivesMater movement for example, there was a very strong link between online engagement and demonstrations.

Digital mobilization is increasingly taking a physical form, "adds sociologist Baptiste Kotras, who recalls that" the hashtag #MeToo sparked a global movement, and that Facebook groups were the first meeting place for the movement of "yellow vests" ".

The last major societal mobilizations first had “an online existence.

And they were popularized through slacktivism.

It is a way of expressing oneself as a citizen, which is set to develop even more in the coming years, ”estimates digital culture specialist Tristan Mendès-France.

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# UberCestOver… The hashtag denouncing sexual assaults by Uber drivers

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