'Social Media Activism' by Roger Yates

As part of the two-day Global Vegfest event organised by VegfestUK in September, 2021, I chaired a panel discussion on “social media activism” with a group of activists.

These activists were Nella from Greece, Rob from Scotland, and Jennifer and Shane from Ireland, who, in the main, are using TikTok but also other social media platforms as forms of vegan education.

According to Influencer Marketing Hub, TikTok does not issue many public statistics about the platform, although it is estimated that it has roughly 1 billion monthly users. It is accessible in more than 150 countries in more than 70 languages and, in 2020, was the most popular downloaded application in the world. TikTok users are said to spend over 14 hours on the site every month. So, one of the main reasons for animal activists using TikTok is that they believe it enables them to escape “the vegan bubble” (see previous article ‘The Clock is TikTokking’). This is one of the issues the Global Vegfest panel discussed. Once a user gets more than 1000 “followers,” they can supplement the usual 1-3 minute videos with livestreams on the platform. Rob and Jennifer often “go live” on TikTok. While many TikTokkers show themselves on their lives, answering written questions in a “chat” area on screen, or inviting people on to talk, Rob and Jennifer specialise in showing on the screen slogans, magazine pages, and vegan leaflets in order to bring in an audience. There is much that is a mystery on TikTok, so each appearance on the platform produces a different engagement result. For example, the panellist’s lives have created audiences ranging from around 100 people to as many as 135,000. In an ironic way, creating a large audience on TikTok can create a problem in the sense that the on-screen chat moves so quickly that it is hard and sometimes impossible to catch the questions and, in that circumstance, it doesn’t take long before there are accusations that questions are being ignored. It will not be a surprise to anyone reading this to learn that many comments consist of little else than animal flesh emojis, insults, and insincere questions about protein and the sentience of plants.

However, many people are clearly engaging in order to learn about vegan animal rights. Many serious questions are asked and answered, and some challenging issues are raised, such as “crop deaths” and what a future vegan world would look like. Some of the panel report that people have made contact to say that their content has encouraged them to check out vegan philosophy and to begin to live vegan.

many people are clearly engaging in order to learn about vegan animal rights. Many serious questions are asked and answered, and some challenging issues are raised, such as “crop deaths” and what a future vegan world would look like.

Outside of the wonderful world of TikTok, Nella talked about the utility that social media provided during the recent devastating fires in Greece. Nella is one of the hosts of the weekly Animal Rights Show and she regularly updated us on this situation while the fires raged. Many other animals had been abandoned and yet not released as the humans had panicked and fled, so animals found themselves locked into compounds and chained up in the areas affected by fire. Social media turned out to be a vital tool in co-ordinating rescue missions, and to alerting the mass media and general public to the plight of the animals in fire zones.

Thumbnail from 'Social Media Activism' panel that took place at Global Vegfest 1, on Sunday 19th September 2021 (available on www.vegfest.co.uk and www.youtube.com/vegfestuktv)

So, what can be the downside of social media activism? Shane argued that self care issues are crucial to protect one’s mental health. We all agreed that social media can be a toxic place, whether only animal advocates are involved or not. The online arena is an interesting advocacy tool but probably not best described as a diplomatic space, or a space where diplomacy and kindness comes easy. I made the oft-repeated point that people simply would not behave across a table in the way that they do online. This is a communication issue yet to be resolved in the animal advocacy movement but one that can have serious consequences. I’m always talking about “Tom Regan’s revolving door.” Our greatest rights-based philosopher, author of The Case for Animal Rights, was long concerned that we as a movement seem to often fail in retaining members much more than we do in gaining them in the first place. People’s experiences interacting with other movement members could well be one of the factors that explain why we lose some people from the cause.

In conclusion, social media activism, like most other things, raises pros and cons. The internet in general is a remarkable communication tool, affording animal activists instant and global reach to others. As Nella suggested, it can be used to galvanise support and to co-ordinate action. However, humans are social animals and even video conferencing does not allow for the usual reading of body language and nuances that occur in face-to-face communication. Pros and cons or not, one thing we can all say is that social media activism is here to stay.

Follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/vegfestuk) for more updates as Global Vegfest 2 approaches on 18th & 19th December 2021!