How Social Media React to #BlackLivesMatter Movement
As #BlackLivesMatter ongoing protests being held across the U.S. and now Europe, social media platforms have also been expressing their support to the movement.
The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag on Instagram is growing by each day, and more and more people join the protest on social media to express the concerns and thoughts on the cause.
Here’s how major social media platforms respond to the case.
Instagram and Facebook have switched all of their official profiles, including Creators, Shop, Instagram for Business, Design, and an official account of the head of Instagram Adam Mosseri to black and white colours in support, while Instagram posted this update:
Moreover, Instagram internal spam filters have incorrectly limited some #BlackLivesMatter posts. After users’ complaints that Instagram restricts their posts because they used the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, the platform explained it limits the posts, but the reason for such is that Instagrammers started massively using the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, which made Instagram inaccurately consider such a flow as spam.
Twitter has offered information, many tips and resources designed to help people understand the situation and the whole movement better. Thus Twitter wants to let users realise their part in this and make the world a better place.
Some Twitter users also recommend using the #BlackLivesMattter or #BlackOutTuesday hashtags to discuss the issue, not the authentic #BlackLivesMatter, because there are too many tweets with the second one. So it’s easy to miss some important information tagged with the official #BlackLivesMatter hashtag as relevant tweets are quickly pushing down.
TikTok
The short-video and lip-syncing app TikTok has also supported the movement. The platform has posted an update touching the bug which resulted in videos with the #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd hashtags receiving 0 views.
TikTok representatives claimed this was a technical issue, and generally, videos with these hashtags garnered billions of views. This bug made some users think that TikTok was trying to censor the discussion.
YouTube
YouTube has also added its support on Twitter and changed all their accounts’ social media logos to the black and white colours. Yet, the design of the app and the official YouTube website haven’t changed.
YouTube has also pledged $1 million in funding to support organizations seeking to address injustice.
Pinterest and Snapchat
These two social media platforms expressed their support in addresses on social media. Snapchat has published the letter addressing their users and company members. For two weeks now, Snapchat has been educational videos dedicated to the situation on their social accounts.
Pinterest has expressed their commitment to taking action and exact steps the platform is taking to eliminate injustice, racism, and elevating support, educational information and diversity. Pinterest has also donated $500,000 to organisations committed to racial justice and promoting tolerance, $750,000 in paid media to organisations that support racial justice and invested $250,000 to help rebuild local businesses damaged in the protests.
Not exactly a social media platform, Reddit has also joined the movement and changed its logo to the colours of it and published a letter by its CEO, Steve Huffman, saying that they ‘do not tolerate hate, racism, and violence, and while we have work to do to fight these on our platform, our values are clear.’
Yet, former Reddit CEO Ellen K. Pao criticised Reddit current management for not shutting down the r/The_Donald subreddit nurturing white supremacy and racism.
