One APIA Nevada’s experiments with digital organizing in Asian American communities

Written by Marium Navid on behalf of the Cooperative Impact Lab

Special thank you to One APIA Nevada , The Cooperative Impact Lab, The Movement Cooperative, The Resilient Democracy Fund, and Way To Win.

The Problem

The APIA immigrant community is active on alternative messaging and social platforms with some groups finding more affinity to these platforms than mainstream US based apps. Many progressive organizations are not active on these other global platforms and no best practices have been established.

The challenge is finding a way for an organization to onboard onto these platforms effectively to connect with these communities. Through the Digital Innovation Fund, One APIA Nevada received a $15,000 grant, and data strategy coaching to support their digital organizing experiments.

Key Question

How can in language messaging and social platforms be used to engage APIA communities?

The Learnings

Top Takeaways: Non US based social apps are untapped spaces where progressives can begin building relationships with immigrant and APIA communities. Building legitimacy as a trusted voter education organization is an effective way to begin addressing misinformation and build relationships with groups from multiple political leanings.

Alternative Social Platforms

During the 2020 election cycle, One APIA Nevada piloted using a number of messaging and social media platforms popular with and catered to the local APIA community. The platforms used included Kakao Talk, WeChat , and LINE.

They compiled an in language explainer to give communities 4 different ways to vote and distributed these resources through the platforms in 5 different languages. They also used these digital spaces to do census work and direct people to mutual aid services amidst the pandemic.

Kakao Talk

Kakao Talk, a Korean based messaging and social app, was used to connect with the Korean community in Las Vegas. One APIA Nevada used physical newspaper ads and posted in Facebook groups to invite community members to follow them on the app and join the app (if they were not already on the platform).

They specifically placed ads in a print Korean newspaper in Las Vegas because they knew it was a commonly read publication. The other digital platform they placed ads was vegasjoa.com, a website that functions like a community bulletin board. One APIA Nevada was able to identify these advertising spaces because the staff had used the resources in their personal lives.

The following are challenges faced with Kakao Talk:

• People who were new to the platform needed more instructions on how to engage on the One APIA Nevada channel.
• The older aged individuals needed more technical training overall.
• Mass chats are not possible on the app for US phones forcing staff to send messages manually.

We Chat and LINE

We Chat and LINE were both used to engage the Chinese community in Las Vegas. One APIA Nevada had a strong relationship with the Chinese community in the area through their C3 work and were organically being recognized through direct message by app users during election season as an organization that had provided resources during the pandemic.

One APIA Nevada onboarded community members who were not on the app yet by adding supporters to chats during early voting events. One APIA Nevada was also able to recruit volunteers through the app, some of which even showed up to physical events such as ballot drop off events.

It is important to note that One APIA Nevada was able to build credibility and trust within the community because they maintained engagement both before and after election season. The organization plans to use these platforms to focus on redistricting campaigns in 2021.

Misinformation

While piloting campaigns on these platforms, One APIA Nevada noticed there was a large amount of misinformation being spread on apps like We Chat. During election season many We Chat groups were sending out snippets of Trump’s messaging around delegitimizing elections.

One APIA Nevada focused on sending the facts around how to vote in these chats instead of trying to disprove the misinformation. This focus on voter information helped build trust with groups who also leaned right.

In one case One APIA Nevada was being messaged repeatedly by Taiwanese Trump supporters (who were also first time voters) who wanted information on how to vote during the election cycle. These groups knew One APIA Nevada was a progressive organization, and still trusted them enough to get accurate voting information.

One APIA Nevada continued engagement around voting processes with these groups because their goal was to support the administration of a fair election. They also knew that when 100% of a community turns out to vote, the ratio of Democrat to Republican voters is often higher.