Why Social Media Platforms Are so Important for “No China Extradition”?
“No China Extradition” demonstrations in Hong Kong have continued for over two months. This social movement is the biggest since the Umbrella Movement in 2014, or even in the contemporary Hong Kong society. The conflicts among different stakeholders are getting grim. Even though we are not sure whether this social movement will be successful, after 100 million Hongkongers demonstrated and were followed by 200 million Hongkongers the following week, one thing is for sure: social media platforms have played a key role in this movement.
In previous boycotts, most of the union leaders and activists would use the social media platform to manipulate the strikes, such as Occupy Nigeria in 2012. They used their personal social media accounts to facilitated and stimulated the movement on those platforms, in-order-to raise public awareness and increase public participation. In contrast, the large-scaled of social movement in Hong Kong recently, there were no major organisation or leader has taken charge of the entire social movement, but there are numerous groups and residents from different social circles coordinating and participating voluntarily.
Social Media Platforms as an Information Hub
Freedom of speech is a fundamental right in a democratic society, which means citizens all have the right to express their opinions. Social media platforms have amplified some aspects associated with freedom of speech. “Social media are a general category of channels and applications that highlight collaboration and working together to create and distribute content.” In the “No China Extradition” protests, social media platforms act as a hub to collect and spread the information about the protesters’ needs.
Social media platforms empower their users to upload and share information. They would spread the news about the strikes and the non-cooperation through various digital media organisations’ channels, such as 100 Most and HK01, to increase both local and international awareness. These media channels report the latest information on the protests via live stream and posts. This way, Hong Kong residents can understand what is happening outside and what the government will do to deal with this situation so that they can decide whether they should keep participating in the movement or not.
Besides, social media platforms are a benefit for gathering people who share the same thoughts and letting them communicate in a safe situation since these platforms have several features and privacy to help the protesters remain anonymous. For example, using hashtags on the social platform, such as #fightforHK, #Nochinaextradition, is an easy and effective way of uniting the protesters, and collecting useful information so that they can arrange and coordinate various strikes or political movements at home and abroad..
Social Media Platforms as a Motivator
“Social networking sites can assemble all different people, with varying backgrounds together.” Social media platforms have developed the concept of ‘‘political SNS use,’’ which is using a social networking site for explicitly political purposes, like displaying a political preference on their profile page, or becoming a ‘‘fan’’ of a politician. During the protest, many Hong Kong people changed their profile pictures into wilted or bloodied bauhinia flowers or black colour to express solidarity with protesters in Hong Kong, which Facebook has also offered different kinds of filters for users to change in order to express their political stance.
Shareability and spreadability are the main features for social media platforms, and these characteristics can be used to motivate and facilitate more people to participate in the demonstration. For most of the social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and telegram, allow users and channels to share propaganda on the platforms with no restriction or censorship. During these two months, there were different kinds of creative contents have been uploaded and share to the worldwide through those social platforms, such as videos and posters.
We Are Hong-kongers, an original song, which is created by a group of Hong Kong netizens in August 2019. It has received nearly 900000 views within 3 months on YouTube, and it has shared to different social networking sites, for instance, Facebook and Instagram. It has become one of the most representative songs for the “No China Extradition” demonstrations. The lyrics and video contents are encouraging people to support and participate in the movement. Those contents are sentimental and motivational, it is trying to construct an atmosphere that “Hong Kong is our home and this is our responsibility to protect it.”
Therefore, it could stimulate the Hong Kong residents’ emotions and reinforce the self-identities for Hong Kongers. Also, it could influence partial Hong Kong people’s political behaviours and attitudes due to those sentimental contents. For example, some users might become a protester or turn to support the demonstration after he/she viewed those videos and pictures. Therefore, social media platforms have facilitated social movement.
In contemporary society, social media platforms are getting more important and significant roles in demonstrations and social movements, we need them to coordinate, communicate and cooperate with others. It is a sort of new political phenomenon worldwide. Although using these platforms are convenient for us to organise and express our demands, we still need to be aware of whether the information we received is actual or not.
