Investigating @SudanMealProject’s attempt at hijacking attention from a real crisis
A Social Media Hoax Investigating @SudanMealProject’s attempt at hijacking attention from a real crisis Throughout human history, progress has been driven by people inspired to champion a cause, people who organized their communities to fight injustice, to embrace new ideas, and to stand up for those without a voice.
Our former leaders built social movements by bringing together people with shared interests, creating a common identity through dialogue, building capacity by distributing responsibility to as many people as possible, and acting collectively to exercise influence with the belief that we can create a better future; but none of this was easy. Unlike our predecessors, today, we have the internet which has eliminated spatial boundaries and allowed individuals in different corners of the world to connect at the swipe of a finger. As a result, people have begun sharing stories and discussing issues impacting them and their communities. Therefore, today, someone even from the remotest parts of the world can heard just through a few likes, retweets, or shares. Activism has never been so effortless, and it’s all thanks to social media.
In our current age of tweeting #letschangetheworld without so much as stepping foot towards an actual protest, I think it’s important to understand slacktivism better. Slacktivism (1) could be described as doing the bare minimum to feel like you’re making a difference such as simply liking, sharing, or retweeting a post but not translating those intentions into actions that truly make the world a better place. So, this raises an important question: How effective are social media protests? Well, the answer’s complicated so let’s get straight to it.
At first glance, it’s hard to believe that social media has become little else than a virtue signaling platform. This criticism took off when thousands of Instagram users began following accounts that claimed “to provide one meal to starving Sudanese children” for every person who followed and shared the post on their story in June 2019. @SudanMealProject, the first account to claim it was helping people in Sudan, attracted over 400K followers and about 1.6 million likes on its post in about a week.
After a few celebrities shared @SudanMealProject’s post on their stories and made their profile’s display image blue to highlight their support for Sudan, the rest of social media took notice, and soon everyone’s display exhibited the color blue and Instagram story revealed the same message.
This account made Instagram users believe that simply reposting and sharing a post on their stories would save the lives of countless struggling Sudanese children. However, these reposts were nothing but a hollow gesture for everyone to feel good and proud of the insignificant contributions they were making, as though the world was about to become better just because they took out a few seconds off their busy schedule and posted an infographic on their story.
A research paper from the Journal of Consumer research (2) suggested that the more socially observable a civic act is (social media likes or shares), the less likely you are to contribute anything greater to a cause. This is because the act in itself is scratching that desire to be viewed by your community as proactive, what the study termed “impression management”, so it halts any motivation to assist the cause any further. Hence, slacktivism becomes a low effort, low-risk way of achieving a good impression. Conversely, the more private the initial act, such as emailing your congressman, the more likely you will go on to contribute in a more meaningful way. The reasoning is that you’ve taken the time to align yourself and your identity with this social movement and therefore you will seek to further act consistently in line with your own behavior.
Moving ahead, this incident also brings to light how misinformation about important issues can spread very rapidly on the internet just through social media slacktivism. For instance, one of @SudanMealProject’s post asserted that (3) “more than six million people need urgent food assistance” and “near-famine conditions are predicted in four of Sudan’s states”. Well, these statements were false and reflected the conditions solely in South Sudan, an independent country since 2011. This highlights how slacktivism has fostered a culture where misinformation is openly circulated on social media just because some people wish to show others how they’re working towards changing society, while in reality, all they want is likes, shares, and some internet clout.
As @SudanMealProject continued posting about conditions in Sudan, some of its followers realized that something was sketchy when they noticed that @SudanMealProject did not reveal how it would gather the funds for this cause and through which non-profits it would disperse them to families in Sudan. This is seen in their response to @sohini_niyogi’s comment asking for evidence regarding their donations (image 3). Thereafter, people got even more suspicious when the account posted a screenshot of other fake accounts with similar names and requested its followers to not follow them (image 4). Furthermore, several followers began realizing if @SudanMealProject had the means to donate meals to Sudanese civilians, then why didn’t they just do it, and how would a simple like or share actually help in making that happen.
Finally, everyone understood that this account was nothing more than a call for followers, likes, and shares thinly veiled by the very real need that people suffering in Sudan had when someone posted a screenshot of their conversation with the owner of @SudanMealProject (image 5). Instagram soon removed the @SudanMealProject from their platform once they realized that the account had been violating its policies.
Sadly, the fact that hundreds of thousands of people reposted @SudanMealProject’s post without fact-checking it also suggests how social media has produced a culture where misinformation spreads rapidly and people are willing to believe everything, they are shown without questioning its accuracy since they want to be seen as proactive online without taking any real action offline.
These are smaller problems when compared to how social networking giants like Instagram are facilitating the growth of this culture which negatively influences real activism since people are less likely to carry out actions that truly contribute to positive social change. Instagram, in fact, encourages you to share your posts on your story, but not because they support activism, but rather because doing this better allows their algorithm to curate ads for your daily Instagram feed. Hence, tackling misinformation is not a priority for companies such as Instagram.
However, slacktivism does have a benefit and it’s only ever seen when it amasses enough attention. Public opinion is very significant and is constantly evolving. It’s influenced by the hivemind of slacktivists using social media and it’s through this immense number of slacktivists that change can come about. This is the reason why awareness is always being used as a goal instead of a clear concrete solution. This spreading of ideas on social media through slacktivists on the periphery, although not useful on its own, helps disseminate information to people who will do something useful. For example, the fact that so many people shared @SudanMealProject’s post, including celebrities such as Christi Lukasiak and Ayesha Omar (image 6), eventually caused this issue to garner attention from the media which further helped in raising awareness and people lending a hand by donating money to existing funding pages that were truly helping people in Sudan.
Furthermore, at the time, military rulers had completely shut down internet access in Sudan and this meant that pro-democracy activists within the nation had nearly no contact with the outside world. Hence, the kind of help people in Sudan needed was that of political intervention and this could only be achieved if slacktivists from all over the world spread awareness until someone capable of enforcing change was made cognizant of this issue. The promotion of this cause by @SudanMealProject indirectly helped in achieving an understanding that we needed to make a change, although it wasn’t their primary intention.
In essence, although social media slacktivism may have its perks, the costs outweigh the benefits. This is because, today, many mistake activism for action. For any change which needs time and political reform to take place, persistence is essential which in turn needs an on-the-ground presence. For instance, we might be able to hashtag an injustice, but it won’t put as much pressure on policymakers as protesting on the streets. This is because policymakers can ignore online protests, not offline ones. Clearly, social media has proven to be a valuable asset, but slacktivism isn’t the best we can do, it’s the least we could do; after all, it only takes a click.
A Social Media Hoax Written by Shawn Chauhan
References:
1. “Slacktivism”. Dictionary.Cambridge.Org, 2021, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/slacktivism. Accessed 27 Feb 2021.
2. Kristofferson, Kirk et al. “The Nature Of Slacktivism: How The Social Observability Of An Initial Act Of Token Support Affects Subsequent Prosocial Action”. Journal Of Consumer Research, vol 40, no. 6, 2013, pp. 1149-1166. Oxford University Press (OUP), doi:10.1086/674137. Accessed 27 Feb 2021.
3. Lorenz, Taylor. “Sudan And The Instagram Tragedy Hustle”. The Atlantic, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/06/instagrammers-are exploiting-sudan-crisis/591808/. Accessed 27 Feb 2021.
4. “What Is Slacktivism And How It Affects Your Teen – America Offline”. America Offline, 2019, https://americaoffline.info/what-is-slacktivism-and-how-it-affects-your teen/. Accessed 27 Feb 2021.
5. “Fake Social Media Charity Accounts Take Advantage Of Sudan’S Crisis”. Fake Social Media Charity Accounts Take Advantage Of Sudan’S Crisis, 2021, https://www.trtworld.com/europe/fake-social-media-charity-accounts-take-advantage of-sudan-s-crisis-27554. Accessed 27 Feb 2021.
6. “Blue For Sudan: Instagram ‘Sympathy Scammers’ Exploit Support For Protesters”. BBC News, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-48791920. Accessed 27 Feb 2021.
