Have you come across the term ‘hashtag activism’? We often use hashtags to give greater visibility to our posts on social media. But have you ever wondered what role has hashtag played in social justice movements?
In this article, I attempt to examine the role of the #StopHazaraGenocide on X (formerly known as Twitter) in raising awareness about the plight of the Hazara people. But delving into that, let us have a basic understanding of what ‘hashtag’ is and what ‘hashtag activism’ means.
The idea of using the pound symbol (#) to tag posts on social media was first raised in 2007 (Nenoff, 2020, p. 1330). According to Nenoff (2020. p. 1331), hashtags were meant to connect people who were interested in discussing a similar topic. In 2009, after Twitter officially introduced hashtag, it quickly became an integral part of social media platforms. Hashtag activism, presumed to have been coined during the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States in 2011 (Nenoff, 2020, p. 1332), goes beyond the conventional definition of hashtag which limits it to just a searchable tag (Ames & McDuffie, 2023, p. 4). When large numbers of users post under a particular hashtag to demand change, that is generally referred to as hashtag or digital activism (Guo & Liu, 2022). In other words, social media platforms are the modern-day ‘streets’ for activists. Hashtag activism is a form of organised “public activity” that puts forward a collective claim to demand change from the authorities (Ames & McDuffie, 2023, p. 4).
An Australian Hazara man holding #StopHazaraGenocide sign at a rally in Melbourne, November 2021. Photo by Sam Anwari.This article specifically focuses on #StopHazaraGenocide which started in response to the targeted killing of the Hazaras in Afghanistan on Twitter (now X). On 8 May 2021, powerful explosions outside a high school in the overpopulated Hazara neighborhood of Western Kabul killed at least 90 people, mostly teenage girls (Gibbons-Neff & Rahim, 2021). This was the latest of a series of systematic attacks against the Hazara population of Afghanistan (Hakimi, 2023, p. 225). It drew widespread international condemnation, including from the United Nations Secretary-General (Adili, 2022). Shaken and horrified by the scale of the attack, Hazara activists around the globe launched the #StopHazaraGenocide campaign (Adili, 2022). On 30 September 2022, another attack targeting Hazara students preparing for the national university entrance exam killed at least 53 people, 46 of them teenage girls. The Stop Hazara Genocide hashtag went viral again, reaching more than eight million mentions in less than two weeks after the deadly September attack (Nishat et al., 2022).
Analysing the accomplishments of #BlackLivesMatter campaign, Ames and McDuffie (2023, p. 3-4) argued that the hashtag was “pivotal” in raising awareness about the current and historical injustices that people of color had faced in the United States. It can be argued that the Stop Hazara Genocide hashtag along with simultaneous demonstrations in many cities around the world (Nishat et al., 2022), including in Australia, have definitely raised awareness about the fate of Hazara people in Afghanistan. As a result of the Stop Hazara Genocide hashtag activism, more people around the world, including those in positions of power, have become aware of the injustices that Hazara people have been facing in Afghanistan.
Video created by Sam Anwari using Canva and information from Guo and Liu (2022) and Nenoff (2020).For example, following the resurgence of the Stop Hazara Genocide hashtag in October 2022, the City of Greater Dandenong Council in Melbourne which is home to around 12,000 Hazaras formally recognised the systematic killing of Hazaras in Afghanistan as ‘genocide’ (Greater Dandenong City Council, 2022).
Six months after the September 2022 attack, a group of Australian politicians, including senior government figures, launched the Parliamentary Friends of the Hazara group. Federal Labor politician Dr Andrew Charlton who chairs the group called it the beginning of “a new phase in the fight for greater recognition of Hazara oppression and persecution” (Anwari, 2023).
Infographic made by Sam Anwari using template created by Warung Sila on Canva, and information from Nenoff (2020)In their examination of tweets related to Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate hashtags in the United States, Guo and Liu (2022, p. 6) identified similarities between what they called “salient topics” under the two campaigns. It showed participants in both campaigns used the opportunity to not only signify the recent violence against black and Asian Americans but also the historic racism and violence suffered by the two communities. Since facing a “pogrom” in the late 19th century that resulted in the massacre, enslavement, and forced exile of approximately 62 percent of the Hazara population in Afghanistan, the ethnic group has endured constant mass atrocities throughout the 20th and 21st centuries (Hakimi, 2023, p. 22). For example, according to Hakimi (2023, p. 25) between January 2017 and June 2021, the United Nations had documented 67 target killings of the Hazara, resulting in 2458 civilian casualties, including 756 deaths and 1702 injuries. In this case, participants of the Stop Hazara Genocide campaign utilised the trending hashtag to not only raise awareness about the current situation of Hazaras under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan but also point to the historical antecedents that have led to the current atrocities.
References
Adili, A. Y. (2022, Jan 17). A Community Under Attack: How successive governments failed west Kabul and the Hazaras who live there. Afghanistan Analysts Network. https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/en/reports/war-and-peace/a-community-under-attack-how-successive-governments-failed-west-kabul-and-the-hazaras-who-live-there/
Ames, M., & McDuffie, K. (2023). Introduction: Redefining Hashtag Activism. In Ames, M., & McDuffie, K. (Eds). Hashtag activism interrogated and embodied: case studies on social justice movements. Utah State University Press.
Anwari, S. (2023, March 8). ‘Real inclusion’: Australian politicians unite to form ‘Friends of Hazara’ group. SBS Dari. https://www.sbs.com.au/language/dari/en/article/real-inclusion-australian-politicians-unite-to-form-friends-of-hazara-group/k7zd4mp86
Gibbon-Neff, T., & Rahim, N. (2021, May 8). Bombing Outside Afghan School Kills at Least 90, With Girls as Targets. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/world/asia/bombing-school-afghanistan.html
Greater Dandenong City Council. (2022, October 31). Statement from the Mayor – Recognising the Ongoing Hazara Genocide in Afghanistan. https://www.greaterdandenong.vic.gov.au/contact-us/news-and-media/statement-mayor-recognising-ongoing-hazara-genocide-afghanistan
Guo, J., & Liu, S. (2022). From #BlackLivesMatter to #StopAsianHate: Examining Network Agenda-Setting Effects of Hashtag Activism on Twitter. Social Media + Society, 8(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221146182
Hakimi, M. J. (2022). The Genocide of Hazaras. Virginia Journal of International Law Online. Vol. 63. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4262465
Nishat, Z., Shelley, J., & Karimi, S. (2022, October 12). The People of Afghanistan Stand Together in Solidarity to #StopHazaraGenocide. Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. https://www.institute.global/insights/geopolitics-and-security/people-afghanistan-stand-together-solidarity-stophazaragenocide
Featured image source:
Photo made by Sam Anwari using Urupong from Getty Images Pro’s photo on Canva.
Sam Anwari 
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