argued to be relevant and appropriate in its format , concerning its aims and objectives .
EFFECTIVENESS : The UN Free & Equal campaign has been extremely effective in achieving its objective of advocating equality for and anti-discrimination against the LGBTI community both at national and global levels . In 2020 , UN Free & Equal ran 11 national campaigns and two flagship thematic campaigns , produced “ 137 new assets , including two new videos , 122 macros and 13 GIFs '' ( United Nations Human Right Office , 2020 , pp . 16 ), all conveying messages supporting LGBTI equality and rejecting stigma . The launching of multiple well-produced tools and videos alongside the utilisation of social media to broadcast these globally has resulted in resources that have been “ seen by 15.4 million people '', alongside “ 3.6 million interactions with these posts '' with Twitter alone reaching over 5 million views ( United Nations Human Right Office , 2020 , pp . 4-7 ). As Barry ( 2016 , pp . 36-38 ) claimed , in the digital age , the internet plays a vital role that allows for easier social connection across international borders than ever before . Through the use of a wideranging social media strategy , the UN Free & Equal campaign has been distributed to a multitude of countries , expanding the mobilisation potential to a global scale . Since all multimedia products are available in “ Arabic , Chinese , English , French , Russian , Spanish , and Portuguese '' ( United Nations Human Rights Office , 2020 , pp . 9 ), this has allowed the sharing of information in a way that is accessible to multiple nations .
Additionally , depending on the different problems each region confronted , the 11 national campaigns developed specific and varied advocacy strategies associated with the LGBTI community tailored to the needs of local audiences , such as the campaign in Costa Rica which mainly focused on reinforcing public support for positive legislative and policy revolution opposed to the campaign in Albania concentrated on helping young LGBTI people who had been rejected by their family communities to be accepted again ( United Nations Human Right Office , 2020 , pp . 20-25 ). Motivating society to engage is a significant criterion for the effectiveness of a campaign ( Creamer et al ., 2017 ); the UN Free & Equal campaign has successfully achieved this through marking commemoration days such as International Day Against Homophobia as well as inviting celebrities to participate in promoting anti-stigma videos to provoke public discussion about LGBT people , enabling plural effective participation ( Papacharissi , 2015 ) to raise awareness about the rights of LGBTI people and promote acceptance effectively .
EFFICIENCY : As a result of utilising social media platforms , the expenses of the campaign were significantly lower than other forms of action due to the spread of digital media reducing “ resource costs and time spent on organisational and information sharing activities ” ( Knox , 2018 , pp . 62 ). Therefore , this campaign can be considered cost-effective due to the predominantly free use of social media as its main resource . Furthermore , despite the Covid- 19 pandemic , 11 countries had full-scale national campaigns active in 2020 , addressing the prevalent LGBTI inequalities / issues in each state ( United Nations Human Rights office of the high commissioner , 2020 , p19 ). This online presence rather than physical , in-person presence was effective for this reason as , despite strict Covid- 19 restrictions , information and help was still being rolled out .
However , one issue that arose with the efficiency of this technique was discovered through the
AMIE TAYLOR , TINGTING PAN & THEA HALE
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