OVERVIEW
‘Hashtag Memory Activism’
Online Commemorations
and Online Memory
Activism
Dr. Orli Fridman
Center for Comparative
Conflict Studies (CFCCS)
Singidunum University
I
n these times of new media ecologies and hyperconnectivity, hashtags have become an
integral part of our everyday communication. The hashtag symbol (#) is often used as a
way of marking a conversation on social media platforms. Hashtags can function like a
filing or retrieval system when looking for updated news on unfolding events.
In recent studies of digital protests and digital activism, attention has been given
to the hashtag symbol, suggesting that the hashtag itself can become a field site (Bonilla
and Rosa, 2015). Hashtag activism emerged as an important category of analysis, since
online social platforms now function as sites of activism for various issues worldwide.
Among some of the most prominent current examples are hashtags such as #MeToo, in
the fight for gender equality, and #BlackLivesMatter, in the struggle for racial justice.
Hashtag activism, as opposed to routine hashtags, has a recognisable narrative form with
a beginning, a crisis/conflict, and an end (Yang 2016). In many influential cases of hashtag
activism, hashtags appear in the form of complete sentences rather than single words, as in
the cases of #JeNeSuisPasCharlie, #MuslimsAreNotTerrorists, and others.
In the new digital ecology of participatory media, digital media users take a stand,
interact, show their disagreements, and condemn or support daily occurrences, politicians’
statements, and recent news. They rapidly produce content, communicate back, share, like,
tweet, and retweet. A review of some prominent Balkan-generated hashtags in 2019 reveals this
dynamic. To mention only a few: #literallyjustemergedfromthewoods appeared in May 2019
in the communications of many digital media users from Kosovo and the Kosovar Albanian
diaspora following a comment made by Serbian PM Ana Brnabić, who referred to Kosovo’s
leaders as people who “literally just came out of the woods.” Over the next days, hundreds of
users uploaded and posted their images, with comments and the hashtag itself, which marked
the discussion and the reactions to the PM’s statement (see image 1). Similarly, in reaction
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Observing Memories
ISSUE 3