movement ’ s allegations , given the reach of its tweets ( Theocharis et . al ., 2017 , as cited in , Lozano-Díaz & Fernández- Prados , 2022 , p . 450 ). Thus , social media also provide a space for public and active confrontation and participation .
Following this general overview of the Fridays for Future movement ’ s utilization of social media and its underlying role , the focus now shifts to examining specific examples and campaigns demonstrating how the movementleveraged various socialmedia platforms . Within this scope of this paper , the analysis focuses on examples from the platforms Instagram and Twitter .
The first example is the Twitter platform ; here , the function of tweets is particularly prominent , serving as a text-based means for quick exchanges within the community , as well as between politicians and journalists . These tweets are commonly accompanied by hashtags - words or phrases precededby the pound sign (#) – which serve to categorize content . This categorization facilitates its discoverability by others interested in that topic . Clicking on these hashtags allows users to view all public posts that have been tagged with them . For instance , the Fridays for Future movementemploys various hashtagson Twitter , such as # FridaysForFuture , # ClimateChange and # ClimateStrike ( cf . Sainz & Hanna , 2023 , pp . 120-125 ). Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic , hashtags like # ClimateStrikeOnline gained prominence ( ibid . p . 120 ).
An illustrative tweet might read :
“ Children should not be the ones picking up our trash , both metaphoric and literal . That ’ s why adults need to join # FridaysforFuture ” ( ibid . p . 128 ). During the pandemic , maintaining key elements of the movement , like the strikes digitally within a collective community became crucial ( ibid . p . 121 ). Therefore , “ many of the participants postedphotos of themselves with placard and signs similarto the ones used in in-person protests […]” as a form of digitalstrikes ( Sainz & Hanna , 2023 , p . 121 ). In response to Greta Thunberg ’ s call , these posts were consistently accompanied by specific hashtags : “[…] post a photo of you striking with a sign and use the hashtag # ClimateStrikeOnline ” ( ibid ). However , it wasn ’ t just about posting photos but also to use the hashtags , “[…] to reach a wider audience , with the explicit goal of raising awareness of the climate crisis ” ( ibid , p . 122 ). This included sharing “[…] scientific reports , graphs and images , videos and news articles ” ( ibid ). Consequently , through these efforts , the movement achieved two objectives : creating “[…] a space for individuals within and beyond the FFF movement to learn about the right to a healthy environment ” and providing “[…] a space for members of FFF to learn about their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression by taking action and participation in the strikes ” ( Sainz & Hanna , 2023 , p . 121 ). This approach not only impacted the movement itself and its supporters but also enabled participation in the strikes at a digital level , regardless of geographical distance or pandemicrelated restrictions by utilizing the relevant hashtags .
On the social media platform Instagram
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