Episode 15

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Published on:

31st Jan 2025

Is Your Social Media Activism Working?

Suchitra, Bhakti, and Madhuri take a step back from the incessant noise of social media to dissect what all that posting really leads to. Is your social media activism actually making a difference? From the early days of Twitter-fueled revolutions to the performative hashtag activism that followed, the hosts trace the history of online organizing and examine its transformation in the wake of Palestine’s genocide. At a time when mainstream media has fully aligned with state narratives, Instagram and TikTok have become essential sources for alternative reporting — while simultaneously being controlled by billionaires with vested interests in suppressing dissent.

The episode dives into how social media has blurred the lines between activism, consumerism, and self-promotion. They interrogate the role of fundraising, questioning whether crowdfunding is empowering or an indictment of a state that has abdicated its responsibilities. They also explore the exhausting and often exploitative nature of trauma-sharing, the rise of hyper-individualized resistance, and the troubling shift of activism from structural intervention to spectacle. This episode unpacks the effectiveness — and limitations — of social media as a tool for real change.

Key Takeaways

  • Sharing a post or donating to a fundraiser offers instant catharsis, but does it translate into material change? The hosts discuss how digital activism often functions as a quick, conscience-clearing act rather than sustained resistance.
  • Graphic imagery of violence and oppression is widely circulated in the name of awareness, but does it radicalize or merely desensitize? The hosts challenge the ethics of “pornographic” suffering and its role in online activism.
  • Crowdfunding for humanitarian aid has become necessary in a collapsing world, but it also reinforces individual responsibility over systemic accountability. There’s a shift from collective demands to reliance on the generosity of the wealthy.
  • Social media has reshaped activism into a performance, where “activists” are incentivized to prioritize visibility over strategy. Algorithms and virality distort collective movements into individual branding.
  • In-person organizing is crucial as seen in the ongoing pro-Palestinian protests: real-world action, not just social media outrage, is necessary for momentum.

Keywords

Social media activism, digital resistance, Palestine, fundraising, neoliberalism, crowdfunding, cultural work, performative activism, spectacle, misinformation, political organizing, billionaires, Meta, TikTok, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, trauma-sharing, de-platforming, censorship, algorithmic suppression, organizing beyond social media.

Hosted by

Suchitra Vijayan, Bhakti Shringarpure, and Madhuri Sastry

A podcast by The Polis Project

https://www.thepolisproject.com

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About the Podcast

It's Not You, It's The Media
Resist media gaslighting
It's Not You, It's The Media! unpacks the ways that the media manipulates narratives and makes you question your reality. You're being gaslighted. Suchitra Vijayan, Bhakti Shringarpure and Madhuri Sastry eviscerate the propaganda, set the record straight and offer moral clarity.

Suchitra Vijayan is a writer, photographer and activist. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Polis Project. For her first book, The Midnight's Border: A People's History of India, Suchitra traveled across the 9000-mile Indian border. A barrister by training, she previously worked for the United Nations war crimes tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda before co-founding the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, which gives legal aid to Iraqi refugees. She is the co-author of How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners (2023) which offers a lens into today's India through the lived experiences of political prisoners.

Bhakti Shringarpure is a writer and editor. She is the co-founder of Warscapes magazine which transitioned into the Radical Books Collective, a multi-faceted community building project that creates an alternative, inclusive and non-commercial approach to books and reading. Bhakti is the author of Cold War Assemblages: Decolonization to Digital (2019) and editor of Literary Sudans: An Anthology of Literature from Sudan and South Sudan (2017), Imagine Africa (2017) Mediterranean: Migrant Crossings (2018) and most recently, Insurgent Feminisms: Writing War (2023).

Madhuri Sastry is a former lawyer, specializing in international and human rights law. She was the publisher of Guernica Magazine. Her political writing, cultural criticism, interviews and essays have appeared in several publications including The Nation, Guernica, Slate, Bitch and New York Magazine. She is on the editorial board at the Polis Project.