Tweeting back while shouting back: Social media and feminist activism

Social networks are increasingly significant to the success of feminist activism, campaigning and consciousness raising. Digital spaces including Twitter, YouTube, blogs and Facebook provide a platform for feminists and others to share and address experiences and raise awareness of misogyny, sexism and violence against women. This paper provides a commentary on use of social media for feminists, and explores the role of social media engagement with the wider social movement of feminism, through a consideration of the process of ‘shouting back’ with a focus on Twitter and hashtags. We will consider why social media can be useful to feminists with reference to existing research, before discussing the impact of two social media based feminist campaigns (#everydaysexism and #AskThicke) and the implications of these for the feminist movement.