#IAmNotAfraidToSayIt: stories of sexual violence as everyday political speech on Facebook

ABSTRACT

The debate about the power and influence of networked publics often focuses on large-scale political events, activist campaigns and protest activity – the more visible forms of political engagement. On the other hand, digitally mediated activism is often questioned and sometimes derided as a lesser form of dissent, as it is easier to engage in, highly affective, and offers few assurances of sustainability of the change it calls for. But what about everyday political speech online, where social media platforms can contribute to a personalisation of politics? Can social media users express their views online and make a difference? This paper analyses around 3500 Facebook posts stemming from the #ЯНеБоюсьСказати (Ukrainian for #IAmNotAfraidToSayIt) online campaign that was started in the Ukrainian segment of Facebook in July 2016 by a local activist to raise awareness of how widespread sexual violence and sexual harassment are in the Ukrainian society. The paper argues that networked conversations about everyday rights and affective stories about shared experiences of injustice, underpinned by the affordances of social media platforms for sharing and discussing information and participating in everyday politics, can emerge as viable forms of networked feminist activism and can have real impact on the discursive status quo of an issue, both in the digital sphere and beyond it.

KEYWORDS:

• Everyday politics
• social media
• networked storytelling
• digital activism
• feminist activism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Tetyana Lokot is an Assistant Professor at the School of Communications, Dublin City University. Her research and writing focus on the interplay between politics, digital media and civic actors in the context of augmented protest. She also writes about internet freedom and internet governance in Ukraine and Russia [email: [email protected]].

ORCID

Tetyana Lokot http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2488-4045