Social Media Warfare for Support of Social Causes

Social causes come and go, some just fade away, while others result in the establishment of well-structured special interest groups and organizations that share a special interest. This chapter examines the use of social media warfare tactics to support social causes, not including the well-established special interests that were covered in Chapter 5: “Special Interest Groups’ Use of Social Media as a Weapon.” The social causes examined in this case study are connected to the Black Lives Matter movement, which started in 2014 when, at approximately noon on Saturday, August 9, 2014, Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old African American [1]. Since the killing of Michael Brown, there have been several other incidents where police have shot and killed African Americans. The Black Lives Matter movement responded reactively in all these cases, and social media warfare tactics were a key factor in the reactions to and protests associated with the incidents. This chapter covers social media warfare in support of social causes.