Not One (Woman) Less Social Media Activism to end Violence Against Women: The case of the Feminist Movement ‘Ni Una Menos’.

Abstract: The struggle to end violence against women and girls has long been a priority topic for women’s and feminist movements in Latin America. Lately, since the changes in the new media landscape (Castells 2015; Lievrouw, 2013) with the increased use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the way women and feminist movements advocate their intentions are changing (Harcourt, 2013; Mathos, 2017). Departing from this reality, the aim is to investigate the role the use of social media activism played for the recent feminist movement, Ni Una Menos (NUM [Not One Less]), in Argentina and Chile while advocating for the end of violence against women. Taking a cross disciplinary approach this research combines theories from the fields of feminist studies, social movement and communication sciences. Through in-depth interviews with core activists from NUM both in Argentina and Chile as research method, it has been possible to identify the role of certain social media platforms for NUM’s tactical repertoire in their strive to advocate for the end of violence against women and girls. The findings also demonstrate the activism on social media platforms by the NUM movement has played an important role to set the topic on the public agenda in these countries, resulting in a generally greater awareness. Regardless off the role social media activism played, the importance seems to lie in a combination of activism on social media and the streets for feminist movements advocating to end violence against women because it assures a broad reach to all people in society. Nevertheless, to end violence against women in these countries much more effort is needed by society at large.