TWITTER HARNESSES USER TWEETS TO SUPPORT BLM WITH BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN

The marches may have slowed across the world this week, but Twitter showed solidarity for the Black Lives Matter movement with billboards in eight protest cities across the US, showcasing a handpicked selection of the supportive tweets which have gone out since May. Millions shared stories, petitions and engaged in debate on Twitter, making the platform a central hub of both support and education for the BLM movement. This billboard campaign shows that Twitter not only acts as a megaphone for its users, but is also prepared to take a stance itself, which we applaud.

Twitter has been praised numerous times over the last few weeks for clamping down on hate speech, with its permanent ban of Katie Hopkins’ account and its removal of a notorious Donald Trump tweet that seemingly threatened police violence against protestors. It is interesting to see that while one social media giant is being spotlighted for its removal of hate speech, another is facing heavy criticism over its suspect content moderation. With Mark Zuckerberg refusing to take action on the same message from Trump that Twitter hastily removed, and its reputation as a space for the free sharing of ‘fake news’, global brands such as Ben & Jerrys have pulled advertising over a loss of faith in the platform as a source of accurate information. It is possible that more brands follow suit and Facebook may have to announce steps to regain the trust of the public and its