Remember KONY 2012, the viral Facebook campaign that was sprung up about a year ago by the non-profit organization Invisible Children? The campaign’s goal was to bring awareness and inspire action throughout the world, ultimately provoking the arrest of the Lord Resistance Army’s gruesome leader, Joseph Kony. A year later, although Invisible Children has not been able to capture him, they have released a follow-up video showcasing the advances they have made in stopping him and his heinous crimes.
One of the major accomplishments has been the passing of the Rewards for Justice Bill in congress which will grant a reward of up to $5 million for any information that could lead to the imprisonment of Kony and other wanted human rights violators. Since the video’s release, the percentage of killings conducted has decreased significantly by about 67%. According to a study by Invisible Children and Resolve (another non-profit), it seems as if the wrong doings of the LRA have been operating on a slightly smaller scale and targeting less children. They have also made a move from Uganda into the Central African Republic.
As far as public support for the KONY2012 campaign goes, the video’s popularity caused it to be seen by YouTube and Vimeo users over 100 million times. Along with the video views, around the time of the release, nearly 6 million tweets and shares were posted pertaining to the trending topics of #StopKony and #Kony2012. A slacktivism phenomenon arose which helped the campaign’s efforts to promote their cause, but didn’t provide the manpower and tangible efforts to make the campaign succeed to its fullest potential. The follow-up video seeks to motivate viewers to make monthly donations towards the cause. It is questionable whether or not this will create the frenzy that the first video created, especially due to the ongoing speculations about Invisible Children’s financial integrity. There is no doubt that we all need to do a little more research about this topic before fully supporting it or fully knocking it.
Watch the follow-up video here: http://invisiblechildren.com/
Do you think this video can create the same buzz as the original?