Digital Prospects of the Contemporary Feminist Movement for Dialogue and International Mobilization: A Case Study of the 25 November Twitter Conversation

Abstract

The feminist movement is experiencing the rise of a new generation characterized by specific phenomena linked to technological progress, such as hashtivism, i.e., mobilization through social media. With the aim of contributing to extending our knowledge of the implications of Twitter for this as well as other social movements, this article examined eight of the most common Spanish- and English-language hashtags used to commemorate the 25 November 2018 event, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Employing big data analysis to study social and communications phenomena, the results offer a picture of contemporary feminism through the kind of international digital dialogue or conversation that it creates, as well as questioning Twitter’s validity in terms of cohesion when it comes to uniting forces in relation to one of the movement’s most urgent struggles: eliminating violence against women in all its forms.

Keywords

• gender violence
• 25 November
• feminism
• Twitter
• hashtivism