KONY 2012

2012

Date: 5 March 2012 · Place: San Diego, California, Invisible Children · Figures: Jason Russell, director and Invisible Children co-founder · Joseph Kony, subject of the campaign · Tags: Activist Video, Slacktivism, Virality Critique 01. Twenty Nine Minutes On YouTube On 5 March 2012 the San Diego nonprofit Invisible Children releases a twenty nine minute thirty second documentary directed by co-founder Jason Russell calling for the arrest of Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army. The video accumulates 100 million views within six days, the fastest such trajectory in YouTube history to that point. The campaign sells action kits for 30 dollars and calls for a coordinated postering event on 20 April 2012. 02. Backlash, Breakdown, And Aftermath Within weeks the campaign attracts substantial criticism from Ugandan journalists and African-studies scholars for oversimplification, inflated statistics, and a colonial savior framing. Invisible Children's financial structure is scrutinized. On 15 March 2012 Russell suffers a public mental health crisis in San Diego, naked and shouting in traffic, attributed to exhaustion and reactive psychosis. The 20 April action day produces minimal physical turnout. KONY 2012 becomes the canonical case study in viral activism's limits and the term slacktivism's mainstream entry. Sources • KnowYourMeme, 'KONY 2012' • Invisible Children, KONY 2012 (YouTube, 5 March 2012) • Foreign Affairs, 'Joseph Kony Is Not in Uganda (and Other Complicated Things)' (12 March 2012)