Digital Activism in India: A Study on Facebook

Ever since the internet has penetrated in our society, people have been using it in many ways. One of such use of the Internet, that has grown rapidly within the last decade, is the use of internet for mass mobilization or activism. A Digital Activism campaign is "an organised public effort, making collective claims on a target authority, in which civic initiators, or supporters use digital media to accomplish their cause". Internet can be used in a variety of ways to create activism, such as by e-mailing petitions perusing people to join the campaigns, making social groups, creating awareness about the issue or the cause on the internet, use of hashtags and other ways. This study analysis the various types of digital activism on current issues appearing on the Facebook. For this purpose content analysis is being adopted as a research methodology with an objective to analyse the occurrences, types and functions of digital activism in India. Also, the study identified the nature and functions of the posts and comments on digital activism issues on Facebook. The result reveals that 'Slacktivism' is the most popular form of digital activism on Facebook in India.