Clicktivism - engagement by click

The relatively new form of citizen participation makes the round under the name "Clicktivism". This essentially means the organization of social protests using social media. Linked to this is the phenomenon of the so-called "Slacktivism", a buzzword that has even made it into the hit list of the words of the year in the Oxford Dictionnary. It is a combination of the English words slacker (faullenzer) and activist (activist) and suggests the small amount of personal commitment that this form of civic participation requires. Therefore, the negative connotation of the word is hardly surprising, as it assumes the "digital activists" to get a clear conscience and a satisfied ego with minimal effort and without personal commitment.

Successes: The greatest success of civil society in recent years is due to the clicktivism: The first EU Citizens' Initiative (EBI) "Right2Water" had to find one million supporters in a quarter of all EU member states, so that the EU Commission deals with the issue. Predominantly through online petitions, proud 1.884.790 signatures were finally collected. Likewise, the enormous resistance to the much-discussed free trade agreements CETA and TTIP is to be credited to the digital activism of the European NGOs: enormous 3.284.289 European citizens have spoken out against it.

The criticism of the digital form of activism does not stop there. Thus slacktivism would have little or no effect in "real life" and even displace "real" political engagement in parties, associations or local citizens' initiatives, according to the critics. Since virtual protests often have a high degree of marketing expertise, they are also assumed to understand social movements as pure advertising campaigns. Democratic fast food. Last but not least, they would reinforce the digital divide in society and thus even further marginalize politically disadvantaged marginalized groups.

Clicktivism - achievements of civil society

On the other hand, there are impressive successes which this form of civic engagement has meanwhile demonstrated. For example, the release of human rights activist Ai Weiwei by the Chinese authorities in the year 2011, the organization of the boycott against the American organic supermarket Whole Foods or on the other hand successful crowdfunding campaigns such as kiva.org or kickstarter. The latter managed to mobilize a billion dollars for film, music and art projects in the year 2015.
Likewise, the global stop-TTIP movement was networked through social media, which enabled the alliance to form more than 500 organizations across Europe. And last but not least, privately organized refugee aid in Europe primarily organizes via social media and has been able to mobilize tens of thousands of volunteer refugee helpers and to coordinate the individual relief efforts.

In repressive regimes, digital activism brings even more political explosive power. Thus its role in the emergence of the Arab Spring, the Maidan movement or the occupation of the Gezi Park in Istanbul can hardly be downplayed. In reality, the organization of social protests without social media is hardly conceivable or less promising.

Digital activism has long since become a global movement. The two largest platforms for online petitions (change.org and avaaz.org) have a combined total of nearly 130 millions of users who can sign a petition with one mouse click and create one with two others. For example, Change.org has led some six million Britons to sign an online petition. According to the operators of this platform, about half of the 1.500 petitions launched each month in the UK are successful.

Clicktivism - Between Marketing and Activism

Regardless of the global dynamics and successes of this movement, a whole host of political scientists and sociologists are still wondering whether or not online activism is in fact political participation in a democratic political sense.
Among the outstanding skeptics of this movement is Micah White, founder of the Occupy Wall Street movement and author of the bestseller "The end of protests". His criticism is directed primarily against the blurring boundary between marketing and activism: "They accept that advertising and market research strategies used to distribute toilet paper are applied to social movements." He even sees the danger of being more traditional political Activism and local citizens' initiatives are thereby even ousted. "They sell the illusion that surfing the net could change the world," says White.

The advocates of digital activism, on the other hand, refer to the numerous advantages of this low-threshold form of civic participation. According to them, online petitions and forums make it easier for people to publicly articulate their displeasure or encouragement and to organize for or against certain things. So simply cost-effective, efficient and effective.
In fact, numerous studies have since proven that digital activism is not a competition to classic democratic protests through petitions, signature collection, strikes and demonstrations. Rather, social media technologies are an aid to the emergence of social and political movements.

Clicktivism factor youth

Last but not least, online activism is able to include a politically neglected and underrepresented group very successfully in the political discourse: youth. A group that does not feel as touched by political issues as it does by politicians. According to Mag. Martina Zandonella, social psychologist at the research institute SORA, the much-vexed policy disenchantment of the young people is a clear prejudice: "Young people are very committed, but not in the traditional party-political sense. Our research has shown that politics for young people is simply something different. For example, they do not see school action as political participation, which we do very well. "
That adolescents are politically interested also shows their turnout. Since 2013, adolescents in Austria have been admitted to the polls since 16 years and achieved the same turnout in just three years as the average of the population. "For young people, the topics of unemployment, education and social justice are particularly important. They are just disappointed with the daily politics and do not feel addressed by the active politicians, "said Zandonella. For them, Clicktivism is definitely a form of democratic participation and they welcome the low-threshold approach that digital engagement offers. "From a democratic point of view, it will only be problematic if access is not given, as for example with the older generation."

The German youth researcher and author of the study "Young Germans" Simon Schnetzer does not believe that young people can be integrated into traditional political discourse with the help of social media. According to him, rather, "a new political space emerges, which is just as opinion-forming, but has little to do with the classical public sphere as a political space. There are still a few bridges between these two rooms. "
Out of the realization that young people in Germany do not feel adequately represented by real politicians, but still want to participate in the formation of opinion, Simon Schnetzer developed the concept of the Digital Members: "These are representatives of representatives in representative houses, their voting behavior directly through the Internet interested citizens is controlled. For example, digital MPs could be given one percent of the vote and serve as a barometer of the population. Digital MPs would be a possible way to make political decisions with the people ".

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