[MUSIC] As much as anyone across the globe, Indigenous people participate and engage with online cyber technologies. From blogs, Instagram, YouTube and other social media platforms, Indigenous people express themselves and utilize social media in many ways. Social media platforms have become forms for Indigenous people to create virtual online identities from a singular individual identity to online communities and large networking organizational identities. Indigenous cyberspace activism has increased exponentially in the last 10 years. Increasingly, Indigenous people turn to social media to raise awareness, advocate and mobilize strategies for organizing and to carrying out activist projects. Extremely accessible, online social networking sites serve as digital platforms, enabling users to participate in politics like never before. Digital technology and the social media phenomenon profoundly changed the implementation and execution of Indigenous political and sociocultural activism. While conventional forms of activism such as writing letters, sharing information about rallies and protests by word of mouth and signing petitions by hand, are still common, today, many events are only promoted through social media. The communication and transference of information through Facebook groups, hashtags on Twitter, photographs on Instagram and electronic petitions is unrivalled in agility and velocity. Cyberspace of digital media offers Indigenous political activism many advantages. Including the ability to plan protests and events, and mobilize and coordinate action. These platforms further the opportunity for people to unite in solidarity and encourages more people to engage in political social discourse. Indigenous people are accessing the platform of online digital media to grow grassroots political movements from small localized areas to large national and international movements. For example, due in part to the mobilizing proficiency of social media Idle No More became one of the largest Indigenous mass movements ever recorded. The Idle No More movement began with four women in Saskatchewan and then expanded globally. The lengthy interactive discourse from the chronological feed from the hashtag #IdleNoMore on Twitter reveals the massive engagement of this media campaign. Examples like Idle No More reveal the potential for Indigenous cyber activism as Indigenous people capitalize on the use of social media platforms. Indigenous peoples’ use of information communications technologies facilitates dialogue on nationhood and self determination between Indigenous peoples across the nation. Social media platforms have enabled Indigenous peoples to establish wide networks to communicate concerns or conflicts with governments, industries, and corporations. The proliferation of digital technology allows Indigenous peoples the opportunity to resist and develop strategies to overcome oppressive social conditions. For Indigenous peoples, social media has opened up new ways to socially interact with like-minded individuals locally and globally. Indigenous peoples coordinate networks of communities to form unique bonds of resistance and social mobilization. Twitter is an example of internetworking in which academic scholars, political figures, activists, organizers and Canadian citizens voice their thoughts and opinions. These accounts can be seen across a wide variety of social issues. From accounts like ReconciliationCanada, or @Rec_Can, who promote reconciliation between Indigenous people and all Canadians, to @hgCoAst, an informal group of people living on Haida Gwaii who are opposing the super tanker traffic in BC waters, Twitter becomes an information super highway and Indigenous peoples are tapped in. Indigenous activists create decolonial social spaces online, and often these websites, listservs, blogs, and channels become major informational hubs for Indigenous related politics and grassroots social media. Now we shift the focus from the consolidation of social movements to examine some of the risks of individual social networking. The critics of social media have argued that there are risks involved in online Indigenous activism. While social media has been extremely successful in promoting and advocating for Indigenous rights, it may have detrimental long-term effects. Some critics question the ways in which Indigenous people may view their activism and political engagements. There are multiple levels of political and social online activism. For instance, minimal participation may include just joining a Facebook group or sharing a link. So, while still technically involved, an individual's engagement in online activism may give a false sense of accomplishment. Overall, their involvement may have very little effect. The long-term effects of online engagement on social media may act as a replacement to offline participation. For any permanent beneficial changes to take place for Indigenous peoples, activism in cyberspace and activism on the street are equally important. Neither should be a substitute for the other. As well, the self-centred media production of a self-promoting individual could distort or undermine the collective message. Previous lessons have explained that successful Indigenous communities have systems of accountability and responsibility embedded within the fabric of the community. Indigenous systems of accountability are rarely practiced or are absent online, making online communities and forums very challenging to moderate and control. Comments on public forums can become battlegrounds for attacks on Indigenous people. Anonymous commenters, often known as internet trolls, spew inflammatory remarks meant to provoke or start arguments. Trolls fill the comments section of online Indigenous themed stories with hateful and racist opinions and ignorance. In fact, the vitriolic hatred and racism displayed in the comments became too difficult for CBC Online to moderate. So in November of 2015, the CBC made the difficult decision to close all the comments sections for any stories related to Indigenous peoples. Mainstream media is controlled by the dominant society which produces colonial discourses and upholds power structures. Acting as a form of resistance, social media creates democratic engagement and conducts political participation, allowing individuals to join otherwise inaccessible conversations. Today, social media gives Indigenous activists the ability to create a space for meaningful discourse. Social media also increases an individual's agency and autonomy to participate in communication platforms. The new social world of Indigenous resistance relies upon traditional and online forms of communication. Cyberspace expands our ability to promote social activism and engage in political debates in order to mobilize the political will of Indigenous peoples. [MUSIC]
