Environmental activism
Activism is the action that is carried out in order to effect a social or political change, normally positioned in favor of a specific position in a conflict, that is, if one speaks of environmental activism, one would be referring to a trend that is based on the protection of nature and respect for its rights.[1].
This trend arose when the population began to notice evidence of environmental deterioration. With this, the activists believed it was necessary to spread the problem with the media they had in their hands, including cyberspace, and highlight the impact that their own actions, whose purpose is the conservation of nature, were having on society.
Currently, the ways of carrying out environmental activism have diversified, one of the groups that has currently managed to strengthen itself most successfully are cyberactivists, with the help of social networks, memes or campaigns with the collection of signatures asking:.
Among environmental cyberactivisms, the following stand out:.
Mining and Forest Ecology:.
This type of activism seeks strategies to implement security for people against large mineral exploitations that do not respect communities, fauna, flora, water or reserve areas, defends green spaces and seeks to promote that forest areas are not reduced only for economic purposes, mainly mining and livestock extension in Latin countries such as Colombia, a place where this type of cyberactivism has managed to obtain great results such as the defense of moors and forest reserves in the Colombian Amazon and in the eastern plains such as the repeal of environmental licenses for oil and aquifer companies in Caño Cristales, the Amazon and Guainía.
This type of activism denounces, and as such, is not afraid to denounce both ostentatious multinationals and groups of people who damage the local ecology for their own benefit, and this has led to the arrest of people who carry out illegal mining, which makes this type of activism in Colombia become dangerous for the integrity of cyberactivists.
Space, Legislation and Urbanity.
Cyberactivism, according to Peláez, (2012) is a strategy that pursues a change in the public agenda through electronic media. One of the issues that comes closest to encouraging these changes lies in the field of the environment, understood as environmental cyberactivism, where various movements ensure its protection.
This advocacy, which is created from social, cultural and political groups, is focused on focusing their attention and interest on a specific aspect of the environment, among which is urban-environmental cyberactivism which seeks to defend all types of demonstrations that go against the preservation of natural environments in the urban environment. This type of cyberactivism stands out as an emerging movement around the protection of the environment, which seeks, according to Suárez, Hernández & Hessla (2002), the achievement of community control of the management of space, assuming that environmental conditions are illegitimate in social and economic terms.
Organic.
Organic cyberactivism tries, through communication through social networks, to raise people's awareness about adequate nutrition, proposing the consumption of organic foods to the detriment of the consumption of genetically modified foods. Organic cyberactivists handle information about initiatives that aim at the consumption of organic foods, food sovereignty and different issues that compromise the nutrition of a community or of entire humanity. One of the clear examples is the constant publication of news, activities, and initiatives carried out by groups of activists in the public sphere, such as the case of the spoon revolution or fruit city.
On the other hand, organic cyberactivists are concerned with making the world aware through social networks of the actions of multinationals that violate or go against the ideas they have about the consumption of organic foods and food sovereignty, such as the example of the multinational Monsanto, of which news against its actions is constantly reproduced on the networks.
In summary, what organic cyberactivists intend is to raise people's awareness of this specific issue, so that the different people who can see the constant publications take action on this issue and can contribute to the solution of this problem.[3].
Animalist.
Being part of contemporary social movements, the animal movement has been established as a position that is part of this attempt to improve the relationships and interactions between human beings and their environment. Specifically, it is a search to configure, establish and claim animal rights, using, among others, new technologies and the Internet to carry out denunciation campaigns and raise awareness about animal abuse and mistreatment.
In this way, the idea has been established that regardless of the species, animal nature provides the immediate condition of being a subject of law, it is a fight that aims to abolish all forms of animal exploitation and that is based on the historical achievements achieved by movements that have managed to insert new ideas into society.
Among the cyberactivist movements are “petists” distinguished as those owners of an animal that serves as a companion, owners who even seek political defense for dogs and cats, forgetting about other animal species. It is precisely the so-called “petists” who have revealed new trends on social networks for showing themselves as a subject in defense of animal rights, but they are definitely cyberactivists who do not reveal a position based on a clear ideology.
Cyber protests
Torres (…) proposes his own definition of cyberprotest combining that of other authors. He states that they are “acts-routines or performances produced by digital media and disseminated or activated in cyberspace”, which are addressed to political actors, reference elites and society in general. He adds that they may have been previously designed or improvised. They can also be carried out through email, websites, chats and blogs, but also wikis and social networks.
The author makes his own classification of cyber protests, based on the previous works of Constanza Chock and Weimann. This is how it distinguishes conventional, disruptive and violent cyber protests.
For Torres, conventional cyber protests have the objective of “dissemination, orientation and mobilization.” Thus they consist of mobilizations, slogans, petitions, chains, evaluation of results...
The disruptive ones are those that seek to confront political actors or elites. To do this, they use boycotts; the saturation of emails or accounts on social networks; and theatricalization through mockery or satire, for example.
Finally, Torres mentions violent cyber protests. They consist of “attacking and frightening political actors and elites.”
To do this, hackers destroy, steal and kidnap personal or institutional data; they attack with computer viruses; alter websites; or they perpetrate “threats, insults” and even “spread attacks.” (Sáenz, 2014, p. 39-41).
Cyberactivism is also used through “hashtag activism,” which allows marginalized groups to share their perspectives. Examples include the #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo movements, which give voice to groups that have had a history of being excluded from mainstream media.[4].
Flashmobs or cybercultures
A flashmob or instant mobilization is a demonstration articulated thanks to communication technologies. It is simply a group of people that meets “simultaneously, temporarily and voluntarily, without it being necessary for them to know each other in advance.” The meetings are held in a public place and their objective is usually to carry out some type of symbolic act.
Flashmobes are a new kind of collective, spontaneous, brief, simple, energetic, playful social expression made possible by the instantaneousness and fluidity of the Internet. It occurs in a simple way: an Internet user calls through the Internet, and using one or more of the tools it offers, a demonstration in a public place on a specific date and time. Therefore, communication is horizontal so that traditional media do not intervene. Thus, these are simply people who, thanks to technology, spread a meeting request among their friends and acquaintances. These do the same, which gives rise to a large chain of communication, which is capable of mobilizing thousands of people. (Sáenz, 2014, p. 42-43).