#Blacklivesmatter and others hashtivisms: Language and its role on virtual protests

Abstract

This research is a literature review that aims to investigate the use of hashtags (#) as a form of protest and social struggle, understanding that this form of activism can be seen as one of the phenomena of language, seen as a characteristic of social networks. We seek to investigate what implications this activism, called hashtivism, can bring to the non-virtual, for this purpose, we bring as object of study the #blacklivesmatter, which although it has been used over the years, had its greatest popularity in times of COVID 19 pandemic. In the first session, we bring a brief history of social networks from their beginning to the present (GONÇALVES, 2012; LEMOS, 2005; KORENICH et al. 2013, among others); we continue to elucidate discussions about virtual and social activism, marked by the use of the symbol called hashtag # and a representative phrase (KOSNICK AND FELDMAN, 2020; GOSWAMI, 2018; CABALLERO E GRAVANTE, 2018, among others); then, we will pay more attention to #blacklivesmatter, initially discussing racism and its facets and the use of hashtivisms as a form of claim for equality (RIBEIRO, 2019; ALMEIDA, 2019). We used the researches of the Pew Research Center (2020), to point out how #blacklivesmatter grows and decreases in networks and what factors lead to these occurrences. Finally, we will connect this new way of using language and its signs with the ideas of Maturana (1992) and his studies on language biology. We hope that this research can contribute to reflections about language in the virtual context, understanding that virtual and social are not only dichotomies, but can be positively or negatively intertwined.