About
#BringBackOurGirls is a hashtag campaign launched by a group of Nigerians to raise awareness and call others to action after over 300 Nigerian school girls were kidnapped by a terrorist group on April 15th, 2014.
Background
On April 15th, 2014, a group of over 300 Nigerian girls were kidnapped from the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School.[1] As of May 2014, a little over 50 girls have escaped their kidnappers. A terrorist group called Boko Haram has claimed they are responsible for the kidnapping. Criticism of the Nigerian government’s inaction and Western media’s lack of coverage quickly emerged. The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls originated from Twitter users in Nigeria[8] and was first tweeted out on April 23rd, by lawyer Ibrahim M. Abdullahi[9].
As of May 4th, more than 40% of the hashtag activity came from the United States. As of May 6th, 2014, the hashtag[3] has been tweeted out over 1.2 million times.
Notable Developments
Celebrity Tweets
On May 3rd, 2014, education and equality activist Malala tweeted a picture from her foundation’s Twitter account[3] of herself holding a sign with the hashtag. In less than a week the tweet gained over 4,000 retweets.
Other celebrities[7] who tweeted out the hashtag include Hillary Clinton[4], Kerry Washington[5] and Mary J Blige.[6]
Media Coverage
On May 4th, Refinery29[10] published a collection of Instagram images that used the hashtag. On May 5th ABC news published an article titled “Twitter Campaign #BringBackOurGirls Takes Off,” which explored how the hashtag’s popularity grew after celebrities tweeted it out. On May 6th, Buzzfeed[11] published a post titled “The Nigerian School Girls Are Still Missing And International Outrage Is Rising,” which collected many of the most powerful tweets which used the hashtag.
Notable Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]USA Today – Mass kidnapping of Nigerian girls: What you need to know
[2]Twitter – MalalaFund
[3]Topsy – #BringBackOurGirls
[4]Twitter – HillaryClinton
[5]Twitter – Kerry Washington
[6]Twitter – Mary J Blige
[7]ABC– Twitter Campaign #BringBackOurGirls Takes Off
[8]BBC– Twitter Campaign #BringBackOurGirls Takes Off
[9]Twitter – #BBCtrending: How a million people called to #BringBackOurGirls
[10]Refinery29 – #BringBackOurGirls -- 6 Powerful Instagram Images
[11]Buzzfeed – The Nigerian School Girls Are Still Missing And International Outrage Is Rising