SayHerName . This hashtag , along with many more , sway the societal sensitive cosmos in the wake of 28 - year - older Sandra Bland ’s fishy decease in 2015 while in police hands in Waller County , Texas . The haunting#ICantBreathe hashtagtrended for months in 2014 after an NYPD officer put Eric Garner in a chokehold , at last leading to his destruction . Each of these societal media hashtags , which led to real - liveliness protests and argumentation in social club , was birthed by a single entity on the net : Black Twitter .

BlackTwitteris not a particular hashtag or subgroup on Twitter . It is a societal movement that serves as a spokesperson for primarily , although not alone , African - Americans to speak out against injustice , as well as issuing involve their community that mainstream media does not cover . According to the Media Insight Project , " Only a third of Hispanics and a quarter of African - Americans trust their community are accurately portrayed in the media , and a major reason for this may be that they sense their community are not pay much tending in the news . "

" Before Black Twitter receive its name , its users were simply pitch-dark on Twitter , " writes theKnight Foundation , in a report about social media among people of color . " The label ' Black Twitter , ' in several form , initiated as a charade of early observations of the phenomenon that center on the bloodless gaze , such asChoire Sicha ’s referenceto ' late - Nox smutty people Twitter . ' "

In 2014,a Pew Research Center surveyshowed that 27 pct of Blacks online were using Twitter , compared with 21 percentage of tweed and 25 percent of Latinos . African - Americans were the most probable racial chemical group to habituate Twitter .

Black Twitter drug user collect to discourse intelligence facing their community and beau monde as a whole . Black Twitter even serves as a independent origin of news . African - Americans were more likely to get news program from societal media than other cultural radical were , accord to the Media Insight Project .

Black Twitter ’s activism extend to other country besides police savagery and furiousness . An deterrent example of this is the hashtag # OscarsSoWhite , which number about after the 2015 Oscar nomination , where no actors of color were included . The#OscarsSoWhitehashtag spurred the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tochange the rulesregarding who could be an Academy member , as well as add extra seats to its governor ’s board to increase diverseness .

Black Twitter also serves as a assembly for amusement , humor and relatable content . It has been the birthplace for democratic hashtags including#AskRachel(a hashtag that rise after Rachel Dolezal , a white woman , became an draw a bead on advocate for Blacks after tell the world she identifies herself as Black woman);#GrowingUpBlack(a serial publication of pop and creative meme of nostalgia and funny memories where African - Americans shared in their upbringing ) ; and#BlackGirlMagic(a hashtag that highlights the many accomplishments of sinister women ) , which was mentioned in the inaugural speech of Atlanta ’s sixtieth mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in 2018 .

" Black Twitter is an outlet for the black voice , " says multimedia system diary keeper Olivia Steen of the CBS affiliate WHNT in Huntsville , Alabama . " When it arrive to social issues , people are able to bring about the alteration that they want to see simply by making the public cognizant of it on Twitter . "

Jan Steen excuse how local news stations utilize the societal platform to get news for their broadcasts . " Mainstream media is supposed to magnify a articulation for all the great unwashed , not just one mathematical group . We [ WHNT journalists ] use Twitter all the meter to learn things going on within residential area . I look at Black Twitter to see which topics are being discussed so that I can localize it to my area , ultimately helping me build up narration ideas and what we cover in the news for our region . "

The African - American community has not always had the sumptuousness of being able to apply the freedom of speech without repercussions . Black Twitter provides not only a residential district of support , but also a sense of family , teaching , political and societal progression , and even comic relief . And until mainstream metier act upon to acknowledge the topic of the African - American biotic community , Black Twitter will remain a social force to be reckon with .