Mediaboss Marketing

What do the internet memes Doge and Cheems, the Hollywood film franchise The Hunger Games, and a sachet of instant tea have in common? They are all part of a rich lexicon of protest now being deployed by young activists contesting Myanmars military coup.

The country has been in turmoil since the military seized control on February 1, imprisoning state councillor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and leading NLD party officials, who won another landslide victory in Novembers elections.

But, as a new generation of protesters take to the streets of the countrys towns and cities in growing numbers, they are drawing on a range of internet memes, slogans, cartoons, and cultural symbols to make themselves heard and mobilise support within the country and across the region.

The three-finger salute, initially appropriated from the hugely popular The Hunger Games trilogy by young democracy activists protesting the 2014 military coup in neighbouring Thailand, is their shared signal of defiance, enumerating the need for equality, freedom, and solidarity as they find themselves engaged in a similarly dystopian struggle with an unscrupulous tyrant.

They deploy cartoon characters including Pepe the Frog and the internet memes Doge and Cheems to ridicule senior general Min Aung Hlaing and other junta leaders. Their placards are in English as much as Burmese, and they now set the protest songs employed by previous generations of the countrys pro-democracy activists to western rap and hip-hop soundtracks.

Myanmars young protesters epitomise a culture of transnational activism now favoured by a generation of technically savvy and increasingly cosmopolitan young people intent on resisting the imposition of authoritarian agendas.

As the authorities suspend the internet and block social media platforms such as Facebook, many are resorting to VPN access to get their message out on Instagram, TikTok and Discord through an avalanche of rapidly mutating hashtags. Likeminded netizens in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand are working in support through the Milk Tea Alliance, a movement pushing for democratic change across south-east Asia and beyond.

This diffuse, largely online, democratic solidarity movement unites young people confronting riot police in downtown Yangon and Mandalay with Thai youth in Bangkok campaigning for reform of the monarchy, pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong contesting Beijings National Security Law, and young Taiwanese nationalists countering the increased presence of Chinese trolls and bots from the internet cafes of Taipei.

Thai artist Sina Wittayawirojs illustration of a set of fists defiantly holding aloft steaming cups of milk tea fast becoming the unofficial logo of the alliance has now been joined by one bearing the Myanmar flag. Images of Royal Myanmar Teamix sachets, featuring its distinctive milky brew much like Thailands orange-hued and Taiwans boba tea, are being enthusiastically disseminated on social media and emblazoned on street placards.

Like other members of the alliance, they are quick to blame China (where tea is of course traditionally served without milk) as they accuse Beijing of lending the Myanmar military logistic support as well as working to undermine democratic rights and freedoms elsewhere in the region.

Solidarity is being expressed by the alliance in other ways. Some young activists in Myanmar are wearing hard hats like the flashmobs in Hong Kong, and others have created impromptu Lennon Walls on bridges and underpasses redolent of those created by the Umbrella Movement there. These, in turn, were inspired by anti-communist street propaganda in Europes former Eastern bloc shortly after the assassination of the Beatles front man.

Young members of Thailands Progressive Movement and anti-establishment organisation Ratsadon (The People) have organised solidarity protests banging pots and pans as anti-coup demonstrators are doing nightly in Myanmar to drive out evil spirits which have torn down their fledgling democracy.

One young aerobics instructor in the the Myanmar capital Naypyidaw happened to record a video of her regular workout session in front of the Burmese government buildings as armoured personnel carriers moved into the shot. This has subsequently been set to an Indonesian protest anthem which has gone viral.

Art and music are being expertly employed to articulate messages of protest and solidarity that bridge cultural and linguistic divides and unite political interests.

Not for the first time, young people particularly educated young people are playing a decisive role in Myanmars growing civil disobedience movement. Student protests in 1920, 1936, 1962, 1974, 1988, 2007 and 2015 have been part of the long struggle for independence and democracy. They ignited the momentous democratic uprising in 1988, and the so-called Saffron Revolution in 2007, when the countrys monks joined them on the streets in a defiant show of moral support.

For the most part, these popular uprisings were violently crushed. It is estimated that hundreds if not thousands died in the 1988 uprisings alone. How is this latest expression of dissent likely to be any different? Already we hear of police brutality and with the protests gathering momentum it is likely the authorities will respond with increasing force.

Indeed, the stage is set for just such a confrontation as the commitment of young people largely innocent of history but with a brief taste of freedom encounter the dark forces of authoritarian rule that have yet again undermined a democratic future for their beleaguered country.

And yet there is hope that this generation of young activists might succeed where others have failed. They are politically and technically literate. They inhabit a wider world than young pro-democracy activists in Myanmar have done in the past. They have access to new places and spaces of protest thanks to the technological benefits of globalisation. They are actively forging new networks of solidarity and resistance beyond their country and communities. They are, in short, on the right side of history.

Read the rest here:
Myanmar: memes and mantras of a new generation of democracy protesters - The Conversation UK

"Women who lead, read," said Laura Bates, the feminist writer and the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, an online resource inviting women to share the sexist encounters they've experienced. Bates' words speak to a powerful truth about not just feminism, but about activism more broadly: to be an activist leader, first you'll need to get educated. Perhaps you've already explored the rich world of feminist writing, or perhaps you're adrift in the sheer surfeit of excellent choices, unsure of where to start. Wherever you're calling from, we've curated a list of exceptional feminist books both old and new.

In these fifteen books, feminist thinkers interrogate everything from intersections of racism and misogyny to Pepe the Frog's deeper meaning to online enclaves of sexist men. A feminist thinker needn't be an academic, of coursethese writers range from feminist scholars to novelists, poets to producers of feminist pornography. Whatever their trade or their topic, their work is bound to inspire you, enrage you, and galvanize you to take part in the feminist movement, whether that's marching in the streets or producing powerful change in your own workplace or home life.

1This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, edited by Cherre Moraga and Gloria E. Anzalda

$33.55

The fourth edition of this venerable anthology, first published in 1981, remains an enduring trove of foundational thought from women of color. Before the term intersectionality entered academic discourse, This Bridge Called My Back put in the radical work of developing intersectional feminism, challenging the hollow sisterhood of white feminists while drawing connections between race, class, gender, and sexuality. Forty years later, the panoply of perspectives contained in this anthology continues to undergird third wave feminism and emerging activist coalitions. May future generations of radical women fall just as hard for This Bridge Called My Back as their forebears did; after all, the future of feminism remains forever indebted to thisgroundbreaking anthology.

2Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot, by Mikki Kendall

In Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women That a Movement Forgot, writer and feminist scholar Mikki Kendall writes, We rarely talk about basic needs as a feminist issue Instead of a framework that focuses on helping women get basic needs met, all too often the focus is not on survival, but on increasing privilege. This is the thesis of Hood Feminism, an urgent and essential text about the failure of modern feminism to address the needs of all but a few privileged women. Hood Feminism is a searing indictment of whitewashed, Lean In feminism, with Kendall calling for the movement to embrace inclusivity, intersectionality, and anti-racism. In powerful, eloquent essays, Kendall highlights how the movements myopia has failed Black women, Indigenous women, and trans women, among others, and how feminism must shift its focus away from increasing privilege in favor of solving issues that shape the daily lives of women everywhere.

3Men Explain Things to Me, by Rebecca Solnit

From one of our most imaginative and incisive writers comes a contemporary classic: seven sharp essays, each one an exceptionally hewn gem, beginning with the rousing title essay about how conversations between men and women are often driven off-course by mansplaining. In the ensuing essays, Solnit peers through politics, history, art, and media as lenses on cultural misogyny, arguing that seemingly isolated acts of sexism, like mansplaining, exist on a dangerous continuum of gendered exploitation and abuse, leading perilously to sexual violence. Solnit writes, Its a slippery slope. Thats why we need to address the slope, rather than compartmentalizing the varieties of misogyny and dealing with them separately. Candid, courageous, and unflinchingly honest, Men Explain Things to Me is a powerful polemic for a future where women can enjoy equal power and respect.

4The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison

$11.99

To choose a single work from Toni Morrisons prolific and peerless oeuvre is a daunting task, but when in doubt, begin at the beginning. Morrisons visionary first novel is the painful and poignant story of Pecola Breedlove, an abused and unloved Black girl, pregnant by her own father, who suffers relentless oppression and cruelty in her rural Ohio town. Pecola wishes desperately for blue eyes, convinced that conventional white beauty is the ticket to a better life, but soon finds her mind colonized to the brink of madness. In 1970, The Bluest Eye put Morrison on the map as a once-in-a-century writer of preternatural gifts; in the decades since, it has remained a mainstay on banned books lists, with states citing offensive language and sexually explicit material as justification for excluding it from academic curriculum. Oprah Winfrey once said of Morrison, She is our conscience, she is our seer, she is our truth-teller. May the lightning rod of Morrisons truth strike these states, as The Bluest Eye is a groundbreaking text with an important place in the American canon. Saturated with sorrow and charged with wonder, it remains an indelible study of trauma, shame, and internalized racism.

5Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger, by Rebecca Traister

Released just five days after Dr. Christine Blasey Fords historic congressional testimony and four days before Justice Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court confirmation, Good and Mad is the rare book published exactly when the culture needed it. Through exhaustive and compelling historical research, Traister illuminates female fury as a powerful political toolone thats long been ignored and suppressed, to the great detriment of American society. Traister traces womens rage to the roots of the abolition and labor movements, exploring the forces that have sought to curb and marginalize womens voices, while also emphasizing the ways in which Black women have long laid the foundation for the activism of American women. Powered by Traisters own anger and laced through with compelling anecdotes from women about wielding righteous rage for constructive purposes, Good and Mad is galvanizing proof that hell hath no fury like half a nations population silenced.

6Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, by Julia Serano

$18.68

In this twenty-first century cornerstone of transfeminism, Serano, a transgender woman, exposes the myriad ways in which trans women have been stereotyped and disregarded in popular culture. Serano challenges the hyper-sexualization of trans women and connects transphobia to misogyny, while also debunking dangerous and deeply-rooted cultural mistruths about femininity as weakness and passivity. Her acute analysis builds to a rousing manifesto for a new framework of gender and sexuality: one rooted in inclusivity and empowerment, designed to embrace femininity in all its many varied forms.

7Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese's, by Tiffany Midge

"Whats the Lakota word for intersectional feminism? Is it just an emoji of a knife?" asks prolific humorist Tiffany Midge in this uproarious, truth-telling collection of satirical essays skewering everything from white feminism to Pretendians to pumpkin spice. Midge, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, muses bitingly on life as a Native woman in America, staring colonialism and racism in the face wherever she finds them, from offensive Halloween costumes to exploitative language. This collections deliciously sharp edges draw laughter and blood alike.

8The Witches Are Coming, by Lindy West

Only Lindy West, one of our foremost thinkers on gender, could capture the agony and the ecstasy of 21st century life in one slim volume. In this searing collection of seventeen laser-focused essays, she unveils her unifying theory of America: that our steady diet of pop culture created by and for embittered, entitled white men is directly responsible for our sociopolitical moment. Adam Sandler, South Park, and Pepe the Frog all come under her withering scrutiny in this uproarious, hyper-literate analysis of the link between meme culture and male mediocrity. West crafts a blistering indictment of the systems that oppress usthe government that denies our rights, the media that denies our stories, and the society that denies our dignity.

9Girl Decoded: A Scientist's Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology, by Rana el Kaliouby

At once a moving memoir of one womans becoming and a fast-paced story set on the bleeding edge of artificial intelligence, Girl Decoded traces el Kalioubys personal and professional journey as a Muslim woman in the overwhelmingly white and male world of technology. Raised by conservative parents in Egypt, el Kaliouby broke with obedient daughterhood to earn a PhD at Cambridge, then moved to the United States to pursue her dream of humanizing the tech industry. As she recounts her quest to bring emotional intelligence to emerging technologies, el Kaliouby writes beautifully about the personal challenge of learning to decode her own feelings. Her efforts led her to found Affectiva, a software company pioneering artificial intelligence that can understand human emotions. As women in STEM continue to fight misogyny, racism, and countless other challenges, Girl Decoded is a rousing reminder that women can and should be able to succeed without sacrificing any part of their wholeness.

10The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love, by bell hooks

$16.99

In this seminal excavation of patriarchys devastating effect on the male psyche, hooks describes an endemic pattern of psychic self-mutilation, which drives men to lead lives of spiritual barrenness when they lose touch with love, self-expression, self-knowledge. Hooks addresses common male fears of intimacy and loss of patriarchal status while encouraging men to enrich and share their inner lives. Although hooks wrote The Will to Change with an eye toward reforming the emotional and spiritual lives of male readers, it nonetheless contains troves of wisdom for women. After all, as hooks writes, Anytime a single male dares to transgress patriarchal boundaries in order to love, the lives of women, men, and children are fundamentally changed for the better.

11Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women, by Kate Manne

The visionary author of Down Girl returns with a bracing and brilliant study of male entitlement, bound to become a cornerstone of contemporary feminist canon. In a far-ranging analysis, Manne explores the myriad manifestations of male entitlement in American society, from Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court appointment to the unequal division of domestic labor. So too does her scrutiny fall on incels, the medical undertreatment of female pain, and the myth of female politicians as unelectable, among other forces that police and punish women. Manne interrogates how entitlement gives rise to misogynist violence, making for a perceptive, precise, and gut-wrenching account of a social framework with devastating consequences.

12Circe, by Madeline Miller

Disparaging tales of witches, harpies, and other female monsters are burned into our cultural imagination, but in the lush, luminous pages of Circe, a minor sorceress from Homers Odyssey receives a long-overdue feminist reimagining. Miller charts the lesser goddess Circes exile to the enchanted island of Aiaia, where Circes prison soon becomes her paradise. For centuries, she lives a free, feral life, honing her divine gifts of witchcraft and transfiguration while bedding down with lions and wolves. When Odysseus is shipwrecked on Aiaia, Miller reimagines the power dynamics of their entanglement, chipping away at Homers fabled myth of one man's greatness to expose a selfish man as flawed as any other. In Millers masterful hands, a long-overlooked goddess steps into the spotlight, giving rise to a powerful story of independence and self-determination in a mans world.

13I Must Be Living Twice: New and Selected Poems, by Eileen Myles

In the past decade, a new generation of feminists awakened to the work of Eileen Myles, whose lifetime of intimate and inimitable poetry is collected in I Must Be Living Twice. Spanning almost four decades of visionary work, this collection assembles an eclectic blend of Myles finest work, from their reminiscences on life as a young creative in New York City to more universal reflections on falling in love. Resisting heteronormative modes and subverting facile labels, Myles reminds us that poetry is a form of activismone that can shift how we understand and empathize with the world around us.

14The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure, edited by Tristan Taormino, Constance Penley, Celine Parrenas Shimizu, and Mireille Miller-Young

Can pornography and feminism coexist? At the heart of this informative and far-reaching volume is that thorny question, explored in a series of gripping and provocative essays authored by producers, actors, consumers, and scholars of feminist pornography. From plus-size porn to disability in porn to trans womens fight to be included as frequently as trans men, these essays demand an inclusive new future for erotic representationone where fantasies of power and pleasure are egalitarian, in front of and behind the camera.

15 The Feminist Utopia Project, edited by Alexandra Brodsky and Rachel Kauder Nalebuff

What would a feminist utopia look like? Just ask any one of the fifty-seven cutting edge feminists whose voices resound in this expansive collection, which invites us to imagine a radically different world of freedom, safety, and equality. With essays by Janet Mock, Sheila Heti, Melissa Harris-Perry, and more, The Feminist Utopia Project proposes vigorous and compelling thought experiments: how might birth control be different if it were designed by an abortion provider? What would our economy look like if it valued caregiving and domestic labor? What would good sex mean through a framework of female pleasure? Next time you feel the feminist project is doomed, dive into this galvanizing book for a curative and necessary dose of hope.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

See the original post:
These 15 Feminist Books Will Inspire, Enrage, and Educate You - Esquire

Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty

As federal authorities crack down on the far right after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the movements leaders have found new sources of suspicion: each other.

In the Trumpist America First movement and the far-right paramilitary group the Proud Boys, alliances are fracturing as extremists brand each other as potential informants. Now racist live-streamers are accusing their former comrades of attempting to turn over followers to law enforcement, while Proud Boys chapters are splintering from the national organization over similar fears.

Proud Boys Dealt Another Blow as Feds Crack Down

Until the FBI started closing in, white nationalists Nick Fuentes and Patrick Casey were the two most prominent figures in the racist America First movement.

The pair built up shared audiences on live-streaming platforms, and cheered as their fans, nicknamed groypers after an obese version of the cartoon Pepe the Frog, heckled more moderate Trump allies at conservative events.

But the federal heat is on after Fuentes received roughly $250,000 in a much-scrutinized bitcoin transfer, then appeared outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot. The FBI is reportedly investigating the bitcoin transfer, though Fuentes has not faced charges over the money or the riot.

Nick Fuentes, the leader of a Christian based extremist white nationalist group speaks to his followers, 'the Groypers.' in Washington D.C. on November 14, 2020

Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via Getty

On Thursday, Casey distanced himself from Fuentes and America First in a live-streamed video, slamming Fuentes decision to gather his followers in Orlando later this month for a conference right as other America First supporters face charges over the riot.

Some people who were at the Capitol are going to flip, Casey said in his video.

Declaring the aftermath of the Capitol riot a million times worse for the far right than the crackdown that followed the fatal white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017, Casey claimed, without offering evidence, that Fuentes bank accounts have been frozen by federal authorities. He also accused Fuentes of planning to drive cross-country, rather than fly, to the Florida conference because he suspected he was on the federal no-fly list, then concealing that possibility from his followers.

Story continues

Worst of all, Casey argued, Fuentes planned to gather all of his supporters in Orlando, where they could be easily recorded by federal investigators or informants. He went on to suggest America Firsts members would see the conference for what he thinks it could be: an FBI trap.

He wants you to give him your real name, to show up to his event where your face will be visible, where your cellphone data will be in close proximity to his, Casey said.

Fuentes didnt respond to a request for comment.

Accusations that one-time allies have become federal informants arent uncommon in the extreme right, which has built up an entire lexicon of terms to describe the varieties of real or suspected federal infiltrators. But that paranoia has been ratcheted up in the aftermath of the riot, with the Proud Boysa group that has seen a slew of members indictedsplintering under accusations that leaders have become informants or otherwise been compromised by the FBI.

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was arrested in Washington, D.C., two days before the riot, and now faces felony charges over the possession of illicit firearm magazines. But a Reuters report on Tarrios history as a federal informant cast members suspicions on their own leader, even as Proud Boys who allegedly participated in the riot face federal conspiracy charges.

Proud Boys chapters in three U.S. statesincluding four local chapters in Indiananow claim to have broken with the national organization over Tarrios work as a federal informant. (Tarrio did not return a request for comment.)

We reject and disavow the proven federal informant, Enrique Tarrio, and any and all chapters that choose to associate with him, read a statement shared by the Indiana groups state-level Telegram channel and on the Alabama groups website, previously reported by USA Today. We do not recognize the assumed authority of any national Proud Boy leadership including the Chairman, the Elders, or any subsequent governing body that is formed to replace them until such a time we may choose to consent to join those bodies of government.

Proud Boys in Oklahoma also broke from Tarrios leadership, issuing a statement on messaging app Telegram in which they accused him and other national elders of failure to take disciplinary measures [which] have jeopardized our brothers safety and the integrity of our brotherhood.

Tarrio responded to the Oklahoma chapters departure with a series of memes accusing Oklahomans of being rednecks, or having sex with relatives. Anti-Tarrio Proud Boys responded with their own memes accusing their former leader of ratting out members of the group, photoshopping his face on rapper and government witness Tekashi69. Another meme played on the menacing Proud Boys motto Fuck Around and Find Out, claiming that Tarrio would instead Snitch Around and Rat Out.

But dont expect Proud Boy splinter groups to morph into peaceful book clubs. The Indiana Proud Boys, for example, are led by Brien James, a longtime member of white supremacist groups with a history of violent brawls. Other white supremacists have previously slammed James as a law enforcement risk (someone you want to keep away from you because you know hes going to do something to bring the cops over, one previously noted). Nevertheless, James took to Telegram this week to blame Tarrio and Ethan Rufio Panman Nordean, a prominent Proud Boy who was arrested on Feb. 3 over his own alleged role in the riot, of being untrustworthy.

Now we have another war boy and elder who is trying to snitch on the president? For something he knows damn well the president didnt do? You made your own choices Rufio, James wrote, adding that if you are a Proud Boy I would recommend having your chapter declare full autonomy from the national structure at the very least. (A public defender listed as representing Nordean did not respond to a request for comment.)

The Capitol riots have been followed by still more rifts internationally.

Anti-fascist activists in Manitoba, Canada, also claim their provinces Proud Boys chapter has dissolved. The CBC reported that, while the chapter had been largely inactive for the past year, the group was confirmed dead this month, when the Canadian government designated Proud Boys as a terrorist organization.

Inside the Alt-Right Meltdown After Failed Capitol Putsch

Meanwhile, Jason Lee Van Dyke, who registered the groups trademark and briefly led the Proud Boys in 2018, filed this week to surrender the trademark to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, legal documents show. Van Dyke previously told The Daily Beast he revoked Tarrios license to use the name after a Black church in Washington, D.C., sued the Proud Boys for allegedly burning their flag in a rally weeks before the Capitol attack.

I dont want any recourse or anyone thinking I have any control over this group, that I have anything to do with this group, or that I am going to have anything to do with this group in the future, Van Dyke said in a separate interview this week. He claimed hed tried to transfer the trademark to another Proud Boy, who got spooked after Canada slapped the group with a terrorist label.

There was one individual who contacted me about having the trademark transferred to him, Van Dyke told The Daily Beast. After the Canadian government made a determination of the Proud Boys as a terrorist group for whatever reason they did that, that individual told me he was out and he would not be taking over the trademark. My response to that individual and those who had been working with him on acquiring the trademark was that they had seven days to get back to me regarding who was going to take it over, or I was going to surrender it.

I did not hear back from anybody and the trademark is surrendered.

As for the America First movement, Caseys criticism of Fuentes has riled the groypers, who have been forced to choose between their two leaders. Fuentes appeared to respond to Casey on Thursday night by tweeting a video of Donald Trump talking about disloyalty.

Nick Fuentes, Alex Jones, Ali Alexander during a 'Stop the Steal,' Far-Right Rallies leaders, broadcaster rally at the Governor's Mansion in Georgia November 19th, 2020 as the state finishes the recount in the Presidential election - calling on Governor Kemp to help President Trump.

Zach Roberts/NurPhoto via Getty

But Fuentes supporters and allies have good reason to believe federal law enforcement is focusing on their group. Anthime Gionet, a Fuentes ally who goes by the alias Baked Alaska, was arrested in January after filming himself entering the Capitol. Riot suspect Riley June Williams, who wore an Im With Groyper shirt to the Capitol, allegedly stole a laptop computer from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Casey urged his followers to consider how they would react to Fuentes conference if any other far-right leader had been behind it.

You would be like, Wow, federal honeypot, federal honeypot event, Casey said. You would probably accuse the guy of being a fed.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here

Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!

Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

View original post here:
FBI Informant Panic Is Ruining Friendships All Over the Far Right - Yahoo News

LONDON Dont Cry Wolf, one of the handful of PR agencies to so far become a B-Corp, has repositioned as the brand activism agency to reflect growth in its environmental and social change client base.

The three-year-old agency has also strengthened its ESG credentials by inviting a client onto the board to improve governance, and taking environmental measures that have led to a 45% drop in carbon emissions. This is despite increasing headcount to 16 staff as of next month, up from 11 the previous quarter and including the agencys first designer, Sam Allen, who joins from ethical beauty brand Lush.

Dont Cry Wolfs new positioning comes after the team rolled out work such deforestation campaign from palm-oil-free nut butter brand Meridian after work with brands including community-focused fizzy drinks brand Soda Folk, which donates a proportion of profits to good causes. The agency's revenue grew by 30% in 2020, to 1.1 million.

Managing director Sara Collinge told PRovoke: We wanted to be super clear that we believe brands have a role beyond pounds and pence and that we work with peoplewho want to use their resources to create positive change in the world. Were attracting more clients who really want to make a difference and arent just virtue signalling.

The new non-executive board role has been filled by Amy Barber, the head of marketing for hairbrush brand Tangle Teezer North America, which became a Dont Cry Wolf client in September last year. She previously headed up PR for femtech trailblazer Elvie, which hired the agency in 2019.

Collinge said: Having a client on the board is a bit like breaking the fourth wall. As a B-Corp we have that triple-bottom-line focus and were doing well on the environmental and social side of things, but we were looking at ways to make sure we were doing our best with regards to governance and one of those ways is to have external people on board. We already have Stephen Waddington and wanted to introduce another big brain into the mix and who better than a trusted client to give advice?

Barber added: When Dont Cry Wolf asked me to join the board, I was surprised and delighted. Surprised because Id never heard of a client being invited into the inner chamber of an agencys business before. And delighted because theyre a great bunch of people and a team of wicked-smart comms professionals. Im looking forward to seeing what its like north of the wall.

The agency is launching another US and UK brand activism campaign this week for Tangle Teezer: addressing the lack of diversity in the traditional stories that are read to children by putting Black protagonists and their natural hair centre stage, finding that hair relaxers are used on around half of Black children.

In fulfilling its obligation to tracking its carbon footprint as part of B-Corp status, with consultancy Green Element, Dont Cry Wolf saw total carbon dioxide equivalent gases drop from 50.17 tonnes in 2019 to 26.91 tonnes in 2020, primarily because of a drop in travel, commuting, meetings and entertaining, and despite an increase in electricity usage as the team shifted to working at home without the benefits of buying at scale.

Agency founder John Brown said: Its been fascinating to see the impact the pandemic has had on the carbon efficiency of our business. While the carbon emissions per full-time employee have decreased overall, its important to ensure that all the good steps weve taken to make our office as environmentally sound as possible are reflected in a more virtual setup. As we all rush back to happy hours, we should at least try and keep in mind that sore heads and light wallets arent the only by-products of the social side of our business.

See original here:
Don't Cry Wolf Repositions As Brand Activism Specialist - PRovoke Media

Facebook on Wednesday announced it would restrict Australians from accessing news articles on its platform. Richard Drew/AP hide caption

Facebook on Wednesday announced it would restrict Australians from accessing news articles on its platform.

Updated 6:22 p.m. ET

Facebook said Wednesday that it is preventing people inside Australia from accessing news stories on its platform. In addition, Facebook users elsewhere will not be able to view or share news stories from Australian outlets. The moves are a response to proposed legislation that would force social media platforms to pay Australian news organizations for links shared on its sites.

Facebook's announcement came the same day Google said it had reached a deal with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which owns Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, to pay for its journalism.

Facebook, however, chose the nuclear option rather than bargain with news publishers in Australia.

"Today we made an incredibly difficult decision to restrict the availability of news on Facebook in Australia," said Campbell Brown, Facebook's vice president of global news partnerships, in a blog post. "What the proposed law introduced in Australia fails to recognize is the fundamental nature of the relationship between our platform and publishers."

News publishers, according to Brown, choose to share stories on Facebook, which allows the outlets to find new readers and subscribers, leading to revenue the news organizations would not have found without the social network.

Media organizations in country, like the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, have expressed dismay over Facebook's move.

"Despite key issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic having ongoing effects on all Australians, Facebook has today removed important and credible news and information sources from its Australian platform," David Anderson, the broadcaster's managing director, said in a statement. "We will continue our discussions with Facebook today following this development."

Under the proposed Australian legislation, platforms would have to negotiate with publishers over access to links to news stories. If no deal is reached, the tech companies and media organizations would move to arbitration. In addition, the bill requires platforms to give news outlets notice when algorithms are changed that may affect the visibility and reach of news stories.

The law could pass in the Australian Parliament as soon as this month. For years, Australian-born Murdoch has been lobbying the government to push tech companies to pony up for news articles linked in search results and social media. The agreement Murdoch struck with Google is a three-year deal under which News Corp. will receive "significant payments" from Google for featuring stories from publications based in the U.S., U.K. and Australia

Facebook and Google have vigorously fought the proposed legislation in Australia and have publicly threatened to pull out of the country over the effort to compensate news organizations.

Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, said the proposed law is an attempt to reinvigorate flailing news organizations, which have seen substantial amounts of advertising revenue siphoned by tech giants like Facebook and Google.

"It's not about the money. It's about the fact that Facebook wants to maintain its powerful position everywhere in the world," Vaidhyanathan said of Facebook's resistance. He said the social network's fight shows it hopes to "continue to build their fortunes off the work of others."

Other experts said Facebook playing hardball with Australia is likely intended to send a message to other governments mulling proposals to push platforms to pay news publishers.

"It is kind of a stark reminder of the control that they have over what people see and obviously with respect to people who use Facebook as their primary source of news," said Enrique Armijo, First Amendment and technology professor at Yale Law School.

"This could have serious consequences. And I think any government that's trying to be kind of interventionist in this area is going to be more mindful now that Facebook," he said, "at least has the intention of shutting down news access on the platform entirely."

While Australia's news market is substantially smaller than the U.S., tech companies and lawmakers are carefully watching the proposal.

At least one tech giant, Microsoft, would like to see a version of Australia's plan in this country.

Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote in a blog post last week that the well-financed tech sector has an obligation to support independent journalism.

"The United States should not object to a creative Australian proposal that strengthens democracy by requiring tech companies to support a free press," Smith wrote. "It should copy it instead."

Facebook has paid publishers in limited circumstances, including to license headlines and for story summaries to be featured on the platform.

"We pay hundreds of publishers for access to more of their content for Facebook News, a product we're working to bring to more countries this year," Facebook's Brown wrote.

"I think a lot of countries are going to wait and see how this works out in Australia," Vaidhyanathan of the University of Virginia, added.

"Will one side blink or will Facebook just keep going with this petulant attitude until everybody forgets about it and life goes on without Australian news services flowing on Facebook?" he said. "That's not the worst possible outcome. As long as these news organizations remain viable and independent, reporting can remain viable."

Editor's note: Facebook, Google and Microsoft are among NPR's financial supporters.

Read the original:
Facebook Blocks News In Australia Over Government Plan To Force Payment To Publishers - NPR