Femitags for feminist connected crowds in Latin America and Spain

Abstract

In recent years, women are acting all over the world against gender violence and femicide. This new wave of feminist claims is characterized by the intensive use of social media to spread consciousness and amplify influence. For this research, we analyse three femitags (i.e., feminist hashtags) from Twitter that have been relevant in different crucial mobilizations in Argentina, Spain, and Mexico. These are three hashtags with different functions for activism that have shown special relevance due to their continuity or their intensity in the Spanish-speaking area between 2015 and 2020 (before the confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic). #NiUnaMenos (#NotASingleWomanLess) started in Argentina in 2015 and called to massive mobilizations on the streets. #Cuéntalo (#TellIt) was initiated in Spain in 2018 for sexual abuse disclosure. #NiUnaMas (#NotASingleWomanMore) trended in México around 2020 to denounce every new victim of rape or femicide. We analyse how those hashtags have spread in the Spanish-speaking region, what kind of social actors have been involved and what has been the role of opinion leaders. All data were collected with academic access to the Twitter API during December 2021. We have found that the most influential actors in the conversation are contingent and circumstantial, the leadership structure tends towards horizontality, and opinion leaders with large numbers of followers are only important in very specific moments. In all cases, femitags serve as a toolbox for action and build up an archive of grievances with a transnational dimension. Furthermore, all of them point out that structural violence against women leads to feminicide.11Feminicidie distinguishes any murder of women and girls (femicide), from hate crimes as the culmination of gender violence, and impunity (Lagarde, 2005).