From Spectators to Participants: Rhetorical Approaches to Digital Nonviolent Resistance in Social Media Video

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article contributes a rhetorical approach to nonviolent resistance that is enacted in short-form social media video environments. By examining how three viral videos on the platform TikTok reimagine the nonviolent resistance tactics of sabotage, disruption, and civil disobedience, this article considers the similarities, differences, aptitudes, and constraints of digital nonviolent resistance in social media video compared to fully offline counterparts. Consideration of three short-form social media videos that involve sabotaging an antiabortion group’s web portal, disrupting a Donald Trump campaign rally, and enacting civil disobedience by dancing without a headscarf in Iran showcase digital nonviolent resistance in social media video to more rapidly coordinate ad-hoc social networks, be more intensely calibrated for mediation, be more global and lighthearted, and be comparatively limited in scale, scope, efficacy, and risk to participants while still rhetorically generating meaningful consequences.