Fake Solidarity from Corporate Social Media.
"These comment-section revolts are reminders that users don’t want brands to feign solidarity while raking in huge profits yet paying their employees minimum wage, or sell their customers hopeful platitudes in order to capitalize on their emotional state. Acts of community aid and chants of ‘no justice, no peace’ are renunciations of trust in a broken social contract. To cover their failure, mega-corporations are telling us how great we all are and how much they miss us. While we shouldn’t forget that social media platforms themselves are corporations vying for users and attention, they are also an important space for information and images of protest. Don’t black out your Instagram: keep tweeting about your experiences and what you witness, while also rejecting the bland sentimentalism. It is just a distraction from what is really missing and what we must demand: systemic change."
"Without real action behind these words, such corporate responses are mere platitudes, no better than the insipid calls for ‘togetherness’ many other firms have shared since the COVID-19 pandemic began"