It rarely happens, but even out of the most horrible situations, beautiful things can come. A sense of greater awareness and unity emerges along with a sense of morality that is based entirely on how people and society handle a given situation. That’s exactly what happened to the people of Australia – with the help of social media.
Last December an armed man took hostage nine customers and eight employees of Lindt chocolate café in Sydney. The hostage situation lasted 16 hours, and two people were killed.
Due to the gunman’s motives and his background, the Muslim community was genuinely afraid of a racial backlash. Many hate crimes have taken place against Muslims after such events, and this time as well they anticipated a similar response.
TV content editor and writer Tessa Kum from Sydney read a story about discrimination that made her so upset she started the hashtag “#IllRideWithYou”. It was offered to Muslims who didn’t feel safe riding the train alone. In no time at all the hashtag went viral with tweets from thousands of people from all over Australia sharing the same message of solidarity. The hashtag began trending worldwide and stayed there throughout the day. Within the first three hours, 60,000 tweets were generated with the hashtag, and as this went to press there were a total of 117,682 tweets and counting.
Australians could not have been prouder about the way they handled the situation. People from all over the world joined the hashtag and expressed their concerns and the need for all communities, regardless of race, religion, gender and ethnicity to unite.
Many might wonder what difference a simple hashtag on social media can make. Usually when news breaks out of such events, hateful comments dominate, but this time it was different and the hashtag urged tolerance, respect, and understanding.
The episode wasn’t saying that these issues do not exist but rather that “We know it exists, we acknowledge it, and we are fighting it.” It also speaks volumes to the future generation. The fact is this took place via social media, a virtual platform that gave voice to thousands in the midst of such chaos – and it’s good to know that even out of such horrible events something beautiful can happen. The people of Australia are a leading example, and we hope that we continue to spread unity beyond hashtags and trends. The power of social media is in our hands: it is endless, and it can open doors to much needed love respect, and understanding.
Australia, #IllRideWithYou
By Mirriam Akbar
