Kony 2012 was a groundbreaking moment in the world of humanitarian charity work, with the 29-minute-long video surrounding the horrific crimes of Joseph Kony and his recruitment of child soldiers in Uganda becoming the most viral YouTube video ever seen at the time of its release in 2012.

This signaled the start of the digital humanitarian age and the increased marketisation of media communication within the world of development. Kony 2012 took the world by storm, garnering 103 million views and 1.3 million likes at the time of writing (6^th of October 2023). It was not without its critics with media outlets branding the video as being extremely oversimplified and bordering on white saviorism (Bex and Craps, 2016).  One of my most recent lectures involved the discussion of the discourse that Kony 2012 created, and it sparked my interest in where the world of digital humanitarianism is headed in the 2020s.

Due to the ever-increasing amount of content that we consume in our daily lives it is becoming increasingly more difficult to capture the same momentum as Kony 2012 did, this coupled with the ever-decreasing attention span of Gen Z (Wall Street Journal, 2022) is pointing to the emergence of Tiktok as the ideal place for these humanitarian appeal videos to be posted. As someone who has grown up with Tiktok I can safely guess that a large proportion of young people in the global north have Tiktok downloaded currently or did have the app at some point. This is a huge demographic of potential donors or activists that NGOs or charities should be aiming to influence, with research showing that young people (Millienials and Gen Z) being the most likely people to donate to charitable causes (NonProfit Source, 2023).

The short form video style that Tiktok provides can cater perfectly to the reduced attention span of current generations, as I strongly believe that long-form videos like Kony 2012 are now a thing of the past in digital humanitarianism. NGOs such the United Nations Refugee Agency have been extremely successful in adopting Tiktok as a way of putting across their messages, with the account having amassed 7.5 million likes on its videos, 1.5 million followers, and a combined 228.7 million views across the three posts pinned at the top of their feed (these three videos add up to approximately two minutes). This is a phenomenal way of gaining a Gen Z audience (of which 60% of people said that they have been motivated to donate to charity by social media (Forbes, 2022)) and telling firsthand stories of the refugee crisis, which I believe is key to translating that engagement into real world activism. If NGOs are looking for a way to reach a large audience, for a much lower price relative to an advert on television then Tiktok should be a no-brainer.

However, this is still very little research that has been done into the effectiveness of Tiktok at generating charitable donations and activism, and with the fact that simply scrolling past a video still counting as a view there should be some skepticism around it. Despite that, the app is still relatively new, with it only surging to popularity in late 2019 and being boosted by the Covid 19 lockdowns of 2020, so hopefully the full extent of Tiktok’s capabilities within digital humanitarianism will soon be investigated by the academic community.

Despite the lack of academic discourse surrounding Tiktok you cannot argue with the reach that it provides, and the engagement with younger people that it can provide for NGOs and charities. Therefore, I believe that any organization should look to capitalize on this platform.