Keyboards are the New Weapons for Zimbabweans Intent on Confronting a Rising Dictatorship

In the face of an increasingly autocratic government, Zimbabweans have turned to social media to vent their anger and shine a light on human rights abuses and misrule.On Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms, keyboard warriors are furiously typing posts, creating sustained online campaigns to vent against the government.The “hashtag revolution” was arguably sparked by pastor Evan Mawarire in late 2016, when he was arrested for starting the #ThisFlag movement against then president Robert Mugabe.But social media activism against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime really took hold this August, when #ZimbabweanLivesMatter — an anti-government protest along the lines of the #BlackLivesMatter movement — went viral.

SOURCE: BUSINESS DAY LIVE