ICIS 2020 India: Social media movements of #GBV in South Africa

Despite the spike in violence on women and femicides, South Africa has had successful social media movements to combat GBV. The #GBV movement in South Africa resulted in the formation of a new policy framework to address femicides and GBV. South African universities have also placed structures in place to safeguard and address the occurrence of GBV on their campuses. This success is an example of the significant role of Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) in achieving social justice. Through qualitative content analysis, we analyzed 478 Twitter posts on #GBV and related #hashtags. The current study developed a conceptual framework that proposes factors that can be used to evaluate the success of social media movements. The study also argues that, while social media is successful in achieving social justice, Information Systems (IS) researchers need to pay attention to possible unintended consequences. These include GBV victim-blaming and cyberbullying