Slacktivism in the Twitter Presence of Selected Corporations in the 2020 Black Lives Matter Movement through the Lens of Identity Politics

The Black Lives Matter movement which gained influence in 2020 aims to combat discrimination against African-Americans in society. Corporations have been called to participate in the effort towards social change. This study analyzes the evident themes, mediums employed, and frequency of Tweets posted by Fortune 500 companies during the height of the BLM movement of 2020 to describe how these entities employed slacktivism on Twitter through the lens of identity politics. Audience replies are also examined in terms of evident themes and mediums employed. From the 10 companies with the most Tweets about BLM, 20 replies are gathered per corporate Tweet. The study employs thematic analysis for qualitative content analysis. Six evident themes: Need for dialogue, Call to action, Black experiences, Discrimination, Inequality, and Promotion, are identified from 132 corporate Tweets. The replies to the Tweets are categorized into the following themes: Need for dialogue, Call to action, Black Experiences, Discrimination, Inequality, and General Feedback. The prevalent mediums used in corporate Tweets and replies to such are text, links, images, and videos. The study concludes that corporations use slacktivism by expressing the evident themes. Replies to these Tweets also express the similar evident themes and give feedback to the corporations by conveying their praise or criticism, while remaining vigilant of their stands on social issues