Celebrities Campaign on Social Media to Get Justice for Rape Victims: A Study on Two Rape Incidents in Nigeria

The world is acquainted with social media revolution. It is no longer news that social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, Skype and many more are used as a tool for airing our opinions and sharing our views pertaining to various trivial issues around the globe. Celebrities on a daily basis use social media for lots of things and they have the power to influence or provoke change on any matter of social interest. Most times victims of sexual assault tend to shy away from seeking justice due to the fear of being stigmatized; and when they voice out and celebrities go on social media to push for justice, it’s only a matter of time before the hype for justice dies down and victims are left shattered while their abusers go unpunished. This has been a trend for sometime now where at the beginning there’s so much hype to get justice and then it all dies down. This study aimed to explore the outcome of celebrity campaign on social media to push for justice for two rape victims – Uwa and Barakat. Questionnaire and content analysis methods have been used for this study. Questionnaire was used to determine the most used social media while content analysis was used to analyze posts with the hash tags #justice for Uwa and Barakat on the most used social media platform. Findings have revealed that celebrities push for justice for the case of Uwa and Barakat has tremendously led to the arrest of culprits involved in less than few days since the incident occurred. However, the use of social media by celebrities as a tool in following up cases of rape is not popular in literature as it should be an important factor in fighting against sexual assault and getting justice for victims. Not much has been done in regards to celebrities using social media as a tool for social change particularly on the issue of sexual assault. It is imperative that celebrities utilize social media in following up cases of sexual assault and see it through till the very end as this will not only change the norm but will eventually serve as an eye opener to sex offenders that they won’t go unpunished.