ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the possibilities, benefits, challenges and risks of using online social media to advocate for human rights. Scholars link alternative media with the creation of multiple, counterhegemonic discursive spheres that allow normally marginalized voices to express themselves and participate in citizenship. Beyond serving as first responders collecting evidence, citizen documentation, especially live-streaming videos, can create 'distant witnesses' that help generate empathy and solidarity, leading to a sense of community and the raising of awareness. Live-streaming video platforms, where an individual is 'present in time but removed in space', can evoke empathy and a normative responsibility to act, thus potentially building community by expanding a cause's reach to new supporters. Digital technologies are useful for amplifying marginalized groups' voices; raising awareness and creating community and a sense of shared solidarity; monitoring, documenting and reporting human rights abuses; enhancing civic and political participation; facilitating mobilization; and increasing access to justice.
