Kony 2012: Invisible Children’s Viral Video Sparks Criticisms

Kony 2012: Invisible Children’s Viral Video Sparks Criticisms

A group of Southern California surfer boys from advocacy group “Invisible Children” got more than 30 million viewers to a 30-minute video on a two-decade conflict in Central Africa — in just three days.

The downside is that the video has been receiving some tough criticisms accusing that the group is “waking up” awareness about a conflict that has essentially died down since its height in 2003. Some Africa experts and human rights advocates today say the widespread negativity is unfounded.

"The argument now is that Kony and the LRA are no longer this massive threat," Cameron Hudson, the former Africa director in the Bush administration National Security Council, announced Thursday, referring to Joseph Kony, the founder of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), who is accused of abducting and killing thousands of children and committing other atrocities in his two-decade war against the Ugandan government.

Hudson believes the criticism is mostly sour grapes.  "I think that these guys are getting mercilessly picked apart by a bunch of intellectual elites who spend their days tweeting but never trending," he said. "If their aim is to raise awareness, they have done that in spades."

The advocacy group “Invisible Children” is a based in California whose founders were San Diego college students who marched to south Sudan and northern Uganda in 2003 at the height of the conflict.

On Monday, Invisible Children released a powerful, slickly produced half-hour video on the conflict, seeking a half million viewers.

By Thursday, the video had exceeded that goal more than sixty-fold, with over 30 million viewers. Their viral tag lines: Kony2012 and Stop Kony, along with Uganda and Invisible Children, were top-10 trending topics around the country.

Posted by James Fried on Saturday March 10 2012, 4:20 AM EDT. Ref: Google. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0