KONY 2012, a documentary produced by non-profit Invisible Children, has gone viral in the past couple days, receiving millions of views on YouTube and Vimeo.
The video has also, however, begun to receive significant backlash from organizations and publications questioning the authenticity of Invisible Children. Many of the negative critiques have been targeted at Invisible Children’s practices as an organization, not whether Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, is a war criminal.
Visible Children, a Tumblr dedicated to evaluating the legitimacy of the KONY 2012 campaign, raised some points Wednesday morning which have resurfaced in numerous publications.
Invisible Children replied to the criticism in a blog post overnight Thursday, iterating its “three prong†approach to tackling the LRA: documenting crimes, channeling advocacy into energy and operating programs on the ground.
“While participation in the Alliance’s charity review efforts is voluntary, the Alliance believes that failure to participate may demonstrate a lack of commitment to transparency,†states the organization’s evaluation.
Others across the Twittersphere have accused KONY 2012 of promoting slacktivism — the idea that sharing, liking or retweeting will solve a problem — across the social web. Slacktivism was even turned into the college student and Wonka memes.
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The video has also, however, begun to receive significant backlash from organizations and publications questioning the authenticity of Invisible Children. Many of the negative critiques have been targeted at Invisible Children’s practices as an organization, not whether Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, is a war criminal.
Visible Children, a Tumblr dedicated to evaluating the legitimacy of the KONY 2012 campaign, raised some points Wednesday morning which have resurfaced in numerous publications.
You can evaluate Invisible Children’s 2011 budget, which is public online, for yourself: $1,074,273 was allocated to travel and $1,724,993 was allocated to staff compensation.
Invisible Children replied to the criticism in a blog post overnight Thursday, iterating its “three prong†approach to tackling the LRA: documenting crimes, channeling advocacy into energy and operating programs on the ground.
Some Reddit users have been very involved in the discussion of the 30-minute documentary, raising similar questions and pointing out Invisible Children’s lack of compliance with the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance.
“While participation in the Alliance’s charity review efforts is voluntary, the Alliance believes that failure to participate may demonstrate a lack of commitment to transparency,†states the organization’s evaluation.
Others across the Twittersphere have accused KONY 2012 of promoting slacktivism — the idea that sharing, liking or retweeting will solve a problem — across the social web. Slacktivism was even turned into the college student and Wonka memes.
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