SOCIAL MEDIA AS A TOOL FOR ACTIVISM — Letters that should have been in the new york times

To the Editor:

As an activist with a large Instagram and TikTok following of teenage girls, I believe Ross Douthat’s (Instagram is Adult Entertainment, Sept. 28) claim that social media should be an adult platform disempowers the very population he seeks to protect. Many young people are using it as a tool to make social change.

For me, social media has been critical in building a global youth-led community on six continents to address gender-based street harassment. The movement, Chalk Back, started over five years ago in New York and could not have grown without social media. Social media continues to be essential for expanding educational and solidarity building activities.

There are challenges to using social media to make change. Algorithms highlight mindless content over those addressing important social issues like sexual harassment. Ironically, on TikTok we have been banned for posting stories of harassment (our posts sharing stories of street harassment faced by teenagers are flagged as adult content.)

Rather than kicking young people off of these platforms, social media giants need to take seriously their potential power in creating social change. Offering space for consultation between young activists and social media companies would be a powerful first step.

Respectfully,

Sophie Sandberg