This thread is a great example of how social media can be used for deceptively simple storytelling to make human rights about... humans. Which is how it should be. Please share
1/ Here is an interesting counter-point to that thread. I read the original thread a a sincere and potentially effective attempt to tell a human story to make a point about the real life effects of a brutal regime which for many people is very far away
2/ Taking some of points made against @krudell (a) since advocacy isn't with permission of protagonists, it should be treated with caution as it may make things worse. I think that's fair, though not sure @hpstorian has a particular reason to see that as an issue in this case
3/ Then, (b) no 'ask' at end - e.g. you should donate to x or write to y - that's fair-ish, though (as someone who has tried to build an org promoting human rights story-telling) in my experience getting people to emotionally connect to human rights stories is tough...
4/ ... and it's not always about the 'ask' - sometimes it's just about getting people to think again about something they have not engaged with because it's too far away/difficult. So I'm sympathetic to simple storytelling which packs a punch whether or not it ends with an 'ask'
5/ Though, you then get to virtue signalling, i.e. what's the point of piquing someone's emotions without getting them to do something. That's fair but hardly unusual on social media. What is unusual is writing which cuts through to people who aren't already engaged in an issue.
7/ A third criticism (c) is that this is, stripped down, an ego-driven piece more interested in foregrounding the writer's own brilliant life than the tragedy of Fahad Albutairi and @LoujainHathloul - this sounds a bit ad hominem to me, and Twitter is just like that I'm afraid
8/ As @cripipper said, this raises the question of whether people have a right to opt out of being icons for human rights? Fair point. But on my fairly limited experience of these kind of campaigns, worldwide media exposure can be pretty effective.
9/ Another point made is that @krudell shouldn't have shared private messages without permission. Again, this is a fair point. Overall, my instinctive response is the this kind of human rights story telling and campaigning may look simple but it is incredibly hard to do well.
10/ Ultimately, I don't think there is a clear answer here. I would love to hear others' thoughts and particularly if there have been any responses from human rights groups with a focus on Saudi Arabia
