Tagged: Kony

This time, the video by Invisible Children is not so much a repeat of their first call to action as a defense of their action.

It’s kind of like when the Star Wars franchise put out a sequel that actually went back in time to explain how everything got started.

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Guest post by Kentaro Toyama

For a couple of weeks, Kony 2012 stole the spotlight in international development. It dominated conversation, with some applauding its success as an awareness-raising campaign (e.g., Nicholas Kristof); some criticizing it for its oversimplified, condescending, self-gratifying portrayal of the issues (e.g., Teju Cole); and many grumbling along the lines of, “Who are these punks who managed to get so much attention and funding?”

These are all important questions, but they miss the real issue that Kony 2012 raises — namely, how we as a society prioritize important issues in the age of Internet social media.

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The activist group behind the "Kony 2012" movement and Web video that went viral in March says it will release "Kony 2012, Part II" on Tuesday.

The co-founder of Invisible Children, who was detained by police in San Diego last week after residents complained he was naked on a residential street, was not on drugs, his wife said.

Jason Russell, who was catapulted into the national spotlight after his video on Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony went viral, has been shown in videos naked and apparently talking to himself on the streets of San Diego.

SAN DIEGO — A co-founder of the Invisible Children charity behind the "Kony 2012" video was detained by San Diego police and hospitalized after running through streets in his underwear and acting irrationally.

Police Lt. Andra Brown tells NBC San Diego that Jason Russell was behaving strangely Thursday, screaming, yelling and interfering with traffic while in various states of undress.

Brown says police decided he needed medical attention.

Over the past couple of weeks, Invisible Children has been in the news quite a bit. First because a video produced by the organization acheived viral success and shone a spotlight on the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony.

Then, because the video caused controversy when some said it glossed over a complex issue.

George Clooney, who has praised the Stop Kony campaign aimed at ridding east-central Africa of warlord Joseph Kony, is trying to make sure our focus on such efforts isn’t too singular.

The actor and human rights advocate has long been focused on the ongoing atrocities in Sudan and recently testified in Congress to draw attention to the killings, conflict and suffering. He recently snuck into a dangerous part of the country and produced this powerful, disturbing video.

Read more and watch the video on Humanosphere.

Ari Melber is a writer for The Nation.

If you are looking for the precise moment when the viral campaign against Ugandan rebel Joseph Kony turned to farce, it was probably at 6:21 pm on Friday March 9.

"Have you heard of this guy Joseph Kony?," asked the rapper-turned-reality-star Vanilla Ice, in a tweet from Dallas. "America needs to send in the hero's that killed Bin Laden and take this killer out."

If you're a teenager, you probably hadn't heard of Joseph Kony last week. This week, you probably couldn't avoid him.

"If I log onto Facebook or Twitter any time during the day, it's my entire news feed, basically," says Patrick Franks, an 18-year-old senior at Loyola Blakefield High School, outside Baltimore.

'We have reached the tipping point between apathy and activism and we can no longer ignore these tragedies.'

Signaling the power of viral marketing, an army of young people have sprung up overnight to fight against the infamous African warlord Joseph Kony and his militia the LRA. Millennials across the Northwest are becoming motivated by the video campaign to join the Invisible Children, the group behind the viral video detailing Kony's atrocities.

Alison Guajardo, Vice-President of the University of Washington’s Invisible Children chapter told KPLU about the club’s exponential growth that occurred practically overnight.

Over the last few days, a video posted on YouTube that aims to raise the profile — and potential for arrest — of the infamous African warlord Joseph Kony has been hugely popular and, in the eyes of many, so simplistic and inaccurate it is likely to do much more harm than good.

Read more on Humanosphere.