Een tweesnijdend zwaard: de kansen en risico’s van sociale media voor burgerlijk ongehoorzaam klimaatactivisme

A double-edged sword: the promises and risks of social media use for civil disobedient climate activism Civil disobedient action has re-emerged as a core activist strategy and protest philosophy across contemporary climate change movements. This produces ‘tension’ to protest governance: whilst the democratic nature of civil disobedience demands protection, its law-breaking nature often disrupts the public order. In practice, this tension is often associated with negative media coverage and a securitization of civil disobedient activism. In turn, civil disobedience collectives have increasingly turned towards social media platforms to provide alternative moral justifications for their protest tactics in an effort to raise further awareness and mobilize for collective actions. This article aims to provide an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of social media for climate change civil disobedience, blending a review of current literature on the topic with examples from the Instagram practices of collectives such as Letzte Generation and Ultima Generazione. The authors connect this overview with a broader discussion of the tension between democratic self-expression and the increased securitization of protest governance.