In recent years, social media has become a haven for introverts, celebrities and internet trolls to voice their thoughts in the hope that at least one of their followers will care about what they have to say. Twitter’s far-reaching, public nature has made it one of the main platforms for self-expression and raising awareness of issues, the most recent being the #MeToo campaign against sexual assault. While it has its benefits, social media should not be the primary platform for the #MeToo campaign as activist movements based online can often become trivialized, diverting from their original goals.

My initial response when I saw the hashtagged tweets was, “Okay, what now?” I had just skimmed through heartbreaking stories of sexual assault and abuse, and the first thing I wanted to do was think about something else. So I did. Literally with the flick of my thumb, I was reading a completely unrelated tweet about Joe Jonas’ recent engagement to Sophie Turner. I didn’t even think about the campaign again, until I saw an article explaining a “me too” movement had actually been started more than 10 years ago by activist Tarana Burke. A black woman’s decade-old movement to support sexually abused women of color had been rebranded and popularized by a famous white woman in less than 24 hours. Shocker.

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