“You don’t have to tell your story, you just have to say Me Too.” – Tarana Burke
What started as one short sentence, became a hashtag that symbolised the solidarity and support of thousands, and is today one of the most globally-recognised, game-changing and momentous movements of 2018 and of our lifetime, #MeToo is a revolution.
Having initially made its mark in Hollywood in the US, exposing several well-known directors, agents, musicians and actors in the entertainment industry for sexual misconduct, the #MeToo movement has recently spread across the world to Bollywood and is gaining momentum in India.
Mentions of the Movement
Global media intelligence company, Meltwater, tracked and analysed mentions of the hashtag and movement.
What the data indicates is that the movement is new to the Indian shores – with 17 500 mentions of #MeToo in editorial news in the last month, 95% of which were in the last seven days alone.
On the social media front, there are no signs of slowing down with over 2 and a half million mentions globally in just one week.
What’s Trending?
Meltwater took a deeper dive into the hashtag #MeToo and monitored other terms and themes surrounding the movement.
Of the considerable number of global mentions of #MeToo, the word “India” trended alongside it with 46 000 mentions. This solidifies the statement that the movement is making waves in India.
Other topics that were trending with the hashtag #MeToo this week include:
- The terms “sexual assault” and “sexual harassment” with 29k and 27k mentions respectively. The movement began and grew with women finally opening up about the sexual abuse and harassment they had unfortunately experienced.
- The word “vote” has been mentioned – in relation to #MeToo – 66k times on social media and 25k times in the news around the world. The data indicates this is due to the upcoming USA General Elections on the 8th November. Several calls encouraging Americans to vote included terms like “no excuses,” “time is up,” and several important aspects like, “climate change,” “gun control” and “education.”
- #TimesUp – a movement stemming from the #MeToo movement, where abuse survivors demand that “Time’s Up” and sexual harassment, in every form, will not be tolerated anymore. Several popular Indian brands jumped on board to show their support, including Durex with a video that wrote “Before you even think about it, get COND –” and then crossed it out and wrote “get CONSENT.”
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Where in the World?
Big data analytics and media intelligence firm, Meltwater, then went on to track where these issues have been spoken about the most.
It was discovered that globally, India has been the most vocal about the #MeToo movement with 25% of the chatter stemming from India. Following closely behind, the USA are responsible for 22% of the conversations.
Following these two major regions, #MeToo has been mentioned frequently throughout the neighbouring countries of India and USA, namely China and Canada respectively.
If this tells us anything, it is that #MeToo is more than a hashtag, but a global force to be reckoned with.
