Principles of Hashtag Publics

This week in class we discussed the topic of the principles of hashtags and the effects of counter publics on social media. The biggest thing that I took away from this discussion was the different ways that a hashtag can either help or harm a group's cause. Hashtags are available for public use which means that they can be used in any form, by anyone. Hashtags are able to be used by the group that goes against the the original group and they are able to flip it to use it against them. Hashtags are used to connect people who are talking about the same subject which means that even if people are talking bad or good about the subject. This is very interesting to me because I have never thought about it in the way that hashtags could go both ways. This is a very important fact to consider when looking at the ways that activist movements and groups interact with each other and how certain topics become a trending topic and gains more views.