A friend on Facebook commented, “I don’t fear a terrorist attack, I fear what happens after”.
That was yesterday afternoon. The Sydney Siege was continuing. Misinformation and ‘expert views’ about what was going on were rampant. Racial and religious hate on Twitter had gone into overdrive. Fears of widespread anti-Muslim sentiment emerged.
We know the siege has since ended in tragic circumstances, with three people dead including two hostages and the gunman. Police have referred to the perpetrator as a “lone gunman”, and it’s been revealed he had a very long criminal record.
But what we also saw yesterday was a collective response to challenge the expected reaction of fear such an event is expected to have on a city, as well as what some media outlets were telling us to feel. And indeed it may have challenged the disunity these attacks are designed to instil.
It came in the form of hashtag #illridewithyou — a shared symbol of support for anyone who feared their race, religion and/or religious attire might put them at risk while getting to and from work/school/university/wherever they have to be.
I first saw the hashtag on Twitter and was immediately struck with emotion. It was, hands down, the most powerful thing I’ve seen on social media and while I’m not proud of why it emerged, I am proud that it emerged in my city and popped up continuously in my Facebook and Twitter feeds.
It started in response to incidents on public transport in which Muslim women felt uncomfortable on public transport. One Facebook user, Rachael Jacobs, reported that when seeing a woman sitting next to her on the train silently removing her hijab, she ran after her at the station saying ‘put it back on. I’ll walk with you’.
That inspired others to share their travel plans for getting to and from work, declaring that if you’re wearing religious attire and don’t feel safe alone, they’ll ride with you. Twitter user @sirtessa is believed to have first suggested the hashtag, #illridewithyou.
Within hours, more than 100,000 tweets had mentioned the hashtag. It was trending worldwide by early evening, behind #sydneysiege. It’s since gone on to generate media attention all over the world as a means for standing up to racism.
It countered a different image that had gone viral — that of a photo of hostages being forced to hold up a sign depicting an Islamic declaration of faith in the windows of the Lindt cafe. It defied what certain segments of the media — notably the Daily Telegraph with its special Monday afternoon edition carrying the headline ‘DEATH CULT CBD ATTACK’ along with a photo of the hostages — were encouraging us to do: cave in to the fear such attacks often hope to perpetuate.
Yesterday, social media became a hotbed of misinformation, ‘expert views’ and ill-informed assumptions about just what was occurring in Sydney’s Martin Place and why. It showed citizen journalism still has a long way to go on covering events like this.
But by late afternoon social media was proving its purpose and resilience in offering something else — hope.
No doubt plenty of cynics will question what good a hashtag can do and whether #illridewithyou made any difference at all. It obviously can’t change what happened and all our hearts are with those affected by this tragedy, especially those families of the hostages killed.
But it did offer a shared outlet to express the significance of harmony and unity, to let common sense over fear mongering prevail and to collectively prove we’re capable of standing up to fear, racism and bigotry.
And if it was enough to help just one person feel comfortable getting to whatever they had on today, then that’s something.