new media & society 1–20 © The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1461444816663485 nms.sagepub.com Racial justice activist hashtags: Counterpublics and discourse circulation Rachel Kuo New York University, USA Abstract Using critical discourse analysis and network analysis, I address how racial justice activist hashtags #NotYourAsianSideKick and #SolidarityisforWhiteWomen circulate discourse across networked online publics within and outside Twitter. These hashtags showcase relationships between feminist online publics, demonstrate ways that hashtags circulate racial justice discourse, and exemplify the fluidity and intersectionality of racialized and feminist online publics. I draw on critical technocultural discourse analysis (CTDA) (Brock, 2012) as my technique in order to examine the hashtag’s discursivity. In order to analyze message spread and network relationships, I then provide a network analysis that illustrates message circulation in online feminist spheres. Keywords Activism, counterpublics, feminism, hashtags, intersectionality, networks, race, Twitter While Twitter cannot serve as the only activist tool for social movements, its potential power as social platform lies in how networked clusters of people can coalesce, respond, and mobilize to amplify messages beyond individuals and specific communities. Social media tools, including Twitter, are both shaped and limited by their architecture: “pro- gramming codes set the range of usability” and “users’ actions are enabled and con- strained by company policies and user terms” (Youmans and York, 2012: 316, 325). Examples of racial justice activist hashtags include #BlackLivesMatter, #RaceFail, and #IfTheyGunnedMeDown. These hashtags exemplify the use of Twitter as a medium for Corresponding author: Rachel Kuo, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University, NY 10003, USA. Email: rachel.kuo@nyu.edu 663485NMS 0 0 10.1177/1461444816663485new media & societyKuo research-article 2016 Article at Bobst Library, New York University on October 11, 2016 nms.sagepub.com Downloaded from