Others have showed their support in renaming the city of Columbus, Ohio. And more than , have signed a petition asking US leaders to restore funding to the World Health Organization. There's a myriad of petitions online calling for change in issues ranging from social justice to environmental rights to healthcare. But do they make a difference? Well, it's complicated. Read More. There's no true measure of success for petitions.
That's because, in order to be effective, they almost always are paired with dozens more actions carried out by the organization or individuals who drafted the petition and by the signers themselves. So while it's often hard to credit outcome -- like new legislation or a company's decision -- directly back to the signatures that may have pushed for that result, those who study digital activism and those who help craft campaigns say the greatest power of petitions is bringing together crowds behind an ask and often acting as an entry point for many of the signers' journey to activism.
Is it 'slacktivism'? Critics have often labeled online petitions as another form of "slacktivism," pointing to their low-risk nature that doesn't commit its signers to any further action other than the click of a button. But it's exactly that ease and accessibility which make petitions powerful tools, Clark-Parsons says. With the help of petitions, organizers and movement leaders can visualize who their supporters are and who are "the people who agree with their mission but aren't willing to take major actions to support it just yet," she says.
So while it may just begin with the click of a button, piling your signature on a list of others calling for change means you're publicly stating your support for an issue. And that, Randy Paynter says, is a big deal. He says those who add their signature to a petition are then more likely to get involved in the issues those campaigns target -- and more likely to donate to nonprofits working around those issues. Political parties and campaigns send out surveys to supporters on a regular basis — and ordinary folks share thousands of petitions each month on sites like Change.
The problem? There are downsides to signing, beyond the annoyance you may feel if you don't really care about "causes" like creating a new national monument or putting a veggie burger on the In-N-Out menu. Sometimes signing a petition or taking a survey actually results in the quiet sale of your contact information, leading to lots of spam — and tons of requests for money. Then it asks you for your name, email address and zip code — meaning you'll be hearing from them again.
Even if you do care about a cause, it's important to know what you're getting into before you sign or submit a survey. Here are some key factors to consider, so you don't get spammed or pressured to donate money. Remember: There are probably better ways to financially support just causes that you believe in. One of the biggest issues to be aware of when you sign a petition or submit a survey is that the primary goal of its conductor is likely to build a contact list.
But they may have pushed it over the line, or just added some weight to the groundswell of existing support. However, the type of petition also makes a difference to what change it can achieve. Firstly, there should be a target and specific call for action. Secondly, the goal needs to be realistic. Read more: Why metoo is an impoverished form of feminist activism, unlikely to spark social change. Petitions rarely work on their own.
In her book Twitter and Teargas , Turkish writer Zeynep Tufekci argues the internet allows us to organise action far more quickly than in the past, outpacing the hard but essential work of community organising. We can get thousands of people signing a petition and shouting in the streets well before we build coalitions and think about long-term strategies.
But the most effective petitions will work in combination with other forms of activism. Sharing petitions is one way to bring attention to issues that might otherwise remain off the agenda. Most online petitions include the option of allowing further updates and contact. Then she learnt how the 29km road, a project of the municipal corporation of Greater Mumbai MCGM , would extensively damage to marine environment.
People deserve to be told how their environment would be changed by the coastal road. When it comes to signature campaigns, environmental organization Greenpeace was undoubtedly a forerunner, migrating from manual signature campaigns to digital ones. At Greenpeace India, air pollution, sustainable agriculture and decentralized renewable energy have been the major campaigns in the last couple of years.
Public engagement campaigner Ali Abbas at Greenpeace India believes online petitions and on-ground campaigns complement each other. Over the last couple of years, petitions on Change. For instance, the Mumbai Marathon organizers set a target of reducing the use of plastic bottles by more than 60, But the success of an online petition can be hard to define.
A petition will have a demand of a decision-maker. Once a petition reaches a significant number of signatures, we engage with the decision-maker to implement the demand. Yash Marwah, a copywriter who is part of the citizen-led Aarey Conservation Group, says they launched their petition for 1, signatures on Change. Jhatkaa, too, launched its campaign to save Aarey two years ago. Despite the numbers—over , signatures on Jhatkaa and over , on Change.
The day the tree-felling began in Aarey, petitions were re-shared across WhatsApp and social media, even as the State government enforced the law against the protesters on site. The online petition on Change.
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