The video urging the world to support the arrest of Joseph Kony has gained celebrity attention
Joseph Kony 2012 is now dominating Facebook and Twitter, and before this week you probably hadn’t heard of Joseph Kony. But thanks to an extraordinary social media campaign, Kony 2012 is achieving its goal to “make Kony famous”.
Not famous in a good way. The Joseph Kony 2012 video has gone viral online. Its purpose is “not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.”
The Joseph Kony 2012 documentary describes the plight of Uganda through the eyes of a former Lord’s Resistance Army child soldier and the director Jason Russell’s American son who doesn’t know who Joseph Kony is.
The video was created by the group Invisible Children, a nonprofit organization that focuses on drawing attention to the atrocities committed by Joseph Kony and the LRA in Central Africa, as well as to end the genocide led by Joseph Kony.
The Joseph Kony 2012 video has a heavy focus on the child soldiers that make up the LRA, which reportedly has as many as 30,000 boys and girls who are used to fight and as sex slaves.
The video is not meant to just raise awareness. Invisible Childrin, Inc. wants to see Joseph Kony brought to The Hague to face trial for his crimes against humanity. The Joseph Kony 2012 video also urges people to take action on April 20, 2012.
“This is the day when we will meet at sundown and blanket every street in every city until the sun comes up. The rest of the world will go to bed Friday night and wake up to hundreds of thousands of posters demanding justice,” Director Jason Russell said.
Joseph Kony 2012 gained attention from celebrities like Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Lauren Conrad, and many more who have been tweeting and blogging their outrage at Joseph Kony and about the Stop Kony campaign.
