Twitter Campaign #BringBackOurGirls Takes Off
Celebrities and world leaders demand the return of abducted Nigerian students.
May 5, 2014— -- Celebrities and world leaders are drawing attention to the plight of 300 Nigerian school girls kidnapped a month ago by Nigerian terrorists by using the social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls.
The girls were taken from their school dormitories on April 15 by members of the Nigerian terror organization Boko Haram, but the hashtag campaign only gained English-language participation on April 23.
On May 1, rapper Chris Brown weighed in by using the hashtag and was retweeted more than 10,000 times.
Related: What You Need to Know Now About the Nigerian Kidnapped Girls
In the past seven days the hashtag has been used more than 850,000 times, including by users such as Hillary Clinton and Amy Poehler, who is using her Smart Girls organization to host a live chat on Tuesday about the abduction of the students.
Related: Who Are the Kidnapped Nigerian Girls?
Kerry Washington, Mary J. Blige, Sophia Bush, Janelle Monae and Mia Farrow are among the celebrities who have tweeted in support of the cause.
Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old women and children's rights activist from Pakistan, tweeted her support for the cause through her organization, the Malala Foundation. Yousafzai survived an attack by a Taliban gunman who shot her for speaking out in support of educating girls in Pakistan.