Digital Defenders: Download the New App from the Women’s March & Join the Social Media Street Team!
The new app is a hub for activists to spot trends in online narratives and coordinate online messaging to promote women's rights and democracy.
In a webinar streamed last night, the Women’s March announced the pre-launch of a new app and website to aid the work of their social media street team. The webinar and app are part of the organization’s Digital Defenders series of trainings, which are available on their YouTube channel.
What is the Mission of the Digital Defenders?
The social media street team is a crucial component of the Digital Defenders program, created to leverage activists’ skills to defend women’s rights and democracy against disinformation, propaganda, and authoritarianism online.
Team members serve multiple vital roles:
Trend Spotting - Identifying false narratives and keeping an eye on disinformation.
Signal Boosting - Amplifying feminist and pro-democracy messaging.
Building Capacity - Creating shared meme libraries and communication strategies for countering online disinformation and promoting women’s rights and democracy.
How the New App Aids Activist Efforts
The Women’s March app serves as a valuable coordinating space for the social media street team. It features a dedicated Digital Defenders section where activists can coordinate their online campaigns.
Within this space, members can:
Share intelligence on disinformation they are spotting.
Workshop ideas, such as memes, and get feedback on content before sharing it publicly.
Build a shared meme library to quickly deploy counter-arguments against bad-faith narratives.
Access exclusive trainings and resources to sharpen their digital skills, including asynchronous courses like the Feminism 101 Course, Feminist Organizing School, volunteer trainings, and much more.
The app also encourages community building, allowing users to fill out a profile with their priority issues to help connect them with other members who share similar interests.
How to Access the App
The app is currently in its soft pre-launch phase. But you can still sign up and get started. The organizers are looking for feedback from early adopters to help iron our bugs and make the app a truly exceptional tool for organizing.
Follow these steps to join:
Download the App: Search “Women’s March” in your phone’s app store (Android or Apple) or access the web browser version.
Create Your Profile: Set up your account and choose the “Women’s March Community” option.
Join the Team: Navigate to and join the Digital Defenders space within the app.
If you experience any technical issues or need assistance signing up, please email organizing [at] womensmarch [dot] com.
To learn more about the app and the mission of the Digital Defenders, watch last night’s webinar:
📆 Plan to Get Involved!
Also be sure to sign up for the next live event in the series, Reading the Revolution: Propaganda, Disinformation, and Wicked Witches, which will be streamed at 8PM EST on November 20.
Generative AI Use Disclosure: Generative AI was used to assist in creating a first draft of this post. Any errors are the responsibility of the editors.
This piece really made me think about digital literacy. The app is a smart way to coordiante, crucial for fighting disinformtion. It’s vatal we equip activists with tools. Perhaps the next step involves robust analytics or leveraging AI to scale trend spotting even further. A very insightful approach.