The week in hashtags: #TheQueenTweets, #FCKH8, #NoJustice, #OttawaStrong

The Queen got in on the act, time went backwards and Twitter got angry… again. Here are the most important hashtags from the past week.

#NoJustice, #ThingsLongerThanOscarsSentence

When Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for the culpable homicide of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Tuesday (as little as 10 months of which could actually be served in prison), Twitter expressed itself as Twitter tends to… through anger, jokes and a hashtag game. Sometimes all in the same tweet.

While many joined the always-active #NoJustice tag to share their frustration at the news, others hopped aboard #ThingsLongerThanOscarsSentence to share comically short and oddly long things from pop culture by way of (we hope) protest – “Michelle’s verse in Survivor”, for example (@MTVbaseAfrica), “The Orange is the New Black opening sequence” (@AshinaLalla), or “this hashtag” (everyone). 

 

#TheQueenTweets

A mere three months after her first photobomb, Queen Elizabeth II has joined the ranks of the Twitterati. The Sovereign sent her first ever tweet from the Science Museum, where she was opening its Information Age exhibition. It was devoid of emojis or hashtags and she did sign it off with her name the way our Granny might, but nevertheless Her Maj enjoyed the kind of retweet numbers us serfs can only dream of.

Q: When the Queen becomes a meme, do we call it a ma’am?

 

#OttawaStrong

Following the shooting on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill that killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo on Wednesday, Canadians and residents united with #OttawaStrong and #CanadaStrong hashtags to show their support. Among all the tributes shared online, perhaps the most poignant were the tourist photos of the corporal on guard outside the Parliament, taken just days and minutes before his death.

 

#Banksy

He’s been caught and unmasked! Oh, he hasn’t. Repeat once a year ad infinitum.

 

#FCKH8

Retailer FCKH8.com made us sit up and pay attention with its viral ‘Potty-Mouthed Princesses Drop F-Bombs for Feminism‘ this week, featuring pink-clad 6-13 year olds venting a little anger at gender inequality – in language fruity enough to make a trucker blush.

Posing the question, “What’s more offensive? A little girl saying f*ck or the sexist way society treats girls and women?”, it triggered a tidal wave of appreciation, condemnation and thinkpieces on our attitude towards swearing, innocence and ‘pretty’ femininity. The video has had well over a million views – though it’s probably not sold quite as many t-shirts.

 

#ExtraHour

In case you’re reading this at an empty desk wondering where all your colleagues are, the clocks went back on Saturday night. Where once we all relied on our Mums phoning to remind us (“Spring forward, autumn, er, back!”), these days Twitter does all the daylight saving warnings we could possibly need, and then another hundred.

It was also a time for those with small children to mourn their lack of lie-in, those without small children to be glad they didn’t have any, and for certain shinyshiny writers to get confused about the mystical workings of time. Ahem.

 

#AyoadeonAyoade

A breath of awkward air in the world of slick, media-trained celebs on the publicity trail, Richard Ayoade’s C4 News interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy has entered the realms of TV legend. After days of debate, the internet is now mainly in agreement that it was a brilliant publicity stunt rather than the most genuinely painful interview ever.

But whatever the truth, two things are certain. Plenty more of us will be buying Ayoade’s book as a result, and “Don’t thank me. I’ve done nothing for you.” is our new favourite way to end phone calls with customer service centres.

 

Main image: FCKH8.com on Vimeo

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