Social Media and LGBTQI Activism in Lebanon: Visibility and Association in the Work of Non-Profit Organisations (Digital Activism And Society: Politics, Economy And Culture In Network Communication)

In the wake of unprecedented societal and political backlash manifesting in an online and offline hate speech, Lebanese LGBTQI individuals and organisations have used social media to counter LGBTQI-phobia.Addressing a gap in research on LGBTQI social media activism in Lebanon, Antoine Badaoui draws attention to the social media affordances of visibility and association in the work of non-profit organisations. Investigating how these affordances of social media shape the use of said platforms, and are crucial to understanding LGBTQI behaviour online, Badaoui shows how in Lebanon LGBTQI individuals use social media to network with like-minded people and acquire knowledge away from offline LGBTQI-phobia.Employing rich qualitative research, the book tells the story of how Lebanese LGBTQI non-profits leverage the affordances of visibility and association to foreground sexual minorities’ rights in a LGBTQI-phobic society.Questioning whether the organisations’ online strategies meet the needs