‘KONY 2012′ Is Now History’s Most Viral Video
Have you seen the ‘Kony 2012′? If not, you may be one of the few — the haunting short film just became the most viral video in history.
The video campaign was put together by the group Invisible Children to bring attention to African warlord Joseph Kony, who allegedly used nefarious means to recruit thousands of kids into his army. The media has been abuzz about it, celebrities have linked to the video from their Twitter accounts en masse, and the movie has been subtitled in at least four other languages.
All the attention has resulted in more than 100 million views of the 30-minute film in just six days — a number that Visible Measures says grants it the title of the most viral video ever.
The previous record was held by singer Susan Boyle, whose 2009 performance on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ took nine days to reach the 100 million view mark. Even Lady Gaga’s phenomenally popular ‘Bad Romance‘ clip needed 18 days to rack up that many views.
Of course with anything that popular, there’s bound to be the inevitable backlash. Critics have questioned how much of Invisible Children’s money actually funds its activism, but the organization has been quick to respond to what it says is “false or misleading information” about its efforts. Others have said that the video overly simplifies a complicated issue and promotes youthful “slacktivism.” (The makers of video created a video response to address their critics.)
Detractors aside, ‘KONY 2012′ has managed to use social media to spotlight an issue in a way major news organizations — who’ve run stories about the crisis for years — never could. Watch the full ‘Kony 2012′ video here.