Over the last year redfish emerged as one of the nr. 1 social media sources that exposes injustices and covers the protests and social movements that respond to them. Aimed to inspire progressive social change, redfish closely covered movements like Black Lives Matter, the Indian farm bill protests for the dignity of farm workers, the French global security bill protests for freedom of speech, the Thai student protests for democratic reforms, the Polish pro-choice protests, the Nigerian anti-police violence protests and many more and provided a global platform to grassroots activists within these different movements for justice and change.
Throughout our coverage we published across Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter to reach and provide hundreds of millions of people with updates and crucial context for the social activism they were witnessing - and with it more importantly hope, perspective and solidarity in a time of economic adversity, social isolation, lockdowns and pandemic.
2020 was a difficult year for most people. The pandemic has kept a lot of people at home for their own safety and that of others. That includes many journalists for who it has been difficult to travel to tell the stories of others and for the journalists of redfish it hasn't been any different.
Yet despite COVID-19, many around the globe saw cause to risk and take to the streets to fight for justice and social change. From Black Lives Matter in the US to student protests in Thailand to anti-police violence protests in Nigeria to pro-choice protests in Poland, 2020 wasn't just a year of pandemic and tragedy, but also of solidarity and hope.
redfish was created to highlight injustices around the globe and the social activism and solidarity arsing from them - often manifest in the form of protest movements. By 2019, redfish had become recognised on social media for quality coverage and context for protest movements in Catalonia, Haiti, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Lebanon, France and others. In 2020, redfish was well-equipped to continue covering new protest movements emerging globally.
By giving coverage and attention to what was happening in a visually interesting way, with an emphasis on telling a story and the aesthetics and emotion behind the struggle, we reached a massive social media audience without compromising on providing crucial historical and contemporary context. Through rapid production of viral protest videos, images, albums and infographics with elaborate, insightful and punchy captioning, we were able to become one of the main international English-speaking outlets for content and information on protest movements and political developments happening in France, Germany, Thailand, Haiti, Indonesia, Nigeria, Poland, Bolivia, Chile, India and others and were a prominent outlet among the target audience that gave international coverage to the Black Lives Matter movement, reaching, informing and engaging millions.
With our short docs like "Minneapolis Uprising: No Justice, No Peace" and "Modi's Neoliberalism: Oligarchy vs India's Working Class" and our Zoom interviews with activists around the world we provided our audience with on the ground perspectives, context and analysis.
For an outlet that only exists for about 3 years, we think that we have used our social media in the best way in 2020: by amplifying those who otherwise aren't heard, bringing them together as part of a global audience and reaching millions to tell their stories.
Total growth in followers on all social media channels in 2020
From 555.321 to 1.325.654
Total growth in followers on Facebook in 2020
From 429.222 to 811.225
Total growth in followers on Twitter in 2020
From 50.700 to 128.493
Total growth in followers on Instagram in 2020
From 48.874 to 345.391
Total video views in 2020
205 million+ (205.482.687)
Total interactions in 2020
33 million+ (33.669.143)
These numbers are just a tip of the iceberg, with even high-profile influencers and celebrities sharing our content. But the most important thing for us to hear is the frequent feedback we get from participants in different movements around the globe, that they appreciate our coverage of the movements they take part in and that they are learning from the other movements we cover, providing a platform that is not just covering the news but also educational and a place for a global community of world changers.
