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London lockdown protest today1/16/2024 The protesters commonly used images and chants against mainstream media, such as ‘take down the BBC’. In line with the perception of the BBC as a threat to personal freedoms, among the most visible banners was ‘fake news, fake virus, fake vaccine’. The flags were an opportunity for protesters to highlight their national identity and show the world that they refuse the government restrictions just like their counterparts in other geographies. However diverse the protest crowds were in London, union jacks, flag of Wales and other national symbols of British history were discernible across different demonstrations. There were also calls to protect freedom of speech and that “freedom is a human right”, and in one protest, there were representatives of the Freedom Alliance Party seeking votes for the upcoming local elections from anti-lockdown participants, which also accounts for the visibility of specific communities and organisations amongst this diverging crowd. Protesters chanted “Stand up, get your freedom back!”. For example, one protester carried a quote by the famous American libertarian writer, journalist, and activist Hunter S. Other than using their own profiles on social media platforms, such as “standup”, the protesters engaged in simultaneous hashtag activism to inform the wider public about their grievances on the lockdowns and vaccines, such as the “CanceltheLockdown” hashtag on Twitter.įrom the ground, we observed that the prevalent theme of protecting one’s freedom was also reflected by many slogans, chants, banners, and hashtags such as “my body, my choice” related to the “vaccine mandate”. The protests were loosely organised on Telegram, Instagram and other social media platforms. Apprehensive about how their voices will not be heard on mainstream media, the protesters heavily relied on social networking sites in communicating their aims. Some of the anti-lockdown protests thus took place in front of the BBC broadcasting house. As the BBC coverage centred on violence and arrests in the anti-lockdown protests and followed a delegitimizing pattern, the anger towards the channel proliferated. The protesters identified BBC as a complicit power, aligning with the government - a dishonest power that fails to defend the freedom of expression. A certain level of anxiety surrounding the future and the possibility of even harsher incoming restrictions can be discerned behind this call, as protesters urged the public to stand up now or never.Īnother theme unifying the protesters was their grievance against mainstream media. They also urged the public to “look at masks and testing you are fine, just take off your mask!”. Often the anti-lockdown protesters in Bristol, Glasgow and London viewed the pandemic in no way different from the common flu, cautioning that there is no need to overreact, and claiming that instead of combatting the virus, rather it is the government and the media who are ‘the true virus’. Protesters have blamed the government for using the Covid-19 crisis to expand its power and restrict the freedom of its citizens. The most important message underpinning online and onsite anti-lockdown protests and unifying these different groups was “freedom”. Our interviews with anti-lockdown protesters in London reveal that the protests unified citizens who previously voted left, conservative, ultra-nationalist and/or anti-establishment parties. The diversity of the protesters can also be read from their ideological orientations. With the introduction of less strict Covid-19 regulations, minority groups have also become visible not just during the anti-lockdown marches but also during other acts of protests, such as the shopping mall and park occupations. Middle-aged and older white generations were at the forefront of the protests both in terms of holding banners and giving public speeches in the UK in 2020 and early 2021. Who are the protesters and what unifies them? Although freedom was the main message of protesters, there are different motivations that unite them. While the protests sparked as a reaction to the lockdown measures such as masks and social distancing, they soon after responded to the so-called “vaccine mandate”. The UK protests have been called “unite for freedom” protests by the protesters. The anti-lockdown protests in the UK started in central London during the first lockdown in April 2020 but spread across the country soon after, including Bristol and Glasgow. Freedom or self-interest?: Motivations, ideology and visual symbols uniting anti-lockdown protesters in the UKĪnti-lockdown protests are ongoing global protest movements against lockdown regulations and the Covid-19 vaccines, even if there is nuance in the ways they have been organised in different geographies and expressed on digital platforms.
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