Unexpected Tool Helped Organize US Protests

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Communities are using Google Docs software to organize politically and socially and list resources for protestors. While protests over George Floyd’s murder are still going on across the US, it has become clear that this unexpected tool helped, to a large extent, organize them. Although it’s not encrypted, doesn’t rely on signing in to a social network, and wasn’t even designed for this purpose, this shared word processing software’s simplicity and accessibility have made it a winning tool.

Google Docs has emerged as a way to share everything from lists of books on racism to templates for letters to family members and representatives to lists of funds and resources that are accepting donations. 

Shared Google Docs that anyone can view and anyone can edit, anonymously, have become a valuable tool for grassroots organizing during the coronavirus pandemic. 

While social media has been great for publicizing movements, it’s far less efficient at creating stable shelves of information that a person can return to. What makes Google Docs especially attractive is that they are editable and can be viewed simultaneously on countless screens

Activists and campaigners have been using the word processing software for years as a more efficient and accessible protest tool than either Facebook or Twitter.

Google Docs was launched in October 2012. It quickly became popular, and it has always been used for purposes beyond simple word processing. It wasn’t until the 2016 elections, political Google Docs were written by academics as ad hoc ways of campaigning for Democrats for the 2018 midterm elections. By the time the election passed, Google Docs were also being used to protest immigration bans and advance the #MeToo movement. During the pandemic, Google Docs were widely shared to help people deal with the stress of lockdown. 

According to technologyreview,com, one of the most popular Google Docs to emerge in the past week is “Resources for Accountability and Actions for Black Lives,” which features clear steps people can take to support victims of police brutality, sharing links for direct action. It is organized by Carlisa Johnson, a 28-year-old graduate journalism student at Georgia State University. 

She’d preferred shared Google Doc like this, and chose it over Facebook and Twitter because it is so accessible: “Hyperlinks are the most succinct and quickest way to access things, and you can’t do that on Facebook or Twitter. When you say ‘Contact your representative,’ a lot of people don’t know how to do that.” Direct links in the Google Doc make it much easier for people to get involved, she says.