Google Trends for the Catalan Independence Movement

Google Trends were analysed for the Catalan Independence Movement and particularly the Votarem campaign [We will vote] in terms of increases and decreases in popularity and quantity of posts over different time periods. It indicated the presence of trends in terms of participation for each of the terms searched.

Within Votarem, there have been many incidents that have sparked participation and pertinent hashtags were studied individually to see if interest and activism were maintained offline. Prominence of the hashtags over different periods of time and for the most part was analysed, there was a pattern with each.

Some of the search terms for CIM were “Votarem”, “Independència”, “Catalan Independence Movement”, “Referendum”, “Cataluña”, “Puigdemont”, and

“Democracia”. These are some of the most common words used pertaining to the CIM and therefore would show the maximum results in terms of mentions and participation online when included in the search through Google Trends.

These results show the longevity of the movements which shows the impact they had on the participants, long term impact in general, increases in participation and awareness, and success based on growth and consistency. A visual representation of participation was very helpful in the analysis and in identifying clear trends and patterns. Analysing these graphs may have pointed to not just whether the online activism was effective or not, but also why the online activism was effective or not.

There were certainly many similarities in the shapes of the different graphs regardless of the time period or the term that was searched. Immediately after the incident there was a high level of participation and mentions but shortly after, both participation and mentions decreased significantly, and in a matter of weeks, participation for most of the terms decreased all the way to zero in many cases. A few weeks or months later, there tended to be another surge in participation once again corresponding with a related event. The participation would continue to fluctuate after that and continue the pattern of inconsistency.

113 3.4 Surveys

3.4.1 Overview of Surveys

Surveys were distributed to known participants in the Black Lives Matter movement through different Facebook groups related to Black Lives Matter with the aim of obtaining and analysing 200 responses. 200 participants indeed responded to the surveys on what they did in the movement and its success. Participants were questioned to see how they impacted the movements and what they thought of their participation. They were also asked about whether they thought the movement was effective and what could be done to make it more so. This provided a lot of insight into the minds of these “activists” including their motivation for participation and perception of their work and the movements themselves. Results also showed the different ways they participated both online and offline. In addition to that, they were able to express why their participation decreased or was inconsistent (if it was).

3.4.2 Surveys for Black Lives Matter

Surveys were distributed to Facebook Users (for the majority) who also participated in the movement either online and/or offline. There was a wide age range (18-88 years old), almost even genders (48.5% Female and 51.5% Male) and people from very diverse backgrounds both in the United States and outside of it. There was also a variety of ethnic backgrounds so that both people who were directly affected by the incidents and indirectly affected could speak on how they participated on and offline in order to avoid inaccurate representations of reality in the research.

In addition to that, to have unbiased results, there was no distinction made between those who were pro Black lives Matter and against the movement because all participation affected the results.

Surveys asked about themselves as individuals (age and gender), their involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement (why they were involved, how they were involved on Facebook, how they were involved offline, etc.), as well as their opinion on how successful the movements were and why. They also contained open ended questions regarding their thoughts on what is needed to make a movement successful based on their involvement in and observation of movements

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This was extremely helpful because it allowed for a gain in access to information about participant involvement in movements which allowed the identification of what similarities may have led to varying levels of commitment within the movements and therefore identify possible reasons behind success and failure of the movements. It also allowed for understanding of what factors and mindsets contributed to Black Lives Matter possibly becoming a trend as opposed to an instrument of change.

Surveys were distributed through Google Forms between 2017 and 2018 and the questions asked in the survey were;

1. What is your gender?

2. How involved were you online with Black Lives Matter in your opinion?

3. What did your online Black Lives Matter activism look like on Facebook? (Options were: Personal posts, Profile Pictures, Sharing other people’s posts, Liking other people’s posts, Joining a group related to the cause, Live streaming events and/or protests, Creating events, fundraising, or other)

4. Did you participate in the Black Lives Matter Offline? If yes, write yes and state how.

If no, write no.

5. In your own words, what inspires you to participate in Black Lives Matter? (Options were: You and/or your family members are affected by the issues, Your friends/co-workers are affected by the issues, You are passionate about the issue, You are concerned about the future, You want to help, Other people’s passion about the issue inspires you, It’s just the right thing to do, Not sure, Other)

6. What contributes to a lull/decrease in your online participation in Black Lives Matter?

(Options were: Busy, Issues have been resolved, Issues aren’t as popular, Forgot, There hasn’t been a lull/decrease in your participation, and other)

7. Based on your online participation in Black Lives Matter, would you consider yourself an activist?

8. Do you think Black Lives Matter has been effective in bringing about social change?

9. Do you think Black Lives Matter has been effective in bringing about legal change?

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10. How do you think the movement could be more effective in bringing about social and legal change? (Options were: Better organization, more physical/in-person participation, More celebrity participation, More meetings with heads of state and politicians, other)

11. If you had to estimate, how many of your friends on Facebook also participate in Black Lives Matter? (0-25%, 26-50%, 51-75%, 76-100%)

12. Do you think that Black Lives Matter has been successful in achieving its goals?

(yes, no, to some extent)

13. Do you think that your online participation in the Black Lives Matter movement contributed to its success?

3.4.3 Surveys for the Catalan Independence Movement

The survey responses were very interesting however some of the responses were contradictory, which is a limitation of using surveys, but this still did not stand in the way of gaining valuable insight and coming to conclusions on the hypotheses. Responses were still very telling about the movement and the participants who analysed themselves as activists, their actions, their contribution to the movement and the overall success of the Catalan Independence movement particularly due to actions via Facebook. They were also able to reflect on their motives for participation and reasons behind inconsistency.

This information is vital to social movements because it allows them to understand what to do and what not to do in order to not only gain participation but maintain it as well.

That will improve the overall quality of any movement.

Through access to different groups supporting Independence online, results were taken from 201 survey participants about how they participated in the movement and their perception of its success. Through the medium they were distributed, surveys were mainly taken by Facebook users who participated in the movement online and/or offline.

Participants took the survey through a Google forms link. There was a wide age range (18–88 years old), almost even genders, and people from diverse backgrounds.

Additionally, for unbiased results, both people who were both pro Independence and anti-Independence (against the movement) were given the surveys because all participation affected the results. However, the majority who took the surveys, based on their responses were pro-independence.

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The survey was given through Google Forms between 2018 and 2019, and it included these questions in both English and Spanish due to the fact that the majority of survey takers were native Spanish speakers:

1. What is your name? (¿Cómo se llama?) 2. How old are you? (¿Cuántos años tiene?)

3. What is your gender? (¿Es un Hombre o una Mujer?)

4. How involved were you on Facebook with the referendum and the subsequent events?

(¿En qué medida su participación en Facebook tuvo que ver con el referéndum y con los eventos posteriores?)

5. What did your online activism for Catalan Independence look like on Facebook? Check all that apply (¿Como fue su activismo en Facebook sobre el referéndum? Marque todo lo que corresponda)

6. Did you participate in the activism for Catalan independence Offline? (Protests, letter-writing, court visits, programs, etc.) If yes, write yes and state how. If no, write no.

(¿Participó en el activismo por la Independència de Catalunya offline? (Manifestaciones, cartas, programas, etc.) En caso afirmativo, escriba sí y explique cómo. Si no, escriba no.

7. In your own words, what inspires you to participate in the movement for independence?

Check all that apply. (En sus propias palabras, ¿qué le inspira a participar en el movimiento por la Independència? Marque todo lo que corresponda.

8. What contributes to a lull/decrease in your online participation in the movement for independence? Check all that apply. (¿Qué contribuyó a una pausa / disminución en su participación en Facebook en los asuntos relacionados con la Independència? Marque todo lo que corresponda)

9. Based on your online participation in the movement for independence, would you consider yourself an activist? (Según su participación en línea en el movimiento pro Independència, ¿se consideraría un activista?)

10. Do you think the movement has been effective in bringing about social change?

(¿Cree que el movimiento ha sido eficaz para generar cambios sociales?)

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11. Do you think the movement for Independence has been effective in bringing about legal change? (¿Cree que el movimiento por la Independència ha sido efectivo para generar cambios legales?)

12. How do you think the movement could be more effective in bringing about social and legal change? Check all that apply. (¿Cómo cree que el movimiento podría ser más efectivo para generar un cambio social y legal? Marque todo lo que corresponda)

13. If you had to estimate, how many of your friends on Facebook also participated in the activism for Independence? (Si tuviera que calcular, ¿cuántos de sus amigos en Facebook también participaron en el activismo por la Independència?)

14. Do you think that the movement for Independence has been successful in achieving its goals? (¿Piensa que el movimiento ha sido exitoso en conseguir sus objetivos?) 15. Do you think that your online participation in the Movement for Catalan Independence contributed to the results? (¿Cree que su participación en línea en el Movimiento por la Independència catalana contribuyó a los resultados?)

3.4.4 Reasons for the Questions Chosen and the Survey Design

The open-ended questions granted diverse insight into what factors may be necessary for a successful social media movement and gave the participants the freedom to reflect and share responses that researchers may not have been able to think of. The diversity in the responses helped to show differences in participants but also the common threads that joined them together. In addition to this, the surveys allowed reviewers to go into the mind of participants which showed whether or not they thought that what they do on Facebook for the movement actually helps to bring about change as well as whether or not what they do on Facebook for the movement makes them consider themselves as activists or is counted as activism. Surveys overall helped with understanding the perception of and motivating factors for activism and social media activism particularly by movement participants in the Black Lives Matter movement and the Catalan Independence Movement.

118 3.5 Legal Research

3.5.1 Overview of Research on Legal Changes

Black Lives Matter obtained several legal changes through their branch, Campaign Zero, however, the Catalan Independence Movement did not achieve much legal change resulting from the movement as the referendum was never approved and Independence was not given. However, there were legal ramifications and results when there was the application of Article 155 blocking the referendum and independence. Since that was not an objective of the movement, and in fact served to hinder the movement it does not constitute success of the movement in achieving legal change which is what is being studied, but it is valid for discussion in this research because the movement caused its application and its application subsequently had a huge effect on the movement as well.

Hence, for successful legal changes this research will focus mainly on BLM, while the legal changes occurring as a result of the Catalan Independence Movement will be briefly discussed and explained. On the other hand, regarding the social changes both BLM and CIM will be discussed briefly in the body of the text because both movements observed significant social change. They will be briefly discussed in the body of the text because the existing proof of the social changes is based solely on the personal observations of the researcher in addition to the observations of other authors.

3.5.2 Legal Changes for Black Lives Matter

There was research on the pertinent laws and how they changed after the movements targeting them began. A review was done not only on statutes and articles, but also on the different legal demands made to hold police officers accountable and punished under the law as opposed to getting off scot-free. Research on the specific targeted laws by Campaign Zero was very straight forward to analyse because it was initiated by the movement directly and they showed whether or not they were implemented. This helped in determining success of the Facebook activism for the Black Lives Matter movement because if actual laws have changed as a result of the movements, they have achieved at least some of their goals in substantive ways.

Another possible form of legal research was looking at the outcomes of the different trials and cases against police officers as well as the outcomes for the protests against specific

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laws that were deemed to be discriminatory against Black people in the United States.

However, due to the fact that those trials, incidents, indictments and cases exist in the hundreds of thousands, it was more effective and efficient to look at the laws governing those and future incidents as well as the laws proposed in response to those events and cases.

As a result, the legal portion of this research focused on Campaign Zero which is a branch of Black Lives Matter. The goal of Campaign Zero is to transform the world into a place where police do not ever kill people. They want to achieve that through the limitation of police interventions, improvement in community interactions, and the increasing assurance of accountability and punishment for incorrect procedures. They have created specific proposals for policy solutions and legal changes which have been distributed to the many factions of the USA government on behalf of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Each state and their respective laws or lack thereof has been targeted and for the purposes of this research the changes were recorded.

Proposed laws were created with the aim of having zero tolerance for police brutality, unprofessionalism of law enforcement, and injustice. They have been fairly successful in the USA so far and continue to advocate for even more legal changes and increased success for the movement.

There are ten different categories of laws that they are proposing should be changed or implemented in each state in the US. Each of those categories targets specific legislation in existence in each state in the US or proposed new legislation for the states where there is no pertinent legislation in place. All of the legislation that has been passed so far as a result of Campaign Zero can be classified or grouped into at least one of the ten categories that they have presented, and the movement has been keeping track of those changes in each of the categories. Those categories are displayed in the graphic below courtesy of Campaign Zero:

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Figure 2 Categories of Legislation Proposed by Campaign Zero

Source: https://www.joincampaignzero.org/#vision on April 20, 2020

These categories of laws; “Ending broken window policing”, “Community oversight”,

“Limit to use of force”, “Independent investigation and prosecution”, “Community representation”, “Body Cams on the police”, “Training for the police”, “Ending for profit policing”, “Demilitarization”, and “Fair police union contracts”, would help to achieve the changes desired by Black Lives Matter and make America in general safer for its citizens; particularly those of colour.

Campaign Zero has so far had a lot of success in ensuring legislation passed on the Federal, State and Local level addressing police violence in multiple states in the US which means Black Lives Matter has had a lot of success in using activism and of course strategic action to change the law. This is the reason why it was important to do the legal analysis on the specific laws targeted.

Through Campaign Zero’s efforts and the efforts of BLM on a whole, at least 107 laws have been enacted between 2014 (when Campaign Zero began operation) and 2019 to address police violence and make people of colour safer in the US. The new legislation has been enacted in 41 of the 50 states in the United States during that time. And 10 states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Oregon, Utah, Texas, Washington) have enacted legislation addressing three or more Campaign Zero policy categories. Also, many of America’s largest cities have passed local ordinances along the lines of the legislation proposed by Campaign Zero. They continue to work hard to

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implement all the changes in all of the states. It should also be noted that many more laws have recently been passed or have been approved to be passed due to the demonstrations in the US resulting from the death of George Floyd. However, they have not been recorded fully yet and thus will not appear in this research.

The research takes the forms of graphics like the one below with the specific law category highlighted and showing which states have implemented the law as highlighted in dark purple. The diagram below is an example of what the legal research will look like however this one shows which states have implemented legislation pertaining to at least one of the 10 categories from Campaign Zero as a result of their work. In the results section there will be a breakdown of the success of each category.

Figure 3 States which have Implemented Legislation Proposed by Campaign Zero

Figure 3 States which have Implemented Legislation Proposed by Campaign Zero