Must See: The Viral KONY 2012 Video Exposing Abuses in Uganda

You may be wondering: who is Joseph Kony and what are these KONY 2012 Facebook and Twitter hashtag trends that have exploded in the past day or so? While KONY 2012 may be the most effectively aggressive social media campaign in recent memory, its rapid spread is a powerful match with the devastation that has been caused in Uganda by Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

KONY 2012, produced by the charity group Invisible Children, is a 30-minute film that follows a child solider named Jacob to show the atrocities that have been committed by LRA leader Joseph Kony — rapes, abductions, and killings of children and women, really anything horrid you can name. Invisible Children began this campaign “to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.” The powerful film has been viewed over 4 million times since its posting on March 5, and celebrities from Rihanna to Big Boi have lent their support via twitter and the creators of the film hope to continue spreading the word.

Watch the film here:

What do you think of this film and Invisible Children’s approach?