You may have heard of or even remember one of the earliest viral videos titled Kony 2012. It was a short documentary film created by the non-profit Invisible Children which aimed to bring awareness to Americans about the Ugandan cult of Joseph Kony called Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and it doubled as a call-to-action for viewers to respond at the end of the video by becoming part of a movement to topple their group. It quickly rose to fame after a few days of uploading the video, but just as quickly as it skyrocketed to the limelight, it imploded on itself and became the subject of mockery for people.
Eleven years later, Emma Madden of Narratively sat down with the co-founder of Invisible Children and the guy who envisioned collective action and change out of Kony 2012, Jason Russell, as he shares what pushed him to make that video, how he and his team coped with the aftermath of its disastrous failure, and what Invisible Children is doing now. To be clear, Jason Russell hasn't been involved with Invisible Children since 2014, and although there were plans to shut down the non-profit, a new CEO took over and now, it is being supported by USAID to help Central African countries at a much smaller scale than the original vision of Russell and his previous team.
(Video credit: Invisible Children/Youtube)