In the digital age, awareness of social and environmental injustices occurring in various parts of the world has become increasingly widespread: the internet, and especially social media, have helped democratize access to information. Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok allow citizens and users from every corner of the world to engage in a social cause − feminism, environmentalism, racism, ableism, gender identity, etc. − giving rise to what can be defined as digital activism, which refers to collective actions that occur through digital devices and social networks.

Digital Activism: When Activism Overlaps with the Rules of Social Media
TikTok, according to data from an article in Corriere della Sera, not only grew by 388% in Italy between 2020 and 2021, gaining over 8 million users, but it also quickly revolutionized the potential of the medium, facilitating a change in the communication of the so-called “new activism”, often associated with Generation Z adolescents (ages 15 to 24).
Users, through videos, live streams, and especially challenges, are continuously encouraged to participate in public debate by sharing content that ranges from the fight against racism and the climate crisis to gender equality and the use of inclusive language.

Within a broader media ecology, social media allows for the amplification of political messages, increasing individual and collective awareness of a particular cause. These platforms are not simply used to communicate a cause, but they prove to be useful tools for disseminating actions both online and offline – such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the #MeToo movement. On the other hand, despite the laudable premises, social media activism presents structural issues. In the world of the Internet and social networks, the line separating online activism from performative activism is very thin.
But in concrete terms, what is performative activism?
The term performative activism refers to an active engagement with a movement or ideology, characterized by doing so solely for personal interests.
In other words, supporting a movement is done to gain a personal return from this type of action, often without fully endorsing the cause. In performative activism, the individual's political position increasingly becomes detached from its ideological purpose. Activism, which is by definition something collective, seems destined on social media to become more and more the domain of individuals, stripping the issues it represents of their meaning. Every struggle is framed around the self, political issues are emptied and weakened, and their collective dimension diminishes.
With the introduction of social media into activism and political militancy practices, we have arrived at what can be defined as the “market of the self”, where no one is capable of being the spokesperson for ideological premises that transcend personal narratives.
Social Washing and Performative Activism: Two Sides of the Same Coin
In this regard, performative activism is often associated with the practice of social washing. The term refers to the attempt by large companies and brands to appear more “ethical” in the eyes of their target audience, presenting a better image of themselves than what they actually represent. Social washing can thus be defined as an activity aimed at improving brand reputation through the promotion of social and charitable initiatives that prove to be superficial or, in the worst cases, merely a financial return.
The phenomenon of social washing is not new. Since the inception of the advertising world, there has always been an effort to present a more sanitized and positive image of one's brand.
One notable example is Nestlé, which in the 1990s created advertising and informational campaigns promoting the use of powdered milk for children in developing countries. These campaigns have been criticized for violating the International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes and stand in stark contrast to the company's actual image, which is now well-known for its policies of environmental and human exploitation.
Among the more recent cases of this practice are the campaign promoting gender equality launched by Audi during the 2017 Super Bowl and the advertising spot by Pepsi featuring model Kendall Jenner, both of which were pulled following accusations of superficiality and incongruence.
Social washing can also have another connotation, which in this case does not pertain to the brand's "social" image but rather its "social" presence, meaning being active on social networks to communicate greater openness, engagement, and interest in social and current issues solely for commercial or image-related purposes.

Influencers Becoming Activists: The Case of Ferragnez
An example of the blending of social washing and performative activism is the case of Ferragnez.
Recently, the couple formed by influencer Chiara Ferragni and rapper Fedez has chosen to pursue a specific social communication strategy aimed at leveraging the increasing interest, especially among younger demographics, towards sensitive and socially-oriented issues.
The influencer's profile is increasingly permeated by messages of solidarity, aspiration, and sometimes political content, particularly feminist and female empowerment themes that perfectly align with the promotion of the image of a female entrepreneur who has built her economic empire on her own.

The main critical component of the Ferragnez's activities on social media lies in the fact that every campaign, post, and content in favor of some social cause is accompanied by the label #ADV or Partnership, indicating that behind each action lies a financial compensation from some large company, thus providing the opportunity to brand any social cause and transform it into a business.
In La Stampa, Serena Mazzini, social media manager and columnist for Domani, argues that the messages and issues that the influencer couple promotes are completely stripped of their meaning and political complexity until they become universally shareable, consequently making them easily appropriated by profit-oriented brands and companies.
It was during the pandemic that many creators reinvented themselves as activists. They brought various issues to the forefront—often treated superficially—reducing typically collective demands to mere identity embellishments, due to the egocentric and individualistic nature of this platform. […] What happens when activism is conducted online without grounding in other realities, in a centralizing or individualistic manner? The complexity of certain struggles is lost, companies invest in socio-political campaigns, and influencers support them to gain image returns.

Superficiality, Individualism, and Profit
What occurs on social media risks increasingly becoming a superficial activism that does not integrate with a genuine political struggle, completely losing its primary objective and making room for profit and the commodification of the self.
Giulio Calella, in an article for Jacobin, defines it as “an activism that interrupts the depoliticization of society but does not translate into forms capable of building the collective and lasting dimension of political struggle. Even the movements that are more clearly positioned on the left, such as the one against the climate crisis or the new wave of feminism, produce few experiences of social rooting, few collective spaces for discussion, and consequently little common vocabulary between one major demonstration and the next.”
It is the activists themselves who end up “sucked in” by these dynamics, becoming increasingly similar to influencers: adapting to and submitting to the nature of the digital medium where the rules are dictated by algorithms, likes, numbers, and sponsorships.
Giada Selmi