Kony 2012 Becomes Most Viral Video in History

18 March 2012

Joseph Kony, Lord's Resistance Army leader and one of the world's most wanted rebels

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

Have you heard of Joseph Kony? Chances are you have. An American group placed a video about him on the YouTube website in early March. Since then, people around the world have watched the video more than eighty million times.

SOUND FROM KONY 2012: “For 26 years Kony has been kidnapping children into his rebel group the LRA, turning the girls into sex slaves and the boys into child soldiers.”

That is the voice of Jason Russell. He is with the American-based charity Invisible Children. It created the “Kony 2012” video to bring attention to Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army. They hope the video will lead to his capture before the end of the year.

Public reaction to the film has been mixed. Many people are praising its creators for bringing attention to the issue. Just as many have criticized the work. They have questioned the video’s trustworthiness and substance. Some have accused the creators of seeking financial gain. In Uganda, some people even rioted at recent showings of the film.

The video opens with the words “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” But some say timing is one of the problems. Louisa Lombard is a graduate student in Duke University’s Department of Cultural Anthropology. Ms. Lombard has studied conflict and policy in Africa. She says much of information presented in the video is old.