The #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign has gotten attention and participation from all over the world. In the process however, an image was taken without permission and spread across the Twitterverse. That the image was used without permission is problem enough, but the girl in the photo is not one of the abducted girls and she isn’t even Nigerian.
Some of @Amivee's photos have been misused for the #BringBackOurGirls campaign read about why this absolutely not ok: http://t.co/yQU05t4nX9
— PhotoShelter (@photoshelter) May 8, 2014
The photograph of Jenabu Balde was taken in Guinea-Bissau (thousands of miles from Nigeria) by photojournalist Ami Vitale. It was used by a Nigerian designer without permission as part of a graphic which was tweeted by woman-beating singer Chris Brown and other Twitter users with high follower counts. Vitale has been working Twitter to try to get Balde’s image and others removed from the campaign.
@Amivee @imahephzibah How did the image end up being used in the #BringBackOurGirls campaign? It's been RT'd tens of thousands of times
— Anne-Marie Tomchak (@AMTomchak) May 7, 2014
@AMTomchak @imahephzibah created it, @chrisbrown RT'd the image. Spreading more does not help. she is a real person. clear misrepresentation
— Ami Vitale (@Amivee) May 7, 2014
Why are you shouting? “@Amivee: @BadGirlMo THIS IS A COPYRIGHTED PHOTO OF GIRL WHO IS NOT NIGERIAN.ITS MISREPRESENTATION. PLEASE USE ANOTHER
— Moni Osibodu (@MoniOsibodu) May 7, 2014
@BadGirlMo Would you like an image of your daughter who has not been abducted to be misrepresented and used for a campaign?
— Ami Vitale (@Amivee) May 7, 2014
@BadGirlMo how you would feel to have your image all over? nothing to do with the abduction? Not nice.
— Ami Vitale (@Amivee) May 7, 2014
@BadGirlMo She is a real human being, not abducted, not nigerian and no one asked her. Spreading further is not helping her.
— Ami Vitale (@Amivee) May 7, 2014
@emekannam I believe in the project, but this photo and the others from Guinea Bissau shouldn't be used like this. Not fair to them.
— Ami Vitale (@Amivee) May 8, 2014
Join the conversation as a VIP Member