Kony 2012: Invisible Children 'Cover The Night' Campaign Advocates Local Service Projects On 4/20

The "Kony 2012" campaign is urging followers to shift their advocacy efforts from their social networks to real life.

Invisible Children, the creators of the "Kony 2012" -- the most viral video of all time -- have introduced the initiative "Cover the Night." On April 20, the advocacy San Diego-based charity proposes a night of local service events in which people give back to their communities and use the gathering of like-minded people as an entry point to spread the message about the atrocities of LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony. Then, supporters are asked to create awareness in creative ways such as distributing posters or creating murals.

This call to take action comes on the heels of criticism that the movement's followers were "slacktivists," or simply spreading information through a Facebook like, for example, as a way to create change. The movement as a whole has taken a hit as readers have tuned into the next big thing. Time.com points out that the Kony sequel, "Kony 2012 - Beyond Famous" was watched 1.6 million times, compared to the 112 million views the first version received.

Still, Invisible Children seeks to keep up the momentum. Cover the Night follows what the charity calls a week of global advocacy, which sought to embolden its supporters through local service work, letter-writing to lawmakers and conversation to prove "that the future of international justice depends on our mutual respect and collaboration," according to the website.

"We are a new generation of justice made for such a time as this," the narrator of "Beyond Famous" says. "because our liberty is bound together across the world and across the street."

Check out what people are planning worldwide for #CoverTheNight on Twitter in the slideshow below.

And let us know why you are or aren't planning to take part in Cover The Night in the comments below!

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Comments

[Beave Village]

12:19 PM on 08/01/2012

One of the biggest failures of Internet-hype of all time.

[On Press Inc]

11:15 AM on 04/29/2012

The Organization Invisible Children has plagiarized and thus committed copyright infringement ( which is illegal) on their website and on their Twitter account, a work by Shaun Shane. Exemplifying the criticism against them that they do not research their facts and have sloppy journalist methods. (Here is a link: http://www.invisiblechildren.com/) and to the Twitter post ( https://twitter.com/#!/Invisible/status/196433854851055618/photo/1) If you look on their website under the banner. You will see the following Text. "If only our tongues were made of glass how much more careful we would be when we speak." This was just featured by Knopf Publishing on their Tumblr blog page Celebrating Poetry for Nation Poetry Month April 26th ( a link: http://celebratepoetry.tumblr.com/post/21875771215/tongues-made-of-glasshttp: )This can be found attributed to the Author on this website (www.poemhunter.com/poem/04-tongues-made-of-glass/) This is On Press the Publisher of Shaun Shane's Poetry. At no time did Invisible Children contact us for permission to use it. All that would have been required to find out the Author is simply type the text of the Poem into Google and numerous credited postings of it would have been found. I do not have to tell you that it is the obligation of all who publish, to properly credit anothers work if it is not theirs. Not to mention it is copyright infringement and illegal. On Press Inc,

[brichardlong]

09:29 AM on 04/23/2012

Sounds good in theory (actually, no it doesn't). Check out my post on the vandalism that happened in Minneapolis because of Cover The Night... http://brichardlong.posterous.com/kony-2012-activism-at-its-worst

[Dale720240]

02:19 AM on 04/22/2012

What a scam!

[TitusPullo]

01:13 PM on 04/21/2012

A local business where I live is going to have to spend $3000 cleaning up Kony 2012 graffiti. Nice way to raise awareness, jerks.

[Johrune]

07:07 PM on 04/21/2012

No one advocated for graffiti.

http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/2012/04/04/cover-the-night-hit-the-streets/

"You have until April 20 to line up something huge. Get creative, and use your connections to see what you can safely and legally pull off. Here are some ideas to get you started, but we know you’ll think of things that never occurred to us. Remember: Safe. Legal."

Don't let one bad apple spoil the bunch.

[TitusPullo]

03:51 AM on 04/22/2012

One bad apple? Like the guy who runs Invisible Children? Making jokes about the earthquake in Haiti and keeping the money for himself while other people in the IC office laugh their butts off?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7UrWyjDqFE

[Elimisha]

12:57 AM on 04/21/2012

My daughter and gave out posters to several people and also posted some throughout the city. We also took the time to explain the meaning behind KONY 2012 and asked each one to watch the videos. And to make sure they contact people of interest to help Stop Kony!

[suziepeace]

11:32 PM on 04/20/2012

I "covered the night" in my neighborhood... had a couple of teenagers who saw me putting up a poster and who knew about KONY 2012 movement ask me if I had any extra posters. I gave them 2 posters, 2 stickers and 2 extra bracelets that I had left. I think that raising awareness to this man and to these atrocities is VERY important to keep the world govt's focused on finding him and bringing him to justice... and also stopping other horrendous individuals in the world who brutalize, kidnap and recruit children for military and murder.

[Milton Allimadi]

10:04 PM on 04/20/2012

Invisible Children says "Let's Cover The Night." The organization has no credibility as we will continue to show in subsequent weeks. The Black Star News's expose showed how IC spied for the brutal Gen. Museveni regime. Only Museveni and Joseph Kony benefit from warfare while innocent Ugandans have been caught in the middle.
This week, I participated at a forum at New York University's School of Law where a young Ugandan named Victor Ochen, a survivor of the Lord's Resistance Army's atrocities, pleaded with Invisible Children to call of "Cover The Night." An eloquent speaker, Ochen asked how Americans would feel if some organization had decided to "make Osama bin Laden famous" and even promoted the wearing of Osama bin Laden T-shirts to promote a campaign to capture or kill him.
Fortunately, not everybody at the event was intoxicated with self grandeur and irrationality. The next day, I joined Ochen as a guest on the NYU event's moderator, Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now" to share with the American public the views that have been whitewashed by Invisible Children.
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/18/kony_2012_ugandans_criticize_popular_video

[Johrune]

04:21 AM on 04/21/2012

Mr. Allimadi,

Invisible Children spied for Museveni? Hardly.

More a more balanced view of the same story please see Reuters – http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/11/net-us-usa-kony-wikileaks-idUSBRE83A1EJ20120411

Your use of the word “spying” is outrageous. Invisible Children reported Mr. Komakech to the authorities when it became apparent that he had stockpiled over 600 weapons and was planning violence. Mr. Komakech was a beneficiary of IC’s before this discovery and IC did the right thing by reporting the dangerous activities of Mr. Komakech.

There is a difference, Mr. Allimadi, between calling the police when you witness a break-in and being an FBI informant, if you catch my drift.

Thank you for your time. I hope you will take a cue from Reuters on how to write an article with some journalistic integrity.

PS - For those who wish to learn the truth of the situation, please feel free to read the actual cables from Wikileaks here: http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/06/09KAMPALA587.html

[Antnne]

08:30 PM on 04/20/2012

Nobody does (and shouldnt) care anymore.

[pmiller176]

05:04 AM on 04/21/2012

Actually, lots of people care.

[Bruce Wilson]

04:05 PM on 04/20/2012

Invisible Children's work is not so popular in Uganda. Last Friday, during an official IC screening of KONY 2012 part 2, the audience started to pelt the screen, and IC organizers, with rocks. Ugandan police, in turn shot tear gas at the crowd and fired their rifles into the air, causing panic. One death and several injuries were reported.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1387926/-/aw2cd3z/-/index.html

It was the second riot, or near-riot, that Invisible Children's videos have provoked in Uganda.

From the linked Uganda Monitor story:

"Ms Margaret Aciro, whose picture appears in the Kony 2012 video showing her lips, nose and ears mutilated, has criticised the documentary, saying it is aimed at making money using victims of the northern insurgency.

Ms Aciro, 35, abducted by rebels of the LRA in 2003 from Paicho Sub-county in Gulu Municipality, was among thousands of people who flocked Pece War Memorial Stadium on Friday to watch the filming of Kony 2012 by Invisible Children.

“I watched the Kony 2012 video but I decided to return home before the second one (Kony 2012 Par II) because I was dissatisfied with its content. I became sad when I saw my photo in the video. I knew they were using it to profit.”

[Johrune]

04:27 AM on 04/21/2012

Once again with the half-truths, Bruce.

1) There were no reports of deaths, and the article you linked to mentions no deaths.

2) The scuffle that caused tear gas happened WELL AFTER the screenings occurred. It was due to overcrowding and anyone who was actually there will tell you so.

3) The "profit" that Ms. Aciro refers to goes towards programs like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3msMYU-L2yA - As a result of such programs, nearly 1,000 bright Ugandans are earning their own way through high school and university.

You say that IC is not popular in Uganda? Well I beg to differ: http://vimeo.com/40623612

I sincerely hope you read this comment so that you will understand how you have gotten things wrong.

Thank you.

[Talitha Baker]

03:11 PM on 04/20/2012

Those tweets are so fun. Great to see Nick Cannon on board!