‘I am Tyler Perry, I endorse the #EndSARS protest’: An Examination of the Use of Parody Accounts in the Fight for Social Justice in Nigeria

This chapter theorises counter-hegemonic acts of subversion in digital spaces. The study looks at how Nigerian netizens faced with increased censorship, the state’s brute force, legal and extra-judicial attacks, resorted to parody accounts as their ‘invisible army’ against the state. Using the case study of parody accounts that arose during the Nigerian #EndSars protests, the chapter argues that the use of parodies has a bifurcated effect. On the one hand, these parodies that seem to establish spaces for civic discourse during protests can serve as a popular base for mobilisation and engagement. However, the widespread use of celebrity parodies can potentially delegitimize the struggle causing an entire movement to lose traction. The #EndSARS benefitted from the widespread use of celebrity parodies as it helped the movement to mobilise and build momentum. During the #EndSARS campaign, operators of the parody accounts utilised linguistic features and tonality that incites passion to create a unified community to participate in a physical space of protests. We, however, argue that the amplification via the use of parodies in Nigeria could have been a success, but similar acts elsewhere might undermine networked activism as a genuine grassroots movement with genuine grievances.