Created in 2017, the hashtag supporting the singer following her tutorship, is enjoying unexpected popularity on social networks around the world.
It all started with a podcast of comedians around Britney Spears’ Instagram: the wave #FreeBritney, to the rescue of a mega star put under supervision, mobilizes worldwide on social networks beyond fans, associations of people vulnerable to civil rights defenders. In 2017, Tess Barker and Babs Gray just wanted to have fun with the digital showcase of the performer of Oops!… I did it again. But American actresses are quickly intrigued by the singer’s guardianship and wonder if all this is not Toxic (one of Britney Spears’ hits). This legal device places her since 2008 under the full control of her father, following a series of ultra-publicized slippages under the flashes of the paparazzi.
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«And it became an investigative podcastDescribes Tess Barker. With her sidekick, she then dives into the legal hearings on the issue to see more clearly. In 2019, Britney Spears disappears from social networks and they receive an alarming audio message: the pop star has been forcibly interned in a mental institution. The informant presents himself as a former member of a cabinet working on this supervision. The next podcast, titled #FreeBritney, goes viral and global. And the hashtag is still running, having been relayed half a million times when Britney Spears delivered an explosive testimony at the end of June. “Traumatized“And”depressed», She assures that she has no power to decide on her friendships, her finances or even her choice of contraception.
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To the Philippines, Chile and Brazil
This digital rallying cry in its favor is being used from the UK to the Philippines and a quarter of #FreeBritney is even posted from Brazil according to Twitter’s analytics tool Hashtagify. In Chile, Andrea Corina Lopez, Britney fan, who herself suffered from mental disorders, launched her #FreeBritney channel on YouTube to help Spanish speakers follow the evolution of the legal fight started by the interpreter of …Baby one more time to break its legal chains.
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The slogan is also used on placards of pro-Britney protesters outside the Los Angeles court to review the case and at rallies in other American cities. “In the past, people could show up in court with signs, but it’s a lot different if it’s all happening on Twitter.», Dissects Katherine Larsen, editor of the Journal of Fandom Studies, an American university publication which focuses on the universe of fans.
The “same freedoms as everyone»
And to recall that fans of the K-pop star group BTS managed to raise a million dollars in one day for the Black Lives Matter movement with a digital mobilization. “There are a lot of people involved in the #FreeBritney movement who don’t even listen to his musicBabs Gray says. Associations of vulnerable people, civil rights defense or lawyers have thus joined the ranks of pro-Britney. It’s already a great victory for Jordan Miller, who runs Britney’s fan site BreatheHeavy and posted posts with “Free Britney” since 2009. “It took years for us to write about it, to talk about it, for the world to open their eyes to what I had been seeing for a long time», He rejoices.
«The happy ending is that Britney Spears can one day enjoy the same freedoms that everyone is entitled to have», Concludes Tess Barker. The tube machine won a first step: a judge authorized it for the first time to choose its own lawyer, in an attempt to have this measure annulled, which deprives it of a large part of its autonomy.
To see also – “Free Britney”: fans of the pop star demand the end of her guardianship
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