More Than a Refugee / #MoreThanARefugee

About

#MoreThanARefugee is a hashtag associated with a viral video created by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which featured various refugees from around the world interacting with different YouTubers. After the video was featured by YouTube Spotlight in late June 2017, it was hotly debated on social media between those who defended the video's message and critics of immigration and multiculturalism.

Origin

On June 20th, 2017, the YouTube Spotlight channel uploaded a video titled "#MoreThanARefugee," in which seven YouTube creators meet refugees from around the world, including (shown below). Within 24 hours, the video gathered upwards of 8.2 million views and 56,900 comments, with over 299,000 dislikes and only 113,000 likes.

Spread

That day, the AsapSCIENCE channel uploaded a video about refugees camps, which included the "#MoreThanARefugee" hashtag in the video description (shown below, left). Meanwhile, the Eh Bee Family YouTube channel released a #MoreThanARefugee video in which they meet a refugee family (shown below, right).

Also on June 20th, the channels Fly With Haifa and The Young Turks posted their own "#MoreThanARefugee" Videos, featuring 17-year-old Maryam Sulaiman Rasheed from Iraq and Catherine Gale Ruta from Sudan respectively (shown below).

That day, Redditor throwcap submitted a post asking "Why is the #MoreThanARefugee YouTube Spotlight getting so much hate?" to /r/OutOfTheLoop,^[1] to which Redditor Its_Not_Epi speculated it was due to "YouTube muscling in on all of these controversial topics to improve their public face." That day, YouTuber Czarne majty uploaded footage of people assaulting others with the titled "#MoreThanARefugee – true version" (shown below, left). On June 21st, YouTuber Black Pigeon Speaks uploaded a video about the backlash to the videos, claiming that billionaire investor George Soros was behind the International Rescue Committee (shown below, right).

Search Interest

Not available.

External References