A video on YouTube has gone viral with over 15 million views within 48 hours; and it’s still on the rise. The video, entitled “Kony 2012″ was produced by Jason Russell, the founder of the Invisible Children, Inc. (IC). The video, above, is intended to take advantage of the mass media of Facebook and Twitter to reach millions of viewers around the world by Dec. 31, 2012 when it expires.
Kony, the #1 most wanted criminal by the International Criminal Court, leads the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), an organization that abducts children in Central Africa and uses them for horrific crimes of murder and prostitution. There are rumors that he may already be dead and that his capture would not end the organization. However, IC intends to expose and make “famous” this crime lord in order to ensure his capture in 2012 by way of the recently published video.
What makes the video seem like a “scam” is the solicitation of donations and purchase of the action kit which includes two bracelets, t-shirt, stickers, buttons and posters for $30. IC has made almost $14 million dollars with approximately 31% going towards helping anyone, according to news site The Daily What, and backed up by the organization’s own financial records.
A blog called “Visible Children” also holds a laundry list of criticisms levied against Invisible Children from the blog’s writer, Grant Oyston, and links to various pieces written by news outlets such as Foreign Policy, The Telegraph and the Washington Post.
What some refer to as “emotional porn,” this video grabs the viewers and implores them to support actions that can help apprehend Kony. On April 20, 2012, the IC wants everyone to put up posters across the world from dusk until dawn to make a point to US Congressmen and Senators that the people “care.” However, these posters must be purchased at a cost to each emotionally moved viewer.
Use judgment and proceed with caution. The LRA is a real organization and the fight to destroy the organization is real. However, IC might be using the opportunity to take advantage of people’s emotions for financial gain.
Yeah, I thought it was odd when there website has t-shirts and posters for sale. It seems real dirty.
My question is this; why are they using the face this despicable human as their logo, when they are supposed to be highlighting the plight of these poor children? It seems like an odd marketing scheme… Also, a charity where only 4,340,000 of 14 million dollars actually reaches its intended recipients leads one to ask many questions about its legitamacy. A more disturbng fact is that the filmmaker, Jason Russell advocates for people to call their leaders and ask for further military intervention in the hunt for Kony, which means sending more American toops into Africa. Could this be a clever piece of propaganda with ulterior motives? The fact that Kony is dead or hiding out and no longer the face of the organization definitely makes me skeptical. In fact, it reminds me of the “hunt” for Osama Bin Laden. Perhaps the fact that there are trillion dollar deposits of natural resources located in this area of Africa could better explain why this film advocates sending American troops to foriegn soil. If you really want to get the lowdown, check out this site:
http://www.infowars.com/forget-kony-ugandans-are-being-slaughtered-by-their-own-western-backed-government/
Jason Russell THE NAKED MELTDOWN Caught on Tape – nuf said
Hello
You still have no proof that it is a scam there fore you cannot say any thing for sure
all you need to do is open your eyes to the blatant facts that this is the biggest scam in history. Wake up you sheep… you cow.. just cattle being prodded into the slaughtering corral. Open Your Eyes
I am sorry, but donation purposes are NOT the focus, the focus is getting Kony OUT of Uganda, and making children not have to worry or suffer. Just because we are not Jesus and cannot make things happen in one day, doesn’t mean this is a scam. Kony needs stopped, and I will always be against him. Why would people be okay with a modern day Hitler?
you think once we stop cony all the children are going to magically stop suffering and live happy normal lives?
Kon is NOT in Uganda and hasn’t been for over 6 years.
You guys are chasing a ghost ! this man is either dead or out of Uganda!
you mentioned its to make “children not have to worry or suffer,” well isn’t it a little ironic that the 32% of money Invisible Children Inc is getting from merchandise sales and donations is the only money going towards the cause in which they will use for military intervention, and lets say they find the where abouts of Joseph Kony, his army is going to be defending him, and what does most of his army consist of? children! so if you think about it, Kony 2012 is supporting the killing of kids to save kids?
The video also encourages people to MAKE THEIR OWN SIGNS. They can’t give the supplies away for free because it would put them in debt. People SHOULD pay for the merchandise. 30% might seem like a small donation, but the people working should be paid. They have families, too. I think the t-shirts are cool. And I want a bracelet. And I’m going to buy them from IC because at least they do give a donation to the cause…unlike buying the stuff on Ebay….whereas the people selling it keep the money. But hey, we aren’t calling them scammers, are we?
If I go to a car wash to raise money for a family’s funeral and pay $15 and watch the guy put $5 in the jar and $10 in his pocket, I would say “Hey! I’m giving that money for the funeral expenses!” If he told me he had to buy soap and pay for his rent…I’m not sure I would do it again. I’m just saying, be clear that the $1-3 monthly donation requests are clearly defined where that money is going.
This kinda thing is volunteer work, it’s not meant to be a paying job. If people are so worried about their own families that they need to make money from a charitable organization. They should go back home and do some real work and not to be expected to be paid for mission work. By the way, 31% is a small donation considering the cause it’s going to. This whole things just reeks of bad publicity.
i truly think the kony man needs to be known about no matter how people go about it and if you have children clearly you should be helping this cause kony needs to be stopped for abducting children
“A blog called “Visible Children” also holds a laundry list of criticisms levied against Invisible Children from the blog’s writer, Grant Oyston, and links to various pieces written by news outlets such as Foreign Policy, The Telegraph and the Washington Post.”
Please notice that Mr. Oyston does not provide much more than his strong and relatively uninformed opinion. He fails to provide much documentation or citation for his supposed information.
“However, these posters must be purchased at a cost to each emotionally moved viewer.”
Incorrect. You can download them for free: http://kony2012.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/get_the_kit.html
Please check out Invisible Children’s response to all those who would discredit them with this kind of misinformation.
this is a scam because last year they made only 8 Million and used it all on them selfs.. and even more and less then 32% went to africa……ppl need to realize this.. maybe the guy was trying to help but….remember fam and money..can get to peoples head sometime…it is a scam. plain and simple.to those ppl who dont.. im going to laugh my asses of at all of you when it is true its a scam
I was just on the website for kony 2012 and i was able to download the posters and such for free straight to my phone. It’s not necessary to donate, only if you desire to. There are plenty of free ways listed to get the message out.
actually, you can download the posters, timeline ect from their website for free. FREE. guess where all that money goes? it doesnt exist cause THE STUFF WAS FREE!!!
Libby with all do respect, do some damn research. KONY isn’t even in Uganda & hasn’t been since
2006. Just another person who blindly jumped on this band wagon without paying attention to facts. This video left out many, many facts that need to be known. Obama wasn’t the first president to send troops either.
Whether it’s a scam or not the fact still remains that this does happen and a lot of children’s lives are at risk everyday with the LRA still being active. It doesn’t matter who’s leading and if Joseph Kony is truly dead. The actions of the group cannot be condone and its about time the governments of the world try to help put a stop to it.
Although they do charge for posters on the website they also offer the poster to print out for free, so it isn’t about the money, it’s about raising awareness of a man who has ruined thousands of lives and should not be allowed to carry on.
“Although they do charge for posters on the website they also offer the poster to print out for free, so it isn’t about the money, it’s about raising awareness of a man who has ruined thousands of lives and should not be allowed to carry on.”
And who are you to pass judgement? Let the people where Kony preside over make the call. They haven’t for 20yrs!
And the first half of the video isn’t even about Kony. ‘Emotional porn’ if I ever seen one.
wow….donations, braclets, and t-shirts arem’t going to stop EVIL… this has been going on for years..Once again America is stepping in to look like the “good guy” picking one guy that stands out and turning him into a monster.. to do what? raise money…
This is what is wrong with the world. Kony is real! This has been going on since the 1980′s. No matter why or how Kony got so much power, he is pure evil!! My son had me watch the video on Wednesday and there was almost 10 million hits. Today, there is almost 60 million hits and 100 web sites selling merchandise and 100 other web sites questioning the integrity of the movement. I am going to participate in the movement with my 14 year old son. Remember – All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing!
No one is questioning whether Kony is real or whether he’s committing atrocities — he’s certainly real and he’s clearly not a nice man; and, to that end, no one is saying you unequivocally should not support the IC organization or that Kony is a figment of the world’s collective imagination.
The doubts raised by Linda, the writers she quotes/links to, and by a plethora of average people, journalists, and people well-versed in the region have nothing to do with Kony himself.
The questions center over the factuality of points raised in the video, the cash flow of the organization, and whether throwing your money and support behind Invisible Children will provide any real change beyond the ability to give yourself a pat on the back.
Funny how America are sending troops into a country where they have just discovered large oil reserves they have never done that before
It would be so much simpler to develop our OWN natural resources, but the enviro-communists and their stooges in Congress have put severe limitations on retrieving fossil fuels. Windmills are NOT going to run our economy. The energy policy that is being pushed by the Obama administration seeks to severely limit consumption, and it matches the rhetoric of his 2008 campaign.
What stands out in my mind after watching the movie, more than the box and even the atrocities, is Gaven’s dad daring to expose his child and family to eminent danger just to get out the message of the happenings in Uganda. That my friends takes courage! How many of us would consider putting our family at risk for a cause a thousand miles away? Believe me Joseph Kony is not happy. Gaven’s dad is one brave hombre!
Look what is happening to religious minorities in Muslim countries that have been freed of tyrants. The slaughter is happening in Africa as well. Kony is a small fry. This is a hoax.
That’s the same thing the American Red Cross and United Way does. Only a percentage of what you donate goes to the cause you specify. The rest pays for the administrative costs and salaries of the people doing the work. Granted this organization wad developed for one specific cause…I am not surprised by them keeping some of the money, but 31-32% is pretty low for this cause.
That being said I made a small one time donation and am ok with it…however I probably will not donate again without a higher percentage going to Africa.
I believe that Kony is a bad guy and there are many of them in this world. Whether or not this is a big scam to rake in the dollars is something of controversy and it is something that will take a lot of effort to prove. I look past all this political mumbo jumbo and what I see is a whole lot of people who care. This video could be fake but the response it caused isn’t fake at all. I shared this video because that’s the only thing I can do to help. I am not made of money and I don’t have enough of it to share so instead I shared the video. And as I sit here and read all these opinions I shake my head because whether you are trying to prove if its a scam or lashing back saying that its not doesn’t change the fact that hundreds of thousands of people on this planet actually had the heart to speak up and say they care. You don’t even need a penny to say that. This is 2012 and they say this is the year that the world as we know is will end. It may not end in Armageddon or a planetary alignment but maybe the face of humanity will change so much that the world we know ends and a new race of humanity will begin. I see change because I see the people uniting for a cause. And not just the older generations either. Most of these people are our future generations and they are the ones that matter. If these young kids can stand up and fight for what they believe in then I say MORE POWER TO THEM! It shows strength and courage that I am astounded in. THIS is what its all about people. Money is paper. The ability to stand up and take action doesn’t come from your wallet it comes from your soul. This video made me think and so does all the criticism but as I sit along the sidelines, I don’t see a scam. I see unity. I hope they do get to the bottom of all this and find this evil man but until then I also hope we as a people can stand together not just for this cause but for everything else to come as well.
Personally, I think that it is advisable to spread the word, but not give money if you arent sure. Seriously, there is no proof that this is a scam, but if you are scared for your money, still get the word out there. At least then people will be aware of things like this.