That's because the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, has been promoting an image of a pink equal sign over a red background in lieu of its blue-and-yellow logo to mobilize supporters online as the Supreme Court begins hearings on gay marriage today in Washington, D.C. A symbol of "equality," the photo has racked up more than 25,000 "likes" and 78,000 "shares" on the group's Facebook page in the last 24 hours. In fact, Mashable reports that since actor George Takei changed his profile picture to the red equal sign, the post has received more than 40,000 likes from fans.
Read more: What Is the Red Equal Sign All Over Facebook and Twitter?
Clicktivism is about swaying public sentiment reports based around online discussion and activity. Data on sentiment is intellectual property. The government, even if nothing else, is collecting this information and clicktivism is the citizen's way into the data history books, where people look many years later when they want to track a movement towards changing laws. It is a group of people exerting their sway and changing the data and it's a way to communicate with the people listening directly. There's nothing better for democracy than that.