In case you missed it, a super cool music video of Saudi women doing everything they are not supposed to do has gone viral. The video has been viewed millions of times in the past few weeks alone.

At the start of the video, several Saudi women enter a car with a little boy in the driver seat, since women are not allowed to drive. They are wearing full niqabs covering everything but their eyes. But when the camera cuts back to them outside the car, it turns out they were wearing colorful patterned clothes underneath. They start skateboarding, playing basketball, riding toy cars, and dancing. The women still wear the niqabs over the other layers throughout the video but they also wear Converse shoes and lots of eye makeup. And all of them seem to have a great time.

“The name of the song is ‘Hwages,’ which means something like ‘concerns’ or ‘obsessions,’” said NPR Music’s Anastasia Tsioulcas. “And the lyrics are pretty subversive. They start out, ‘May men disappear, they give us psychological illnesses/none of them are sane, each one has an illness.’” Also, in the middle of the video, there is a cutout of Donald Trump at a podium, with a sign saying “The House of Men” in Arabic.

Tsioulcas said that no one knows who the women are, but that the video’s director is Majed Alesa, who has millions of followers in Saudi Arabia. She also noted there has been more positive feedback than negative, despite the controversial content. Maybe it is time for the most gender-segregated country in the world to start to change?

During the fall, there was a campaign in Saudi Arabia aiming to end the guardianship system that requires women to have male permission before doing many important tasks. More than 14,000 women signed a petition and submitted it to the government. Some of the things women can’t do in Saudi Arabia include drive a car, wear revealing clothes or makeup, interact with men, go to public swimming pools, or even try clothes on when shopping. They are also not allowed to compete in sports at home, but the country did send female athletes to the London Olympics. Conservative clerics then called the athletes “prostitutes.”

Many believe change is within reach, and this music video might just be a proof of that. Check it out!

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Saudi Women Skateboard and Criticize Men in Viral Music Video appeared first on Law Street.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump signed an order that will reinstate the Mexico City Policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule. It will prohibit international aid groups that receive U.S. funding from providing information about abortions. The fact that Trump, surrounded by other middle-aged white men, signed legislation concerning women’s bodies and reproductive health caused a lot of reactions worldwide. The photo in question looked like this:

As long as you live you’ll never see a photograph of 7 women signing legislation about what men can do with their reproductive organs pic.twitter.com/dXjfVjnRiX

— Martin Belam (@MartinBelam) January 23, 2017

A group of French feminists, calling themselves 52, reacted strongly to the news and created the perfect response. The group took a photo of Hillary Clinton signing papers and merged it with a 2009 photo of President Obama, surrounded by a group of WASPs, female fighters from World War II. They posted the result with the headline, “BREAKING NEWS: In the US ejaculation for non-procreative purposes is now forbidden.”

Imagine the outrage if a room for full of women signed a law legislating men’s sexual organs. Amazing work by French group 52 #marchforlife pic.twitter.com/PtLTVDqLea

— Athena (@AthenaJo_) January 27, 2017

A member of 52, who goes only by Sophie, said that the photo is clearly a joke, but that they made it “to ridicule something that boggles the mind: For centuries, it’s been men who dictate women’s bodies.” She said that men constantly tell women what to do and how to look. And Donald Trump just reversed what progress has been made in recent years by signing this legislation. “This picture of the president shows very well how men get to dictate the rights women have,” Sophie said. “It really wound us up.”

According to many studies, making abortion illegal doesn’t lead to fewer abortions. A ban will only lead to women seeking unsafe abortions that could kill them.

The global gag rule forces healthcare providers around the world to make impossible choices. pic.twitter.com/qPISbonqZW

— Planned Parenthood (@ppsworegon) January 27, 2017

The women founded the group in September and adopted their name because women make up 52 percent of France’s population. They held their first demonstration in France in January, aiming to achieve more empowerment for women. Their photo creation has become hugely popular in only a few days, but will any male politicians actually listen?

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Meet the French Feminists Who Created a Viral Parody Photo appeared first on Law Street.

After last week’s poll-defying election results, half of Americans were left stunned and feeling a bit like they’d just been cast in a Doomsday movie. Luckily meme connoisseur Josh Billinson, was there to deliver some much needed comedic relief.

Billinson, who goes by the handle @jbillinson on Twitter, created a series of viral memes with a hilarious take on Vice President Joe Biden’s response to a Trump presidency. In them Biden comes up with some pretty devious plans to prank President-elect Donald Trump before he moves into the White House, while President Obama does his best to stop him.  Pretty soon other users began creating their own takes on the trend, resulting in some of the best internet memes, ever!

So if you need a political pick-me-up or are feeling nostalgic over the end of America’s favorite bromance, then check out a collection of the best Biden/Obama memes below:

Obama: “They just called it for Trump, he won”
Biden: “Well I’m not going to call him President, ever! Not even if there’s a fire!” pic.twitter.com/eeRIMuHyEO

— Josh (@jbillinson) November 10, 2016

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Memes of Biden Trolling Trump Are Helping Us Laugh Away Our Tears appeared first on Law Street.

If you’ve  been on the internet at all this week you’ve probably (purposefully or accidentally) seen the viral “Damn Daniel” meme. It’s a video with a teenager following his friend around and saying “Damn Daniel” over and over again in a cartoon-ish voice. Sometimes the voice makes comments too, particularly about Damn Daniel’s white vans. I have no explanation for why this has gone viral, but it most certainly has:

Damn Daniel pic.twitter.com/Va10hmpePO

— josh (@josholzz) February 16, 2016

But internet celebrity comes with a side of risk as well–the young man who made the video has now been swatted.

Swatting is when someone calls in a fake threat to an individual’s home, usually claiming that some sort of emergency, like a hostage situation, is taking place there. When, inevitably, a SWAT team arrives, the victim of the swatting is usually scared and the police are confused. The entire thing usually takes a while to sort out. It’s a “prank” that regularly happens to “internet famous” people, including famous video game players, celebrities like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber, feminists, and journalists. It’s often used as some sort of revenge or intimidation tactic, and it is incredibly difficult to track who has committed the “swatting.”

In this case, the teenage boy who goes by @josholzz on Twitter and lives in California, was targeted by a caller who phoned the police and said that he had shot his mother. Police swarmed the house before realizing that the call was incorrect. It’s unclear at this point who swatted @josholzz and the investigation is ongoing. But the incident is believed to have been linked to the popularity of the “Damn Daniel” video. According to Riverside police Lt. Kevin Townsend:

We believe and the family believes that since their video went viral, it’s somehow connected. Ever since their video has gone out there, they’ve received a number of what they call strange phone calls and emails, and a lot of strange things happening so tonight was just another incident for their family.

Swatting is a serious, but relatively common issue once someone gains enough attention on the internet. Hopefully @josholzz’s family doesn’t get targeted again, but given the popularity of the “Damn Daniel” video, it certainly wouldn’t be surprising.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Teen Who Made “Damn Daniel” Viral Video Gets Swatted appeared first on Law Street.

On Monday, while touring Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, Pope Francis gave a heartfelt speech to a crowded mosque where he spoke of unity saying, “Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters.” However, it wasn’t the speech that resonated most with people, but the photo of him speaking that went viral.

An image of the Pope gesturing while cupping a microphone quickly began to circulate social media, and it didn’t take long before users started saying the picture looked like the pope was prepping to spit a few rap bars.

Cue #PopeBars.

People quickly started using the picture and the trending hashtag to showcase some of their favorite papal-themed rap lyrics–and yes, they were hilarious. So without further ado, check out the slideshow below for ten of the top papal-themed rap lyrics from the hashtag.

#PopeBars I like it when you call me Big Papal (Throw your hands in the air, if youse a true pray-er) pic.twitter.com/tBiEUXCFMx

— BigHeadSports (@BigHeadSports) November 30, 2015

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post #PopeBars: Pope Francis Sparks Viral Lyrical Hashtag appeared first on Law Street.

A 21-year-old Irish comedian has skyrocketed to internet fame after posting a hilarious long-winded open letter to ISIS that has gone viral. Finchie Cova penned the 800+ word letter on his Facebook after the terrorist organization announced last week that it plans to attack Ireland, labeling it “Europe’s weakest link.”

Irishman writes open letter to ISIS warning dire consequences if they destroy a single pub. https://t.co/iSfcmM0ki3 pic.twitter.com/E9uiFgjlO7

— someecards (@someecards) November 30, 2015

In the letter Finchie explains to ISIS that he and his countrymen are “only here for the craic” (aka good times) and that Ireland is too neutral to join a fight they “clearly don’t want to be apart of.” But if for some reason the terrorists still plan to come to Ireland and “piss in their cornflakes”, he has a slew of a tips on how to proceed, i.e. don’t even think about bombing any pubs or Leo Burdocks!

Finchie’s effort to make light of the situation quickly resonated with others, causing it to to be shared more than 22,000 times and liked by more than 300 people so far. So if you need a nice post-Thanksgiving afternoon pick-me-up keep reading and enjoy.

The letter in full reads:

So after the past few weeks of shite that’s been floating around on Facebook iv tried to stay out of it. But I can’t, not anymore. Finchie needs to speak.

MY OPEN LETTER TO ISIS

What’s the craic lads! I don’t think we have officially met. Finchie here from Ireland, we are that non aggravating, laid back post English island to the west of the bullshit.

So how’s yourself? Been busy I hope. I see from the shallow media outlets and “copy paste” fear posting on social media that ye have been up to your neck in it the past few months. Good for you!

Sorry to be bothering ye boys while ye are busy planning the world’s biggest burning man festival in the name of Alan, (or what ever he’s called) but something has come to our attention to past few days that we need to have a quick “chat” about it.

What’s this I hear about ye adding us to a list of countries called “The Global Coalition” in some mad 80’s themed propaganda video? Ah lads come on will ya, shtep down from 3 legged horse now for a second and rewind the cassette cuz I think ye got it wrong.

First of all, lads were only here for the craic! We have been through too much shite hawking over the past couple of thousand years to be goin all “rouge and shit” and joining in fights we clearly don’t want to be part of. It’s like when a fisht fight breaks out in primary school between Vince and Iano Kelly. Most of us just watch, shout a bit and kick a bin to make noise or whatever, but we don’t bother getting involved (well Vince is English so any sly opportunity for a shneaky kick to the shins and were all over it) we couldn’t be arsed with the hole thing, we’re simply too laid back.

Now keeping that in mind let me let you in on a few tips if you do decide to come over here and piss in our cornflakes.

Don’t judge us on the actions of the lads across the pond. We don’t like that craic. I get that ye have yer fight an all, but dont drag us into it, we don’t give a left bollock for Alan and what he tells ye to do.

Sharon’s law, (or whatever it is) won’t work here. I know a Sharon, and she’s a cunt. We don’t like her either.

Don’t bomb our shit. We just finished building it back after breaking free from the very enemy you also have on your hit list. (if you want tho you can destroy leitrim, absolute shitehole lads I’m not joking)

We have more than one army. 1 official army (actually went training in north cork recently to prepare for your arrival. And yes north cork is exactly like Damascus, especially fermoy on a Friday night).

We also have a few non official, highly secretive, multi talented armies all with the same name (you get used to it after a while) who hate each other but have one very important thing in common…all mad bastards. Let that sink in

By the way the unofficial armies are all trained in guerrilla warfare. Meaning your fucked. Like actually fucked. Unless you want to buy weapons, then some of them will turn a blind eye to ” the cause” and sell ya a few AKs while you visit.

Don’t even think about blowing up Leo Burdocks!!! Consider this your harshest warning!

If any single pub is damaged during your short stay here, we will consider this an act of war!!! And we praise to our God Arthur, we will strike down on you with great vengeance and furious anger on those who attempt to destroy our drinking patterns during a time of crises!.

On a final note, remember these and you should be fine:

1. Offies close at ten
2. Don’t leave the immersion on
3. PM me for Bono’s address
4. Don’t bomb shit when the toy show is on
5. Start with leitrim
6. If your looking for virgins you won’t find any on Harcourt street
7. Get a Tesco clubcard. Trust me.
8. If you want to blow up a stadium, go to dalymount please.
9. Go to a water protest, they don’t judge you for where your from, just if you pay or not.
10. Finally, if asked for change, eyes down and keep Fucking walking!

So ISIS its good to meet you. Do yourself a favour and us, stay where you are. You don’t want to come here, were not bothered with the issues you have.

But if you do, we will beat the shit out of all of you using mammies wooden spoon, kilkenny hurlers and the bouncers from the copper faced Jack’s.

Yours unintentionally

Finchie and the rest of Ireland

EDIT: offaly, offaly too!

Clearly Finchie is enjoying his 15 minutes, taking the time to post a screenshot of an ISIS Google search on his Facebook accompanied by the caption,

Google: ISIS

Results: Finchie

Troll level: 1,000,000

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Finchie Cova: Irish Comedian Pens Hilarious Open Letter to ISIS appeared first on Law Street.

Earlier today, I was fortunate enough to watch and listen to a webinar hosted by the Chief Strategy Officer of Mashable.com, Adam Ostrow. The webinar, hosted at the American Association of Publishers, focused on how Mashable has been so successful, so quickly, in the online media field, and Ostrow’s insights were incredibly enlightening.

Mashable has been around for less than 10 years–it was launched in 2005 by a young Scottish man named Pete Cashmore. It began as a classic low-funded start-up. Its employees worked virtually, and given time differences between the U.S. and the U.K. were able to present content almost 24/7. Now, Mashable is well recognized as a force to be reckoned with in the online arena. According to Ostrow’s presentation today, some sort of Mashable content is now shared an average of three times per second.

Ostrow’s focus today was to explain how they got there–what sort of ingenuity and creative thinking was required to turn Mashable into such a viral phenomenon. A lot of it involved Mashable’s ability to utilize the digital culture that is becoming increasingly pervasive in American society, especially among young people. As Ostrow put it:

It's 2014, "#digital culture IS mainstream culture" @mashable @adamostrow @PSP_at_AAP

— Law Street (@LawStreetMedia) October 10, 2014

He’s absolutely right–we are more connected than we ever were before. We work, socialize, and interact constantly through our smart phones and social networks–why shouldn’t we get our news and other desired content the exact same way?

That’s exactly what Mashable thought too, and it’s worked. In 2014, roughly 50 percent of their users have accessed the site through mobile technology. On another interesting note, 50 percent also get to the site through some sort of social media platform. While those numbers are not necessarily mutually exclusive, they are telling. As a millennial, they’re almost directly representative of how I got a large chunk of my news–scrolling through my Twitter feed on my phone.

That brings us to another important part of Ostrow’s presentation–Mashable got into the market by taking advantage of changes in the media world, but they also realized they would be remiss to not stay abreast of changes that continue to happen. Ostrow highlighted a few–things like smartwatches are starting to become legitimate considerations, for example. One thing that really struck me was the fact that Mashable has a a position entitled “Dedicated Snapchat Storyteller.” That’s incredible, given that Snapchat was just released in 2011. So much of today’s society moves so quickly–our media sites are smart to jump on trends and incorporate them into their business models.

So Mashable is very successful, to be sure…but how do they make their money? That was another part of Ostrow’s presentation, and like Mashable in general, their money-making strategy was something that we probably wouldn’t have even known about just a short time ago. It’s called native advertising, or sponsored content, and it’s a model that is becoming increasingly popular on the web. There are a few different ways to do it, but essentially what it means is that a particular advertiser provides content that fits into the context of the site, in the form of blogs or articles, or some other platform. In the case of Mashable, some of their sponsored content partners include American Express, Staples, and Gap, among others. Like the rest of what Mashable is doing, sponsored content is smart because it tailors itself to what we, as millennials want. Smart content with context appeals way more to us than print ads, or even classic advertisements.

Overall, it was an incredibly interesting presentation–if you’re looking for more coverage, make sure to check out the Law Street Media Twitter feed. Mashable’s innovation is impressive, and their insights equally so.

—

Anneliese Mahoney (@AMahoney8672) is Lead Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

Featured image courtesy of [Mike Coghlan via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Mashable is Changing the Way Media Works appeared first on Law Street.