On Wednesday, the world was shocked by a shooting in Paris at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical French magazine, that left twelve dead.
Citizens immediately took to social media to share their support for, and solidarity with, Charlie Hebdo. Citizens created the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie, which means “I am Charlie,” to show their support. As of 6:35 p.m. EST, there were approximately 166,043 tweets using the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie, and the hashtag was trending in Paris and in the United States.
Mourners across the world also used the hashtag #CharlieHebdo to discuss the news story, and as of 10:45 a.m. EST the hashtag had 3,155,317 tweets.
“Je Suis Charlie” soon had its own Facebook page, where supporters have been planning public gatherings to remember the victims of today’s shooting. One “Je Suis Charlie” Facebook event for a public gathering planned for today at 6 p.m. Paris time had over 22,000 people marked as “attending” on Facebook.
Many supporters also shared graphics and memes they had created to show their support, some using the French flag, some depicting images of guns next to pencils, many saying “Je suis Charlie,” and some proclaiming “Liberte d’expression,” which means freedom of expression.
Later on Wednesday, the website of Charlie Hebdo, which had briefly been down, was back up and displayed the same “Je Suis Charlie” image that had gone viral on Twitter.
Here’s a look at some of the ways people have mourned and showed their solidarity, both in Paris and around the world.
Nisha Chittal