Kony 2012 - documentary

Kony 2012, a short documentary directed by Jason Russell and funded by Invisiable Children Inc. dedicated to bringing global attention to the Uganda cult leader and war criminal Joseph Kony and having him arrested before the end of 2012.

Released on March 5th, 2012 the film was a front to a huge campaign which was raising awareness on the internet about Kony's use of children as soldiers and sex slaves in the Lord's Resistance guerrilla army. The ultimate goal was for the documentary to go viral and push the United States government to help the Ugandan military capture, Kony.

So what happened? When Kony 2012 was released it attracted an enormous amount of attention, went viral (several 100 million views spread across a number of resources)  and even made Kony into a meme:

Overall Kony 2012 was met with an overwhelmingly positive reception, however, it has been criticized for "oversimplification of events in the region" and engaging in "slacktivism".  On March 21st support was put forward to Congress by Senators Jim Inhofe and Chris Coons and received support from 34 senators to back "the effort of Uganda".