S yrian Solidarity, a group of citizens who were against President Bashar al-Assad ' s regime in Syria, got their fifteen minutes of fame in September 2013. The group was formerly known as the UA secret show after a Twitter account was created claiming to have the scoop about a star-studded celebrity concert coming to the university. A statement was immediately released by the UA denying association with the organization. Benjamin, a member of the group who was not a student at the university, said that members of SS felt bad for deceiving the audience, but it was something they knew had to be done. It was kind of the game plan all along, Benjamin s aid. We weren ' t prepared for how big it got. This exceeded every expectation we ever had. The group gained approximately 4,000 Twitter followers in two days. As the numbers grew and as the excitement grew, the reality of having to lie to that many people began to weigh heavier and heavier, Benjamin said. The group ' s first target was University of Arkansas freshmen. The goal from the beginning was to target freshman, so we took advantage on Twitter by following freshman influencers and messaging them to retweet about the show, he said. However, the messages and retweets stopped as soon as the group name changed from Secret Show to Syrian Solidarity. After the name change, the first tweet about the regime was enough to plummet their following by 1,000 people. Despite disappointment from the audience, Benjamin said they had a strong reason for doing what they did. When things got more grim and serious in Syria and you look around and everyone is going on with their daily lives, it became time to try something outside of the legitimate channels to get people to ask questions they should be asking, Benjamin said. If we would do it over again, we wouldn ' t do it the same way ... but we ' re pleased that a lot of people who hadn ' t heard about Syria had formed an opinion on it. Students weren ' t too pleased with the turnout, even though it was for a good cause. Junior Tyler Gonzalez thinks their idea had good intentions, but was approached the wrong way. I think they should have done something that enabled them to gain support, not lose it, Gonzalez said. Good idea in theory, but I don ' t think it accomplished what they were hoping for. Gonzalez added that if the group had publicized the event without deceiving students, they would have developed a stronger support base, rather than lost potential activists. r nr SEPTEMBER UZU SECRET SHOW
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I Country artist Justin Moore performed September 13 in Lot 56. The concert was arranged by the athletic department as a pep rally for the next day ' s game. Photo: B. Dyson I rv ' } ' ) SEPTEMBER
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