Riding the Wave

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On a Friday evening in July 2016, protesters released hundreds of cockroaches and locusts into two central London branches of burger chain Byron, forcing their closure. 

The act was part of a backlash following the company’s alleged involvement in an immigration sting against its own workers: 35 members of staff had reportedly been told to attend a Monday morning health and safety meeting, but immigration workers arrived and started interviewing – and arresting – Byron staff on suspicion of breaches in immigration laws. 

As news of the arrests spread, Twitter erupted with angry messages aimed at the chain. According to media monitoring platform Visibrain, in the first 24 hours alone, Byron received nearly 17, 000 tweets, and the hashtag #BoycottByron was used more than 8, 000 times. Twitter was also used – alongside other social media platforms – by activists to mobilise numbers for the insect stunt, as well as other protests against the chain.

Georgina Parsons, head of communications ...