Digital Activism, Social Networks, and Protest Participation

• In Event: The Political Effects of Social Media

Abstract

Does online activism motivate protest attendance? While contemporary social movement organizations have increasingly been observed to use social media as a tool for coordination and information diffusion, the question of how engagement with virtual activism is related to physical protest participation as individual-level behaviors has received less attention. This study argues that individuals who express higher levels of support for a movement online are also more likely to participate in physical protest events, mobilized through a sense of collective identity that grows out of online social network ties with other supporters. This theory is tested through evidence contained in the Twitter profiles of supporters of the 2019-2020 Anti-Extradition Bill protests in Hong Kong. Using machine learning and natural language processing techniques, I examine the characteristics of online support for these protests, as well as the structure of the online activist network surrounding the movement. I hypothesize that an individual supporter's centrality in this network will predict their own online support for the movement, how that support is framed, and whether it will translate into participation in physical protest events.

Author

• Samuel Bestvater, Pew Research Center