How to fold a flag: Untangling the #nexit movement on Twitter

Abstract

Twitter has become a prominent arena for online political debate, and has provided a platform to a wide range of political voices. Political dissidents utilize the platform to spread news from “alternative media” and follow like-minded opinion leaders. Though studies into such political topic communities are plentiful, they often fail to acknowledge the role of socio-technical platform dynamics in the formation of such ideologies: the many different aspects of surrounding the platform that impact how information is created and circulated. This research seeks to address this gap by researching one such topic community explicitly through the lens of platform dynamics. By analyzing a large Twitter dataset of the cluster surrounding the hashtag #nexit– a vocal group of Dutch anti-EU Twitter accounts – I show that reactionary discourse thrives on the platform as it fits its inherent purpose: to drive user engagement. Through a variety of explorative data analysis methods, I demonstrate that the popularity of #nexit is strongly tied to news events and actualities, and that populist politicians exploit the anti-authoritarian connotations of the hashtag to engage the most radical members of their vote base. I argue for further acknowledgement of the role of platform dynamics in shaping extreme ideologies, not only in academic research but also in policymaking and platform design.