The Networked Amplification of Activist Voices: An Empirical Framework for Evaluating the Growth and Challenges of Information Diffusion Efforts During Hashtag Campaigns

Abstract

The hashtag campaign around #TWforWHO and #TaiwanCanHelp aimed to bring international attention to Taiwan’s exclusion from the global COVID-19 pandemic response. We use this campaign as a case study to develop and apply a social network analysis framework for evaluating the diffusion of hashtag campaigns. We collected and analyzed 121,711 tweets containing the two hashtags, which were published between February 9 and May 2, 2020, resulting in a retweet network of 23,715 users. We find that the movement improved over time on three of four growth indicators—increased size, geographic spread, and inclusion of elite users—while the network simultaneously became less stable. We find no evidence of major changes in the campaign’s reach following a paid advertisement in the New York Times. Our approach provides guidelines for understanding and assessing message propagation by elites and non-elites.