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Political Polarization and Platform Migration:: A Study of Parler and Twitter Usage by United States of America Congress Members

Authors:

Jacqueline M. Otala,

Gillian Kurtic,

Isabella Grasso,

Jeanna Matthews,

Golshan MadrakiAuthors Info & Claims

WWW '21: Companion Proceedings of the Web Conference 2021

Pages 224 - 231

https://doi.org/10.1145/3442442.3452305

Published: 03 June 2021 Publication History

Abstract

Growing dissatisfaction with platform governance decisions at major social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram has led to a number of substantial efforts, originating both on the political right and the political left, to shift to new platforms. In this paper, we examine one of the most impactful of these platform migration efforts, a recent effort primarily on the political right to shift from Twitter to Parler in response to Twitter's increased efforts to flag misinformation in the lead up to the 2020 election in the US. As a case study, we analyze the usage of Parler by all members of the United States Congress and compare that to their usage of Twitter. Even though usage of Parler, even at its peak, was only a small percentage of Twitter usage, Parler usage has been impactful. Specifically, it was linked to the planning of the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol building. Going forward, Parler itself may not have a large and lasting impact, but it offers important lessons about the relationship between political polarization, platform migration, and the real-world political impacts of platform governance decisions and the splintering of our media landscape.

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Cited By

Wei ZXu XHui PChua TNgo CKumar RLauw HKa-Wei Lee R(2024)Digital Democracy at Crossroads: A Meta-Analysis of Web and AI Influence on Global ElectionsCompanion Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 202410.1145/3589335.3652003(1126-1129)Online publication date: 13-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3589335.3652003
Madraki GOtala JVahidpour BLukaszewski MCompani MMatthews J(2024)Polarized social media networks: a novel approach to quantify the polarization level of individual usersInformation, Communication & Society10.1080/1369118X.2024.2360508(1-35)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2360508
Barrie C(2023)Did the Musk takeover boost contentious actors on Twitter?Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review10.37016/mr-2020-122Online publication date: 29-Aug-2023
https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-122
Show More Cited By

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

WWW '21: Companion Proceedings of the Web Conference 2021

April 2021

726 pages

ISBN:9781450383134

DOI:10.1145/3442442

Editors:
Jure Leskovec
Stanford
,
Marko Grobelnik
Jožef Stefan Institute
,
Marc Najork
Google
,
Jie Tang
Tsinghua University
,
Leila Zia
Wikimedia Foundation

Copyright © 2021 ACM.

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Published: 03 June 2021

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Ljubljana, Slovenia

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Cited By

Wei ZXu XHui PChua TNgo CKumar RLauw HKa-Wei Lee R(2024)Digital Democracy at Crossroads: A Meta-Analysis of Web and AI Influence on Global ElectionsCompanion Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 202410.1145/3589335.3652003(1126-1129)Online publication date: 13-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3589335.3652003
Madraki GOtala JVahidpour BLukaszewski MCompani MMatthews J(2024)Polarized social media networks: a novel approach to quantify the polarization level of individual usersInformation, Communication & Society10.1080/1369118X.2024.2360508(1-35)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2360508
Barrie C(2023)Did the Musk takeover boost contentious actors on Twitter?Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review10.37016/mr-2020-122Online publication date: 29-Aug-2023
https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-122
Diaz GChesñevar CEstevez EMaguitman A(2023)TwiSP: a framework for exploring polarized issues in TwitterProceedings of the 16th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance10.1145/3614321.3614324(16-23)Online publication date: 26-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3614321.3614324
Cava LAiello LTagarelli A(2023)Drivers of social influence in the Twitter migration to MastodonScientific Reports10.1038/s41598-023-48200-713:1Online publication date: 7-Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-48200-7
Garnier SMoussaïd M(2022)We the swarm—Methodological, theoretical, and societal (r)evolutions in collective decision-making researchCollective Intelligence10.1177/263391372211334001:2Online publication date: 13-Oct-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1177/26339137221133400
Agarwal SAnanthakrishnan UTucker C(undefined)Deplatforming and the Control of Misinformation: Evidence from ParlerSSRN Electronic Journal10.2139/ssrn.4232871
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4232871

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