“Indoctrinated by the left!.”: How politicians respond to street protest on social media

Abstract

On social media, politicians present themselves on public issues to achieve re-election. Protest provides one opportunity for politicians to do so. In this study, we ask: How do politicians respond to protest on social media? And, which factors determine how politicians react? Building upon classic typologies of politicians’ rhetorical strategies, we study Twitter and Facebook posts (N = 8211) of Belgian politicians (N = 225) who respond to protest (N = 124) staged in Brussels (Belgium). Results show that politicians predominantly engage in position taking when responding to protest and rarely engage in advertising, blame attribution, or credit claiming, although latter reactions are more prevalent on Facebook than Twitter. A pattern of how politician features impact rhetorical responsiveness stands out. Executives are more likely to claim credit, opposition politicians are more likely to blame politics, right-wing politicians are more likely to blame demonstrators. Findings lay bare politicians’ online protest communication strategy and speak to party–protest interactions.