The social media response to Black Lives Matter: how Twitter users interact with Black Lives Matter through hashtag use

TLDR

This paper focuses on the social media presence of Black Lives Matter (BLM). The study investigates how Twitter users employ hashtags to interact with and reshape the framing of the Black Lives Matter movement, and proposes hypotheses for future research on movement framing. The authors analyze 66,159 tweets containing #BlackLivesMatter from 2014, cataloging co‑occurring hashtags to illustrate a decentralized, distributed framing of the movement. They find that #BlackLivesMatter co‑occurs with five distinct hashtag categories: solidarity/approval, police violence, movement tactics, references to Ferguson, and counter‑movement sentiments.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the social media presence of Black Lives Matter (BLM). Specifically, we examine how social media users interact with BLM by using hashtags and thus modify the framing of the movement. We call this decentralized interaction with the movement “distributed framing”. Empirically, we illustrate this idea with an analysis of 66,159 tweets that mention #BlackLivesMatter in 2014, when #BlackLivesMatter becomes prominent on social media. We also tally the other hashtags that appear with #BlackLivesMatter in order to measure how online communities influence the framing of the movement. We find that #BlackLivesMatter is associated with five types of hashtags. These hashtags mention solidarity or approval of the movement, refer to police violence, mention movement tactics, mention Ferguson, or express counter-movement sentiments. The paper concludes with hypotheses about the development of movement framings that can be addressed in future research.