Brexit as ‘politics of division’: social media campaigning after the referendum

Abstract

The UK's referendum on EU membership that resulted in a narrow minority in favour of leave was followed by a leadership vacuum and intense debate about the implementation of the result. The politicization over Brexit resulted in the development of 'Brexit identities' of Remainers and Leavers that superseded party identities. We argue that in order to understand how this politicization took place despite a leadership vacuum we firstly need to look beyond the arena of formal party politics to more informal arenas of political contestation on social media, especially Facebook, and secondly understand the linkages between EU and national level politicization that polarised the country around new British-specific identities. Through this, we analyse the 'politics of division' not simply as a form of contentious politics driven by political parties, but as a social conflict driven by non-institutionalised groups, grassroots campaigns and ordinary citizens. We find evidence of significant mobilisation that extends beyond the realm of party politics but argue that this mobilisation cannot necessarily be considered entirely 'grassroots'. Rather, it is driven not just by citizens but also shaped by mainstream and alternative media platforms. The debates cannot, however, be considered purely a form of EU politicization, rather, analysis of Facebook comments shows that politicization over Brexit through these campaigns is primarily contestation over the nature and legitimacy of British democracy. Because of this, we argue that social media is an essential site for the study of EU politicization and political campaigns in general.

All About Feelings? Emotional Appeals as Drivers of User Engagement With Facebook Posts

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Referendum Campaigns in Hybrid Media Systems: Insights From the New Zealand Cannabis Legalisation Referendum

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Beyond Brexit? Public Participation in Decision-Making on Campaign Data During and After Referendum Campaigns

“…In the aftermath of the 2016 referendum, several official investigations into Brexit campaigning started collecting information on a wide range of issues such as the use of data analytics in political campaigning, funding irregularities, foreign interference, disinformation, and fake news. Academic research also explored the use of social media in Brexit-related campaigning (Brändle et al, 2022;Hänska & Bauchowitz, 2017), the broader impacts of data analytics use on democracy (Risso, 2018), as well as what types of regulations and oversight of datadriven campaigning would be needed (Dommett, 2020;Margetts & Dommett, 2020).…”