Fringe players on political Twitter

Abstract

Focusing on the (early) run-up to and aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential elections, this study examines the extent of problematic information in the most engaged-with content and with the most active users in “political Twitter.” It was found that mainstream sources are shared more often than problematic ones, but their percentage was much higher prior to the Capitol riots of January 2021. Significantly, (hyper) partisan sources are close to half of all sources shared, implying a robust presence. By March 2021, though, both the share of problematic and of (hyper)partisan sources decreased significantly, suggesting the impact of Twitter’s deplatforming actions. Additionally, active, problematic users (fake profiles, etc.) were found across the political spectrum, albeit more abundantly on the conservative side.