Public Perceptions of the Food and Drug Administration’s Proposed Rules Prohibiting Menthol Cigarettes on Twitter: Observational Study

Zhou, Runtao; Tang, Qihang; Xie, Zidian; Li, Dongmei

doi:10.2196/42706

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Besides posting provaping messages, vaping advocates also posted messages advocating against tobacco regulatory policies, as shown in the major topics discussed by the e-cigarette influencers on Twitter/X. The vaping advocates directly contribute highly negative comments to FDA communication efforts, such as the FDA flavor enforcement policy and the proposed rules on menthol cigarettes [ 30 , 54 - 57 ]. These antiregulatory posts on social media might have a negative effect on the effectiveness of the FDA regulatory efforts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Network Analysis of e-Cigarette–Related Social Media Influencers on Twitter/X: Observational Study

Zhou,

Xie,

Tang

et al. 2024

JMIR Form Res

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Background An e-cigarette uses a battery to heat a liquid that generates an aerosol for consumers to inhale. e-Cigarette use (vaping) has been associated with respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, and cognitive functions. Recently, vaping has become increasingly popular, especially among youth and young adults. Objective The aim of this study was to understand the social networks of Twitter (now rebranded as X) influencers related to e-cigarettes through social network analysis. Methods Through the Twitter streaming application programming interface, we identified 3,617,766 unique Twitter accounts posting e-cigarette–related tweets from May 3, 2021, to June 10, 2022. Among these, we identified 33 e-cigarette influencers. The followers of these influencers were grouped according to whether or not they post about e-cigarettes themselves; specifically, the former group was defined as having posted at least five e-cigarette–related tweets in the past year, whereas the latter group was defined as followers that had not posted any e-cigarette–related tweets in the past 3 years. We randomly sampled 100 user accounts among each group of e-cigarette influencer followers and created corresponding social networks for each e-cigarette influencer. We compared various network measures (eg, clustering coefficient) between the networks of the two follower groups. Results Major topics from e-cigarette–related tweets posted by the 33 e-cigarette influencers included advocating against vaping policy (48.0%), vaping as a method to quit smoking (28.0%), and vaping product promotion (24.0%). The follower networks of these 33 influencers showed more connections for those who also post about e-cigarettes than for followers who do not post about e-cigarettes, with significantly higher clustering coefficients for the former group (0.398 vs 0.098; P=.005). Further, networks of followers who post about e-cigarettes exhibited substantially more incoming and outgoing connections than those of followers who do not post about e-cigarettes, with significantly higher in-degree (0.273 vs 0.084; P=.02), closeness (0.452 vs 0.137; P=.04), betweenness (0.036 vs 0.008; P=.001), and out-of-degree (0.097 vs 0.014; P=.02) centrality values. The followers who post about e-cigarettes also had a significantly (P<.001) higher number of followers (n=322) than that of followers who do not post about e-cigarettes (n=201). The number of tweets in the networks of followers who post about e-cigarettes was significantly higher than that in the networks of followers who do not post about e-cigarettes (93 vs 43; P<.001). Two major topics discussed in the networks of followers who post about e-cigarettes included promoting e-cigarette products or vaping activity (55.7%) and vaping being a help for smoking cessation and harm reduction (44.3%). Conclusions Followers of e-cigarette influencers who also post about e-cigarettes have more closely connected networks than those of followers who do not themselves post about e-cigarettes. These findings provide a potentially practical intervention approach for future antivaping campaigns.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Network Analysis of e-Cigarette–Related Social Media Influencers on Twitter/X: Observational Study

Zhou,

Xie,

Tang

et al. 2024

JMIR Form Res

Self Cite

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“…Twitter data have been used to examine the public perceptions and discussions of regulatory policies on tobacco products [13,16,17]. This study aims to provide important insights into public perceptions of the JUUL ban policy and the differences between Twitter users with different demographics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Perceptions and Discussions of the US Food and Drug Administration's JUUL Ban Policy on Twitter: Observational Study

Liu,

Lou,

Xie

et al. 2024

JMIR Form Res

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Background: On June 23, 2022, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a JUUL ban policy to ban all vaping and electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) products sold by the Juul Labs.Objective: This study aimed to understand public perceptions and discussions of this policy using Twitter data.Methods: Using Twitter streaming API, 17,007 tweets potentially related to the JUUL ban policy were collected between June 22, 2022, and July 25, 2022. Based on 2,600 hand-coded tweets, a deep-learning model (RoBERTa) was trained to classify all tweets into pro-policy, anti-policy, and neutral categories. A deep learning model (M3 model) was used to estimate basic demographics (such as age and gender) of Twitter users. Furthermore, major topics were identified using latent dirichlet allocation (LDA) modeling. A logistic regression model was used to examine the association of different Twitter users with their attitudes toward the policy.Results: Among 10,480 tweets related to the JUUL ban policy, there were similar proportions of pro-policy and anti-policy tweets (26.50% vs. 25.44%). Major pro-policy topics include "JUUL cause youth addition," "market surge of JUUL," and "health effects of JUUL." In contrast, major anti-policy topics include "cigarette should be banned instead of JUUL," "against the irrational policy," and "emotional catharsis." Twitter users at an older age (over 29) were more likely to be pro-policy (positive toward the JUUL ban policy) than those at a younger age (below 29). Conclusions:Our study showed that the public showed different responses to the JUUL ban policy, which varies depending on the demographic characteristics of Twitter users. Our findings could provide valuable information to the FDA for future ecigarette and other tobacco product regulations.

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Reframing social media discourse following the FDA’s menthol ban announcement as industry agenda setting rather than public sentiment

Silver,

Kierstead,

Emery

et al. 2024

Tob Control

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BackgroundThe tobacco industry has spent millions of dollars promoting racialised narratives against the US Food and Drug Administration’s recently announced ban on menthol as a characterising cigarette flavour. This research investigates racialised narratives in online discourse following the ban’s announcement.MethodsTweets and users responding to the April 2022 menthol ban announcement were content analysed to examine the influence of tobacco industry affiliates and potentially organic African-American/Black (AA/B) users. Next we investigated the extent to which the menthol ban was discussed on AA/B subreddits and used Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modelling to provide an overview of the menthol ban discussion on Reddit.ResultsOnly 28 (13.9%) tweets by 22 users claimed that the menthol ban would lead to police violence and/or racial discrimination. Of users who tweeted about over-policing, eight (36.4%) had financial connections to the tobacco industry. There were only three tweets receiving a combined seven retweets from potentially organic AA/B users. On Reddit, only two posts with one comment discussed the menthol ban on subreddits dedicated to AA/B issues and culture. Topic modelling showed that the most common topic related to the menthol ban involved the social and political implications of the ban followed by illicit markets and protecting youth.ConclusionTweets claiming a menthol ban will lead to police violence are indicative of industry agenda-setting. The menthol ban was not a prominent topic of discussion in AA/B subreddits although users discussing news and politics expressed concern for how AA/B people would respond to a ban politically.

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Public Perceptions of the Food and Drug Administration’s Proposed Rules Prohibiting Menthol Cigarettes on Twitter: Observational Study

Cited by 9 publications

References 33 publications

Social Network Analysis of e-Cigarette–Related Social Media Influencers on Twitter/X: Observational Study

Social Network Analysis of e-Cigarette–Related Social Media Influencers on Twitter/X: Observational Study

Public Perceptions and Discussions of the US Food and Drug Administration's JUUL Ban Policy on Twitter: Observational Study

Reframing social media discourse following the FDA’s menthol ban announcement as industry agenda setting rather than public sentiment

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