Tying transnational activism to national protest: Facebook event pages in the 2017 Romanian #rezist demonstrations

Abstract

This article considers the use of public social media in transnational expatriate activism. It is an investigation of connections among users of Facebook event pages associated with 122 cities worldwide where demonstrations took place in 2017, in support of the anti-corruption Romanian #rezist protests. An exploration of interconnections between socio-demographics, space and network characteristics, it probes the association of geographic location and the gender of page users to connectivity in comment and share networks to reveal a connectivity differential. Connections increased when users were active on the same pages whereas users’ common location related to comparatively lower levels of commenting but not sharing activity. At the same time, while a larger proportion of them were male, users displayed a systematic tendency to interact with the other gender. Renewed attention should thus be paid to socio-spatial variations in the use of social media that both localize and help bridge transnational activism.

Examining the role of social media and mobile social networking applications in socio-political contestations in Nigeria

“…This increased trust and camaraderie improves protesters’ perception and reactions to protests’ news and messages. This reflects the argument about how connections increase when users are active on the same social media page (Mercea, 2020).…”

Threats, truths and strategies: The overlooked relationship between protests, nation branding and public diplomacy

“…The 2019 Chilean ‘social outburst’ was set off by an increase in public transportation fares but vented broader frustrations with the political and economic status quo of the country. Despite their differences, these three episodes were covered by national and international media, as well as by lone individuals and organisations producing alternative narratives (Jiménez‐Martínez, 2020; Mercea, 2022; Scherman & Rivera, 2021).…”

“…NGOs, alternative media collectives, community media, but also lone individuals, relied on platforms to mobilise people, gain visibility for grievances and produce counter‐narratives. Facebook in particular was a crucial tool—albeit not the only one—to announce events, denounce police brutality, stream videos and share photos (Jiménez‐Martínez, 2020; Mercea, 2022; Scherman & Rivera, 2021). Twitter hashtags, visualised on this platform but also on banners and posters, were also important to give visibility to protests and discursively construct demonstrators as powerful actors speaking on behalf of the nation.…”

“…Twitter hashtags, visualised on this platform but also on banners and posters, were also important to give visibility to protests and discursively construct demonstrators as powerful actors speaking on behalf of the nation. Collective calls were made to resist the authorities (#rezist) (Adi & Lilleker, 2017;Mercea, 2022) and challenge power relations between the people and the state, along with statements that the nation had 'woken up' (#ogiganteacordou, #chiledesperto and #neamtrezit) (Jimenez-Yañez, 2020;Peruzzo, 2013). The Guardian, 25 October 2019).…”

“…The Chilean case is not the exception. Similar debates about national reputation at times of unrest can be found in other settings, such as the 2014 ‘Umbrella Revolution’ in Hong Kong (Loh, 2017), the protests that preceded the 2013 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil (Jiménez‐Martínez, 2020), the Gezi Park demonstrations in Turkey (Zaharna & Uysal, 2016), the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine (Ståhlberg & Bolin, 2016), the transnational mobilisations against Norway's Child Welfare Services (Haugevik & Neumann, 2021), the 2017 anti‐corruption protests in Romania (Mercea, 2022) and the 2020 Black Lives Matter in the United States (Ashford & Kroenig, 2020). In all these instances, politicians, economists, brand experts, diplomats and journalists have struggled with how to make sense of protests from the perspective of their different state‐sponsored national ‘brands’, ‘images’, ‘soft power’ or ‘reputation’ 1…”