Mountain Trails

March 19, 2021

This report maps selected narratives related to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube content on Twitter during the four weeks leading up to election day of the US 2020 presidential election. It introduces our automated narrative detection in a cross-platform setting as one feature of our technology.

Context

Twitter is one of the major hubs for a number of social media networks. But what people see on Twitter is also being shaped by the content of other platforms. By giving off-platform content a new home, Twitter also allows harmful or misleading content related to conspiracy theories, toxic narratives or sensitive content to move in, too.  

But not only does the content matter that people see on Twitter. It also matters how the content is framed by narratives. Narrative mapping provides a bird perspective on the general state of a platform – what kind of content do people see, which platform has the biggest traffic volume on Twitter, what are the prevailing narratives and how prevailing are they?

This report introduces our automated narrative detection in a cross-platform setting as one feature of our technology

This report introduces our automated narrative detection in a cross-platform setting as one feature of our technology. It maps selected narratives related to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube content on Twitter during the four weeks leading up to election day. Although tweets do not necessarily reflect the narratives of off-platform content one hundred percent, they do reflect how the content is framed. 

Looking at cross-platform traffic on Twitter does not only help to better understand the accessibility of certain narratives during the weeks leading up to election day on Twitter and cross-platform promotion of Facebook, Instagram and YouTube content. It also provides insights into the narratives people on Twitter referred to when they shared Facebook, Instagram and YouTube content. 

Key takeaways

• The top four narratives in the four weeks leading up to election day were COVID-19 (1), Leaks (2), driven by YouTube related content, Toxic narratives (3), driven by Facebook related content and Conspiracy theories (4), driven by YouTube related content.

• QAnon associated issues were mostly shared with YouTube content.

• Sensitive content was mostly shared with YouTube content. This narrative was shared with 5.67% of all YouTube referrals in that time.

• Issues related to Voter suppression or Fraudulent electoral process were on a low level in those weeks.

• Videos and live streaming that previously premiered on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram were the most popular content types which boosted traffic significantly. We identified four major types of live streaming in that time: Live streaming or commentating parades and flotillas (mostly coming from Facebook and Instagram), live streaming of rallies, speeches and public service announcements (mostly coming from YouTube), live streaming and commentating policy issues or breaking news situations (mostly coming from YouTube) and live streaming and commentating news media or social media posts (mostly coming from YouTube).

• Democratic candidates being targeted with Leaks have become a constant theme in American presidential election cycles. The same applies to accusations of pedophilia and sexual scandals against both Democratic and Republican candidates.

YouTube

• Twitter was significantly flooded with YouTube traffic with 68,540 referrals overall. Compared to traffic coming from Facebook (3,428 referrals) and Instagram (1,324 referrals), this number is high. More than 20% of YouTube traffic was shared with Leaks-associated issues, mostly referring to the Hunter Biden allegations.

• YouTube content was mostly shared with references to Leaks, Toxic narratives and Conspiracy theories.

• Almost half of the fifteen most promoted YouTube channels are run by conservative or highly partisan news media such as Fox News, Right Side Broadcasting Network, One America News Network or The Next News Network.

Facebook

• Toxic narratives was the number one narrative related to Facebook content. More than half of all Facebook referrals (52.72%) were shared with Toxic narratives.

• The most promoted Facebook Pages were conservative or highly partisan political commentators such as Tomi Lahren, Tucker Carlson, Mark Levin, Huckabee or news media such as Newsmax. While the most promoted Facebook Page was Donald J Trump with 1,181 referrals in that time, Facebook Pages run by the Democratic candidate Joe Biden or supporting PACs were shared on a rather low level.

Instagram

• Instagram had the highest percentage of referrals related to the black community.

• One third of the fifteen most promoted Instagram posts shared on Twitter referred to the campaign trail of Donald Trump.

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