Abstract
During the pandemic, social media fuelled the spread of disinformation and misinformation at scale, frustrating public health responses, and provoking civil disobedience. Grassroots protest groups played a critical role in the amplification process. Yet little is known about how these groups function, or the persuasive action frames they use to encourage followers to join their cause, share their message and take action. This paper outlines the persuasive communication used by a protest group accused of, and ultimately de-platformed for, spreading misinformation via Facebook. The group became the biggest of its kind in Australia, attracting 84,000 followers in just a few weeks. Mixed methods, including analysis of follower engagement trends and in-depth close reading of Facebook posts were used to determine the persuasive action frames used across the group’s lifecycle, and the role social media affordances played in the process. Distinctive frames were used to drive membership, foster unity, create a sense of identity, and broker information with similar groups. Social media affordances enhanced membership growth and message amplification, and also enabled the group to repeatedly evade platform censure. The paper highlights the power of social media to fuel grassroots protest groups’ communication. It argues that by identifying the lifecycle of a protest group, and the persuasive communication used in the different phases of the lifecycle, critical inflection points can be identified where interventions could be made to slow or halt the progress of mis and disinformation, and the consequent offline harms they create.
Presenters
Virginia H. BalfourStudent, PhD, University of New South Wales, New South Wales, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
MISINFORMATION, DISINFORMATION, AMPLIFICATION, SOCIAL MEDIA, FACEBOOK, CORONAVIRUS, PROTEST, COMMUNICATION
