Social Media in Conflict Zones – HK

A joint Global Human Progress – Tech + Narrative Lab project looking at forum posts on LIHKG. We’ll post a series of these, the first focused on number of unique users using any keyword associated with the protest in HK.

Unique Users using any Keyword plotted over time

This chart tracks the number of distinct users posting any protest-related keyword on a daily basis. The data shows three distinct periods: an initial calm from February to June before the protest activity became widespread, a period of intense engagement spiking in response to various real-world events lasting from June to November, and finally a plateauing of engagement following the district council elections in November. (Note: users who post more than one tracked keyword or the same keyword multiple times are counted only once per day).

TNL disclaimer: this work represents experimental, exploratory, and often in-progress or preliminary efforts. One goal of the TNL is to get interesting approaches, topics, and concepts discussed and presented quickly. This work has not been peer-reviewed and is not an official RAND publication. No warranties implied or expressed, your mileage may vary, enter as often as you like.

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