Negotiating Twitter As A Space for Digital Activism: A Case Study of #MeToo and Related Hashtags

Abstract

Currently we are seeing a variety of everyday interactions that used to be exclusively offline being forced online in one way or another--from professional correspondence to advertisements to teaching and learning. This study focused on the case of #MeToo on Twitter. From October 15, 2017 to March 31, 2018, I gathered more than 6,000,000 tweets that used the hashtag, as well as tweets that used related hashtags about women’s rights. I used these tweets to form a sampling frame, which I used to contact research subjects over Twitter. This study offers insights with regard to recruiting research subjects on sites like Twitter. Through 10 in-depth interviews, this study shows how Twitter users are mapping between the traditionally offline activity of protest and online hashtag activism. In this case, Hollywood, the 2016 Presidential election, and the utilization of social media by news outlets to spread information all play crucial roles.