#EstamosporTI: A state-sponsored hashtag
Spain’s Ministry of the Interior and security forces promoted a hashtag during the referendum & police repression in Catalunya.
The October 1 referendum in Catalunya presented the opportunity to map a state-sponsored hashtag. I began capturing tweets under hashtag #EstamosporTI (“ We are for YOU”) on October 1. Gephi graphics in this study map a sample of 9651 #EstamosporTI tweets that contained 8162 nodes, 12,395 edges and 691 communities.
The hashtag actually began on September 30 so I missed the beginning of the dataset. Regardless, I thought it was worth looking at the activity from October 1 to October 3. Here were some #EstamosporTI tweets from September 30 that went viral:
Because there will be no referendum
Because no one is above the law
Because the unity of Spain is indissoluble
#EstamosporTI is already a trend
Our offices in #Barcelona are filled with your love #Gracias #Gracies #EstamosPorTI
Because we are not alone, because we are all one, because we are all Spain, for our democracy, for the legality… #EstamosporTI
The massive reception of the hashtag used by MOI to inform about the 1–0 has elevated #EstamosporTI to trending topic worldwide today thanks!
Trendinalia worldwide shows #EstamosporTI trended worldwide on September 30 in the 46th place. It also trended in 9th place within Spain on September 30:
#EstamosporTI has just become a TT (trending topic) occupying the 9th position in Spain.
There were 4 main influencers in this hashtag on October 1–3:
- @interiorgob — Spain’s Ministry of Interior (MOI) — 451K followers (dark blue)
- @policia — Spain’s National police — 2.95M followers (cyan)
- @guardiacivil — Spain’s Civil Guard — 1.01M followers (red)
- @zoidoJI — Juan Ignacio Zoido, Minister of the Interior — 117K followers (purple)
Several other accounts associated with Spain’s government or security forces were also using this hashtag:
- @marianorajoy — Prime Minister of Spain — 1.52M followers (also in purple community)
- @Sup_Policia — national police union — 24.6K followers (orange)
- @mossos — autonomous police force of Catalunya — 405K followers (orange)
And a few other accounts representing the government of Spain or accounts associated with police unions
- @portavozsup — police union Communication Secretariat — 2,174 followers (included in purple community)
- @PPopular — Partido Popular (conservative party of Rajoy) — 652K followers (light blue)
- @CristinaSegui_ — right wing conservative Spanish politician — 47.4K followers
- @FuerzasDelOrden — “unofficial account” of riot police — 27.7K followers
The #EstamosporTI hashtag was for the most part driven by Twitter accounts associated with either Spanish security forces, conservative Spanish politicians or the Ministry of the Interior. The four main influencers appear very connected because they all kept mentioning each other in tweets which linked their accounts in the network. For example:
“@policia @guardiacivil 2 — these are the first polls and ballot papers seized by @policia, in Barcelona. The agents continue deployment in Catalunya #EstamosporTI”
#EstamosporTI begins to be a trend, with 28392 tweets, occupying the 32nd position in Spain.
Here are some additional graphics using an alternate algorithm to spatialize the same network which clearly show the police were the main influencer in this hashtag:
I’m late publishing this hashtag study, my apologies for the delay. I completed most of it on October 2 and didn’t get back to it until now. I’ve been debating whether I should publish it at all but I thought it was worth looking at even though the events have passed.
Governments and security forces are prolific Twitter users and it’s important to consider how their tweets shape narratives and influence public opinion regarding events such as the violent police repression we all witnessed on October 1.
