So, What Did Politicians Post? How Politicians Respond to Street Protest on Social Media.

Protest events allow politicians to profile themselves on public issues or to set out their political agenda. However, little is known about how politicians communicate about protest on social media. Therefore, in this study we ask: How do politicians respond to protest on social media? And, what determines how politicians react? We analyze Facebook and Twitter messages (N=8.211) by Belgian politicians (N=236) for street protests staged in Brussels (Belgium) between July 2017 and June 2019 (N=124). Results show that politicians predominantly engage in position taking when responding to protest on their social media account. Rather than protest features, features of politicians impact protest responses. Whereas politicians in power claim credit for their actions, politicians in opposition blame politics. Politicians on the right side of the political spectrum are more likely to discredit demonstrators. Our findings lay bare the drivers of politicians’ communication strategies in a hybrid media system. This is a working paper presented at the 2022 Mobilization Conference in San Diego, California. Please check with the authors for updates or corrections before citing the paper.