Turns Out Twitter Has A Democratic Bias, So What

An analysis of the most active users on Twitter -- the top 10% who account for 92% of all tweets -- shows a pronounced political bias towards Democrats vs. Republicans. That's one of the top findings of a detailed analysis of U.S. adults tweeting on Twitter leading up to the 2020 presidential election, released this morning by the Pew Research Center.

"Most U.S. adults on Twitter post only rarely. But a small share of highly active users, most of whom are Democrats, produce the vast majority of tweets," reads the report: "Differences in How Democrats and Republicans Behave on Twitter."

The center's analysis found that just 10% of U.S. users accounted for 92% of all tweets from U.s. adults since last November, and that 69% of them identify as Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents.

Beyond posting volume, the study found Democrats and Republicans also differ from each other in their actual behaviors on the platform:

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"For instance, the two accounts followed by the largest share of U.S. adults are much more likely to be followed by users from one party than the other. Former President Barack Obama (@BarackObama) is followed by 42% of Democrats but just 12% of Republicans, while President Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) is followed by 35% of Republicans and just 13% of Democrats."


2 comments about "Turns Out Twitter Has A Democratic Bias, So What".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, October 15, 2020 at 10:40 a.m.

    So, they were not able to measure Trump's usage of Twitter---just a sample of users in the general population. It would be interesting to find out what percent of all tweets are sent out by Donald, himself. Might that figure be as high as 5%? Or, even 10%? Now that would be an interesting stat. How about it Twitter. How much of your total activity does one man account for?

  2. James Smith from J. R. Smith Group, October 15, 2020 at 3:30 p.m.

    The Pew study is a good read.  Worth the time for those using social listening metrics for
    brand or creative guidance in general, not just politics. For those interested, here's the link to the Pew study. 

    https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/10/15/differences-in-how-democrats-and-republicans-behave-on-twitter/

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