Twitter’s Role in Digital Democracy, Post-Truth, and Political Polarization

Abstract

Although the presidential election in the United States of America (USA) in November 2020 took place under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become one of the important points in terms of digitalization and the agenda. Donald Trump, who lost the election to Joe Biden, challenged the results, and even refused to concede for some time. Joe Biden, who based his election campaign on democracy and diversity, took the oath of office as the 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021. His inauguration ceremony was marked by a call for “unity”. The ceremony became the agenda of social media as well as traditional media, and users simultaneously shared posts reflecting their views and attitudes on social media platforms. Most of these posts (on Twitter) were made using the hashtags #DonaldTrump and #inaugurationday. The discussion and political polarization that started during the election process continued after the election through social networks. In the study, the role of Twitter in digital democracy as well as its potential to serve as a public space were examined through the network and its features, interactions, and factions that were formed within the framework of the related hashtags on the inauguration day (January 20, 2021). Methodologically, social network analysis was utilized. The results indicate that the political agenda-setters on Twitter are dominating and resonate with users in terms of interaction.

Keywords

• democracy
• post-truth
• political polarization