Global Reactions to the Cambridge Analytica Scandal: An Inter-Language Social Media Study

TL;DR

This study compares social media reactions in Spanish and English to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, revealing cultural differences in perceptions of responsibility and privacy concerns through inter-language tweet analysis.

Contribution

It introduces an inter-language social media analysis approach to explore cultural differences in data privacy perceptions related to the scandal.

Findings

English speakers attribute responsibility to companies more often.

Spanish speakers connect responsibility to individuals more.

Both groups focus on Zuckerberg's hearing and political impacts.

Abstract

Currently, there is a limited understanding of how data privacy concerns vary across the world. The Cambridge Analytica scandal triggered a wide-ranging discussion on social media about user data collection and use practices. We conducted an inter-language study of this online conversation to compare how people speaking different languages react to data privacy breaches. We collected tweets about the scandal written in Spanish and English between April and July 2018. We used the Meaning Extraction Method in both datasets to identify their main topics. They reveal a similar emphasis on Zuckerberg's hearing in the US Congress and the scandal's impact on political issues. However, our analysis also shows that while English speakers tend to attribute responsibilities to companies, Spanish speakers are more likely to connect them to people. These findings show the potential of inter-language comparisons of social media data to deepen the understanding of cultural differences in data privacy perspectives.