MP Twitter Engagement and Abuse Post-first COVID-19 Lockdown in the UK: White Paper

TL;DR

This study analyzes Twitter abuse directed at UK MPs from June to December 2020, revealing increased abuse levels during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially towards Tory MPs, with links to political and social issues.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of online abuse trends during the pandemic, including the influence of political events and the presence of conspiracy theories.

Findings

Abuse levels peaked at 5.4% in December 2020.

Tory MPs received the highest abuse from July 2020 onward.

Abuse was linked to Brexit, COVID-19 policies, and conspiracy theories.

Abstract

The UK has had a volatile political environment for some years now, with Brexit and leadership crises marking the past five years. With this work, we wanted to understand more about how the global health emergency, COVID-19, influences the amount, type or topics of abuse that UK politicians receive when engaging with the public. With this work, we wanted to understand more about how the global health emergency, COVID-19, influences the amount, type or topics of abuse that UK politicians receive when engaging with the public. This work covers the period of June to December 2020 and analyses Twitter abuse in replies to UK MPs. This work is a follow-up from our analysis of online abuse during the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. The paper examines overall abuse levels during this new seven month period, analyses reactions to members of different political parties and the UK government, and the relationship between online abuse and topics such as Brexit, government's COVID-19 response and policies, and social issues. In addition, we have also examined the presence of conspiracy theories posted in abusive replies to MPs during the period. We have found that abuse levels toward UK MPs were at an all-time high in December 2020 (5.4% of all reply tweets sent to MPs). This is almost 1% higher that the two months preceding the General Election. In a departure from the trend seen in the first four months of the pandemic, MPs from the Tory party received the highest percentage of abusive replies from July 2020 onward, which stays above 5% starting from September 2020 onward, as the COVID-19 crisis deepened and the Brexit negotiations with the EU started nearing completion.