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Finding the Twitter users who stood with Wendy
#MMPMID25129330
Stevenson AJ
Contraception
2014[Nov]; 90
(5
): 502-7
PMID25129330
show ga
OBJECTIVE: I examine Twitter discussion regarding the Texas omnibus abortion
restriction bill before, during and after Wendy Davis' filibuster in summer 2013.
This critical moment precipitated wide public discussion of abortion. Digital
records allow me to characterize the spatial distribution of participants in
Texas and the United States and estimate the proportion of participants who were
Texans. STUDY DESIGN: Building a dataset based on all hashtags associated with
the bill between June 19th and July 14th, 2013, I use GPS locations and text
descriptions of locations to classify users by county of residence. Mapping
tweets from accounts within the continental United States by day, I describe the
residential composition of the conversation in total and over time. Using
indirect estimation, I compute an estimate of the number of Texans who
participated. RESULTS: About 1.66 million tweets were sent using hashtags
associated with the bill from 399,081 user accounts. I estimate counties of
residence for 160,954 participants (40.3%). An estimated 115,500 participants
(29%) were Texans, and Texans sent an estimated 48.8% of all tweets. Tweets were
sent from users estimated to live in every region of Texas, including 189 of
Texas' 254 counties. Texans tweeted more than non-Texans on every day except the
filibuster and the day after. CONCLUSION: The analysis measures real-life
responses to proposed abortion restrictions from people across Texas and the
United States. It demonstrates that Twitter users from across Texas counties
opposed HB2 by describing the geographical range of US and Texan abortion rights
supporters on Twitter. IMPLICATIONS: The Twitter discussion surrounding Wendy
Davis' filibuster revealed a geographically diverse population of individuals who
strongly oppose abortion restrictions. Texans from across the state were among
those who actively voiced opposition. Identifying rights supporters through
online behavior may present a new way of classifying individuals' orientations
regarding abortion rights.
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