Twitter Is Not a Consensus

The simple truth about 10% of users account for 80% of all tweets This includes original tweets, retweets and quote tweets Of this top 10%, two-thirds are women So next time you see news headlines like ‘Twitter names Megan Rapinoe the real president after U.S. wins women’s world cup’ ‘Twitter Gives Donald Trump Hell for Historical Inaccuracies and His #TrumparadeFail’ ‘Twitter can’t cope with George from Love Island’s chat up technique’ You’re not seeing a consensus You’re seeing a small group of women talking very loudly to each other

An infographic claims that 10% of Twitter users produce 80% of all tweets, and that two-thirds of this highly active group are women. It jokes that sensational headlines describing “Twitter” reactions are not evidence of broad public consensus, but of a small group of women talking loudly to one another. The meme is used to mock Twitter discourse and exaggerated media coverage of social-media opinions.

• @beobanka / 3567 2020-09-16