Research/Study
Study: Right-wing fearmongering leads Facebook engagement about peaceful protests
Media Matters looked at the protest narratives being spread on Facebook from right-leaning, ideologically nonaligned, and left-leaning pages
Published
Updated
Update (6/9/20): This piece has been updated with additional data from the weekend of June 6-7.
As demonstrations against police brutality continue across the country, right-leaning and ideologically nonaligned Facebook pages are promoting narratives that misrepresent the largely peaceful protests or even encourage police violence against them. And Media Matters found that posts from right-leaning pages earned more engagement than posts from nonaligned or left-leaning pages, with right-leaning Facebook pages receiving over 48 million interactions -- or nearly 40% of all interactions -- despite representing only a quarter of all posts about the protests.
Protests against racism and police brutality arose across the country after police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, killed George Floyd, a Black man, on May 25. These protests have continued as local officials have instituted curfews, police have used excessive force, federal law enforcement officers have been deployed to Washington, D.C., and President Donald Trump tear-gassed peaceful protesters for a photo-op.
Media Matters analyzed over 36,000 Facebook posts about the protests made by right-leaning, nonaligned, and left-leaning Facebook pages between 4:45 p.m. EDT on May 31 and 4:45 p.m. EDT on June 3 in order to understand narratives being spread within these ecosystems. Key findings include:
- Right-leaning pages earned over 48 million interactions on nearly 9,400 posts, surpassing engagement on posts from both left-leaning and ideologically nonaligned pages.
- Posts from right-leaning pages accounted for only 26% of posts about protests, but they earned nearly 40% of engagement.
- Top posts from right-leaning pages amplified narratives that misrepresented the largely peaceful protests and praised Trump and his actions against peaceful protesters.
- The Facebook post about protests with the most interactions is a live video from right-wing figure Candace Owens attacking George Floyd and criticizing Black Americans. At the time of publication, the post has earned over three million interactions and has 59 million views.
- Nonaligned pages earned nearly 42 million interactions, which is less than right-leaning pages despite having more than double the number of posts -- over 19,000.
- Top posts from nonaligned pages boosted narratives about looters and rioters, which misrepresent the largely peaceful protesters across the country.
- Left-leaning pages earned nearly 33.5 million interactions on over 7,400 posts.
- Top posts from left-leaning pages promoted a variety of narratives around the protests, as opposed to the more cohesive and one-sided narrative being pushed by right-leaning and nonaligned pages.