Broadcasters and hidden influentials in online protest diffusion

González-Bailón, Sandra; Borge-Holthoefer, Javier; Moreno, Yamir

doi:10.1177/0002764213479371

Cited by 327Social Media and PoliticsPolitical and Social IssuesMedia and Digital Communication

Broadcasters and hidden influentials in online protest diffusion

Open access

González-Bailón, Sandra, Borge-Holthoefer, Javier, Moreno, Yamir·2013·American Behavioral Scientist

DOI 10.1177/0002764213479371

Open this paper in CoChat — free account Open PDF

Abstract

This article explores the growth of online mobilizations using data from the indignados (outraged) movement in Spain, which emerged under the influence of the revolution in Egypt and as a precursor to the global Occupy mobilizations. The data track Twitter activity around the protests that took place in May 2011, which led to the formation of camp sites in dozens of cities all over the country and massive daily demonstrations during the week prior to the elections of May 22. We reconstruct the network of tens of thousands of users and monitor their message activity for a month (April 25, 2011, to May 25, 2011). Using both the structure of the network and levels of activity in message exchange, we identify four types of users and analyze their role in the growth of the protest. Drawing from theories of online activism and research on information diffusion in networks, this article centers on the following two questions: How does protest information spread in online networks? And how do different actors contribute to the growth of activity? The article aims to inform the theoretical debate on whether digital technologies are changing the logic of collective action and to provide evidence of how new media facilitates the emergence of massive offline mobilizations.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1177/0002764213479371

Cites

59 of 59 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

News media and public profiles of politicians usually act as broadcasters and drive online information flow.
“which usually act as broadcasters and drive online information flow [17, 15].”
From Influence of augmented humans in online interactions during voting events (2019) · cites this paper as [15]
Manoeuvring social platforms can deeply affect real-world dynamics.
“Since manoeuvring social platforms can deeply affect real-world dynamics [14, 15]”
From Influence of augmented humans in online interactions during voting events (2019) · cites this paper as [15]

Collective dynamics of ‘small-world’ networks
Watts, D. J., & Strogatz, S. H. (1998) · Nature · doi:10.1038/30918 · Cited by 43,060 · see citing works
Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action
Ostrom, E. (1990) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511807763 · Cited by 20,653 · see citing works
Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action
Field, B. C., & Elinor Ostrom, B. (1992) · Land Economics · doi:10.2307/3146384 · Cited by 19,082 · see citing works
An Economic Theory of Democracy.
Banfield, E. C., & Downs, A. J. (1958) · Midwest Journal of Political Science · doi:10.2307/2109186 · Cited by 18,551 · see citing works
Foundations of social theory
Riggins, F. J., & Mitra, S. (1990) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.27-6637 · Cited by 16,590 · see citing works
The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups, With a New Preface and Appendix
Olson, M. (1965) · doi:10.4159/9780674041660 · Cited by 14,191 · see citing works
Book Review: Organizational Behavior: The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups
Sufrin, S. C., & Olson, M. (1966) · Industrial and Labor Relations Review · doi:10.2307/2521228 · Cited by 11,579 · see citing works
What is Twitter, a social network or a news media?
Kwak, H., Lee, C., Park, H., & Moon, S. (2010) · Proceedings of the 19th international conference on World wide web · doi:10.1145/1772690.1772751 · Cited by 6,652 · see citing works
Networks
Newman, M. (2010) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206650.001.0001 · Cited by 6,595 · see citing works
Threshold models of collective behavior
Granovetter, M. (1978) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/226707 · Cited by 6,072 · see citing works
Social Contagion and Innovation: Cohesion versus Structural Equivalence
Burt, R. S. (1987) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/228667 · Cited by 2,450 · see citing works
Here comes everybody: the power of organizing without organizations
(2008) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.46-1205 · Cited by 2,311 · see citing works
Small Worlds
Watts, D. J. (1999) · Princeton University Press eBooks · doi:10.1515/9780691188331 · Cited by 2,106 · see citing works
The dynamics of viral marketing
Leskovec, J., Adamic, L. A., & Huberman, B. A. (2007) · ACM Transactions on the Web · doi:10.1145/1232722.1232727 · Cited by 2,065 · see citing works
Influentials, Networks, and Public Opinion Formation
Watts, D. J., & Dodds, P. S. (2007) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1086/518527 · Cited by 1,864 · see citing works
Everyone's an influencer: quantifying influence on twitter
Bakshy, E., Hofman, J. M., Mason, W. A., & Watts, D. J. (2011) · Proceedings of the fourth ACM international conference on Web search and data mining · doi:10.1145/1935826.1935845 · Cited by 1,689 · see citing works
Meme-tracking and the dynamics of the news cycle
Leskovec, J., Bäckström, L., & Kleinberg, J. M. (2009) · ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD) · doi:10.1145/1557019.1557077 · Cited by 1,567 · see citing works
The Diffusion of an Innovation Among Physicians
Coleman, J., Katz, E., & Menzel, H. (1957) · Sociometry · doi:10.2307/2785979 · Cited by 1,475 · see citing works
Social Movements and Networks
Diani, M., & McAdam, D. (2003) · doi:10.1093/0199251789.001.0001 · Cited by 1,456 · see citing works
Collective Action
Hardin, R. (1982) · doi:10.56021/9780801828188 · Cited by 1,230 · see citing works
Differences in the mechanics of information diffusion across topics: idioms, political hashtags, and complex contagion on twitter
Romero, D. M., Meeder, B., & Kleinberg, J. (2011) · Proceedings of the 20th international conference on World wide web · doi:10.1145/1963405.1963503 · Cited by 1,082 · see citing works
Social network thresholds in the diffusion of innovations
Valente, T. W. (1996) · Social Networks · doi:10.1016/0378-8733(95)00256-1 · Cited by 1,055 · see citing works
The Dynamics of Informational Cascades: The Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig, East Germany, 1989–91
Lohmann, S. (1994) · World Politics · doi:10.2307/2950679 · Cited by 1,035 · see citing works
Digitally Enabled Social Change
Earl, J., & Kimport, K. (2011) · The MIT Press eBooks · doi:10.7551/mitpress/9780262015103.001.0001 · Cited by 1,017 · see citing works
Opinion Leadership and Social Contagion in New Product Diffusion
Iyengar, R., Van den Bulte, C., & Valente, T. W. (2011) · Marketing Science · doi:10.1287/mksc.1100.0566 · Cited by 996 · see citing works
A Theory of the Critical Mass. I. Interdependence, Group Heterogeneity, and the Production of Collective Action
Oliver, P. E., Marwell, G., & Teixeira, R. (1985) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/228313 · Cited by 972 · see citing works
Who says what to whom on twitter
Wu, S., Hofman, J. M., Mason, W., & Watts, D. J. (2011) · International World Wide Web Conference (WWW) · doi:10.1145/1963405.1963504 · Cited by 969 · see citing works
The Cement of Society
Elster, J. (1989) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511624995 · Cited by 656 · see citing works
Social Networks and Collective Action: A Theory of the Critical Mass. III
Marwell, G., Oliver, P. E., & Prahl, R. (1988) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/229028 · Cited by 637 · see citing works
Innovation Diffusion in Heterogeneous Populations: Contagion, Social Influence, and Social Learning
Young, H. P. (2009) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.99.5.1899 · Cited by 626 · see citing works
Untitled work
(2003) · Cited by 624 · see citing works
Medical Innovation Revisited: Social Contagion versus Marketing Effort
den Bulte, C. V., & Lilien, G. L. (2001) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/320819 · Cited by 616 · see citing works
Multiple Networks and Mobilization in the Paris Commune, 1871
Gould, R. V. (1991) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.2307/2096251 · Cited by 594 · see citing works
Reconceptualizing Collective Action in the Contemporary Media Environment
Bimber, B., Flanagin, A. J., & Stohl, C. (2005) · Communication Theory · doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2005.tb00340.x · Cited by 587 · see citing works
Network Effects and Social Inequality
DiMaggio, P., & Garip, F. (2012) · Annual Review of Sociology · doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102545 · Cited by 575 · see citing works
The dynamics of protest recruitment through an online network
González-Bailón, S., Borge-Holthoefer, J., Rivero, A., & Moreno, Y. (2011) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/srep00197 · Cited by 571 · see citing works
Self-citation
Collective Action and Network Structure
Gould, R. V. (1993) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.2307/2095965 · Cited by 557 · see citing works
Digitally enabled social change: activism in the Internet age
(2011) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.49-1776 · Cited by 555 · see citing works
The Paradox of Group Size in Collective Action: A Theory of the Critical Mass. II.
Oliver, P. E., & Marwell, G. (1988) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.2307/2095728 · Cited by 554 · see citing works
Chains of Cooperation: Threshold Effects in Collective Action
Macy, M. W. (1991) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.2307/2096252 · Cited by 505 · see citing works
Social Networks and Collective Action
Siegel, D. A. (2009) · American Journal of Political Science · doi:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2008.00361.x · Cited by 446 · see citing works
Tracing information flow on a global scale using Internet chain-letter data
Liben‐Nowell, D., & Kleinberg, J. M. (2008) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0708471105 · Cited by 428 · see citing works
Tracking Information Epidemics in Blogspace
Adar, E., & Adamic, L. A. (2005) · IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence · doi:10.1109/wi.2005.151 · Cited by 408 · see citing works
The structure of online diffusion networks
Goel, S., Watts, D. J., & Goldstein, D. G. (2012) · ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce (EC) · doi:10.1145/2229012.2229058 · Cited by 390 · see citing works
Contagious Collectivities: On the Spatial Diffusion of Swedish Trade Unions, 1890-1940
Hedström, P. (1994) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/230408 · Cited by 347 · see citing works
The Diffusion of Collective Violence: Infectiousness, Susceptibility, and Mass Media Networks1
Myers, D. (2000) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/303110 · Cited by 280 · see citing works
The Integrative Power of Civic Networks
Baldassarri, D., & Diani, M. (2007) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/521839 · Cited by 258 · see citing works
Spontaneous emergence of social influence in online systems
Onnela, J.-P. “., & Reed‐Tsochas, F. (2010) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0914572107 · Cited by 249 · see citing works
Social Movement Organizational Collaboration: Networks of Learning and the Diffusion of Protest Tactics, 1960–19951
Wang, D. J., & Soule, S. (2012) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/664685 · Cited by 222 · see citing works
Which Public Goods are Endangered?: How Evolving Communication Technologies Affect The Logic of Collective Action
Lupia, A., & Sin, G. (2003) · Public Choice · doi:10.1023/b:puch.0000003735.07840.c7 · Cited by 214 · see citing works
Commentary—Identifying Social Influence: A Comment on Opinion Leadership and Social Contagion in New Product Diffusion
Aral, S. (2010) · Marketing Science · doi:10.1287/mksc.1100.0596 · Cited by 210 · see citing works
The Diffusion of Innovations in Social Networks
Young, H. P. (2005) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162592.003.0011 · Cited by 183 · see citing works
Graph cluster randomization: network exposure to multiple universes
Ugander, J., Karrer, B., Backstrom, L., & Kleinberg, J. (2013) · Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining · doi:10.1145/2487575.2487695 · Cited by 183 · see citing works
Structural and Dynamical Patterns on Online Social Networks: The Spanish May 15th Movement as a Case Study
Borge‐Holthoefer, J., Rivero, A., García, I. E., Cauhé, E., Ferrer, A., Ferrer, D., Francos, D., Íñiguez, D., Pérez, M. P. F., Ruiz, G., et al. (2011) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023883 · Cited by 182 · see citing works
Self-citation
The World of Connections and Information Flow in Twitter
Cha, M., Benevenuto, F., Haddadi, H., & Gummadi, K. P. (2012) · IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics - Part A Systems and Humans · doi:10.1109/tsmca.2012.2183359 · Cited by 154 · see citing works
Strikes as Forest Fires: Chicago and Paris in the Late Nineteenth Century
Biggs, M. (2005) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/427675 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
Locating privileged spreaders on an online social network
Borge‐Holthoefer, J., Rivero, A., & Moreno, Y. (2012) · Physical Review E · doi:10.1103/physreve.85.066123 · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Self-citation
THE DYNAMICS OF PROTEST-RELATED DIFFUSION ON THE WEB
Earl, J. (2010) · Information Communication & Society · doi:10.1080/13691180902934170 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
The structure of social protest, 1961–1983☆
Bearman, P., & Everett, K. D. (1993) · Social Networks · doi:10.1016/0378-8733(93)90004-5 · Cited by 74 · see citing works

Flagged first, then by citations

Sorted by citations

Tweeting From Left to Right: Is Online Political Communication More Than an Echo Chamber?
Barberá, P., Jost, J. T., Nagler, J., Tucker, J. A., & Bonneau, R. (2015) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797615594620 · Cited by 1,472 · see citing works
Disinformation and social bot operations in the run up to the 2017 French presidential election
Ferrara, E. (2017) · First Monday · doi:10.5210/fm.v22i8.8005 · Cited by 524 · see citing works
Assessing the bias in samples of large online networks
González-Bailón, S., Wang, N., Rivero, A., Borge-Holthoefer, J., & Moreno, Y. (2014) · Social Networks · doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2014.01.004 · Cited by 238 · see citing works
Self-citation
The role of hidden influentials in the diffusion of online information cascades
Baños, R. A., Borge-Holthoefer, J., & Moreno, Y. (2013) · EPJ Data Science · doi:10.1140/epjds18 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Repression in the Digital Age: Surveillance, Censorship, and the Dynamics of State Violence
Gohdes, A. R. (2024) · Oxford University Press · doi:10.1093/oso/9780197743577.001.0001 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Influence of augmented humans in online interactions during voting events
Stella, M., Cristoforetti, M., & De Domenico, M. (2019) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0214210 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
“Recently, dynamical activity-connectivity maps based on network and temporal activity patterns – or their variation – have been used to identify inﬂuential individuals or broadcasters during online protest diﬀusion [15] and contagion dynamics of extremist propaganda [29].”
Influential
Government Formation and Political Discussions in Twitter: An Extended Model for Quantifying Political Distances in Multiparty Democracies
Guerrero-Solé, F., & Lopez-Gonzalez, H. (2019) · Social Science Computer Review · doi:10.1177/0894439317744163 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
More aggressive, more retweets? Exploring the effects of aggressive climate change messages on Twitter
Yuan, S., Chen, Y., Vojta, S., & Chen, Y. (2024) · New Media & Society · doi:10.1177/14614448221122202 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Legalizing control: the rise of restrictive internet regulation in sub-Saharan Africa
Schumann, M. P. (2026) · Democratization · doi:10.1080/13510347.2025.2503370 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Nationwide shutdowns and government offensives
Gohdes, A. R. (2024) · Repression in the Digital Age · doi:10.1093/oso/9780197743577.003.0005

Striking, Marching, Tweeting. Studying How Online Networks Change Together with Movements
Pavan, E., & Mainardi, A. (2018) · PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO · doi:10.1285/i20356609v11i2p394 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
#Occupywallstreet: An Analysis of Twitter Usage during a Protest Movement
Wang, Z., & Caskey, K. (2016) · Social Networking · doi:10.4236/sn.2016.54011 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
The Wealth of (Occupation) Networks? Communication Patterns and Information Distribution in a Twitter Protest Network
Theocharis, Y. (2013) · Journal of Information Technology & Politics · doi:10.1080/19331681.2012.701106 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
The Bridges and Brokers of Global Campaigns in the Context of Social MediaPreprint
González‐Bailón, S., & Wang, N. (2013) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2268165 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Self-citation
A framework for analyzing collective action events on Twitter.
Bajpai, K., & Jaiswal, A. (2011) · ISCRAM · Cited by 16 · see citing works

Authors: González-Bailón, S., Borge-Holthoefer, J., & Moreno, Y.
Affiliations: University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
Universidad de Zaragoza (ES)
ORCID: Moreno, Yamir
Venue: American Behavioral Scientist
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2013-03-08
Volume: 57
Issue: 7
Pages: 943-965
ISSN: 0002-7642 (ISSN-L)
1552-3381
DOI: 10.1177/0002764213479371
OpenAlex: W2949322752
Cited by: 327
References: 59
Citations by year: 2026: 6 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 1
FWCI: 88.93
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: green
doi.org
Licence: journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations: American Behavioral Scientist (publishedVersion)
SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders: University of Oxford
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (CSD 2010-00034, FIS2009-13364-C02-01)
Gobierno de Aragón
Topics: Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Political and Social Issues
Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Media and Digital Communication
Keywords: 15M movement, online protest, information dissemination, Twitter, digital activism, collective action, Occupy movement, social network analysis

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review

Broadcasters and hidden influentials in online protest diffusion

Abstract

Integrity signals

Claims the paper makes

Claims other papers make about this one

Cites

Cited by

Related

Record

About these checks