The Effect of Social Media on Elections: Evidence from The United States

Thomas Fujiwara, Karsten Müller, Carlo Schwarz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

We study how social media affects election outcomes in the United States. We use variation in the number of Twitter users across counties induced by early adopters at the 2007 South by Southwest festival, a key event in Twitter's rise to popularity. We show that this variation is unrelated to observable county characteristics and electoral outcomes before the launch of Twitter. Our results indicate that Twitter lowered the Republican vote share in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, but had limited effects on Congressional elections and previous presidential elections. Evidence from survey data, primary elections, and text analysis of millions of tweets suggests that Twitter's relatively liberal content may have persuaded voters with moderate views to vote against Donald Trump.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1495-1539
Number of pages45
JournalJournal of the European Economic Association
Volume22
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2024

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Economics, Econometrics and Finance

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