Mapping user discourses about blocking, unfollowing and muting on Twitter

Abstract

The article maps tweets by German-speaking Twitter users about disconnective platform practices such as blocking, unfollowing and muting. It identifies network clusters of topic-specific affiliation and interaction based on retweet and reply relationships as well as semi-automatic content analysis, and it investigates potential exchanges between the clusters. The article corroborates findings from earlier qualitative studies that tweets about disconnective action concentrate in political discourse networks, while also hinting at topic clusters beyond political expression that demand further investigation. Finally, it suggests that reciprocal communicative exchanges about disconnective action are rather limited to discussions among affiliates, while single replies and mentions by members from other and potentially opposing political groups still occur relatively often.