Algorithms and agenda-setting in Wikileaks’ #Podestaemails release

ABSTRACT

In the month before the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, Wikileaks released 37 serialized batches of e-mails authored by former Clinton campaign manager John Podesta. Each release was announced using a unique PodestaEmail related hashtag (#PodestaEmails2, #PodestaEmails3, etc.). In total, Podesta e-mail related hashtags hit town-wide, country-wide, or worldwide Trending topics lists a total of 1,917 times, remaining on Trending Topic lists everyday within the U.S. for 30 days before election day. In this article, we discuss how Wikileaks’ release methodology increased the potential reach of Podesta E-mail related content. We describe how Wikileaks’ tweets spoke to two audiences: Twitter users and Twitter algorithms. In serializing its content and using new hashtags for each release, Wikileaks increased the potential persistence, visibility, spreadability, and searchability of this content. By creating the possibility for this content to remain persistently visible on the Trending Topics list, Wikileaks was able to potentially realize a greater degree of agenda-setting than would have been possible through singular hashtag use.

KEYWORDS:

• Twitter
• Wikileaks
• social media
• sociotechnical systems
• agenda-setting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Nicholas Proferes is an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky's School of Information Science. He researches socio-technical systems, technological discourse, and users' understandings of information flow online.

Ed Summers is a PhD Candidate in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. He studies how archival processes and digital preservation practices function on the web.

ORCID

Nicholas Proferes http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0295-9616

Ed Summers http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7320-8150