Ipsos MORI Social Media Britain

November 2019

Executive 1 Summary 2 Volume 3 Interactions

Influencers & 4 Hashtags 5 Deep Dive 6 Methodology

2 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public A note on the methodology

An additional lens for understanding Britons’ views

Ipsos MORI’s new Social Media Britain report offers an additional way to understand the public’s views about issues relevant to Britain. Social media are by no means representative, and many social media data are not accessible. (Nor should they be. For our views on the ethics of social media data, see this paper). Nor does our analysis take into everything that people in Britain talk about on social media over the period. Nevertheless, social media gives us an insight into people’s interests and concerns when we are not actively prompting them to think about a particular issue or topic. Our analysis is based on a list of 21 topics tracked over the course of a year. We determined these topics by first analysing data from politically active forums and used text analytics-based analysis of these data to help us write queries in Synthesio. We leveraged the Synthesio platform to gather and analyse the data. For more information on the methodology, please see the appendix.

3 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Executive Summary

• Overall Brexit continued to lead the conversation in November – however there was a 59% increase in NHS related mentions vs. October. This was driven in part by Corbyn 01 revealing documents that he says indicate a Conservative government would sell off the NHS as part of a US trade deal.

• The election, which is the focus of our deep dive this month, as well as the London Bridge terror attack - both contributed to sizeable shifts in social conversation.

• Following the ITV Leaders Debate, there was a sharp increase in conversation around the general election. The release of the Labour and Conservative manifestos seeing further spikes in volume towards the end of November.

• When comparing Johnson and Corbyn activity on Twitter in November there were some notable differences in the focus of their posts. Whilst Brexit was mentioned across 42% of Johnson’s tweets – it was only mentioned within 6% of Corbyn’s. Corbyn focused mainly on the NHS, which was mentioned in just over a third of his tweets.

4 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Top 5 Topics for November – Volume

Volume of posts about the topics

Met Police pass file of criminal evidence against Corbyn reveals 90,000 Boris Johnson’s Vote Leave campaign to the CPS documents in Brexit / EU / Europe 80,000 Jeremy Corbyn outlines respect to NHS and Labour’s Brexit policy Farage announces Brexit trade deal with US 70,000 Party will not oppose ITV Leaders Debate Boris Johnson 60,000 Crime / Law & Order / ASB

50,000

40,000 NHS / Hospitals / Healthcare 30,000

20,000 Environment / Pollution 10,000

Economy

13/11/2019 16/11/2019 19/11/2019 01/11/2019 02/11/2019 03/11/2019 04/11/2019 05/11/2019 06/11/2019 07/11/2019 08/11/2019 09/11/2019 10/11/2019 11/11/2019 12/11/2019 14/11/2019 15/11/2019 17/11/2019 18/11/2019 20/11/2019 21/11/2019 22/11/2019 23/11/2019 24/11/2019 25/11/2019 26/11/2019 27/11/2019 28/11/2019 29/11/2019 30/11/2019

Source: Synthesio

5 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Top 5 Topics for November – Interactions

Level of engagement with posts about the topics & standout Brexit & Monarchy posts

Corbyn reveals documents in respect 2.5 to NHS and trade deal with US Crime / Law & Order / ASB Jeremy Corbyn publishes social posts paying tribute London

Millions 2.0 to NHS campaigner Bridge attack coverage NHS / Hospitals / Healthcare 1.5

1.0 Brexit / EU / Europe

0.5 Environment / Pollution

0.0

Economy

Source: Synthesio

6 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Top 5 Topics vs. ITV Debate – Volume

Volume of posts about the topics

Criminal evidence passed to CPS 100,000 against Vote Leave campaign Corbyn reveals Brexit / EU / Europe 90,000 Jeremy Corbyn outlines ITV Leaders Debate documents in 80,000 Labour’s Brexit policy Farage announces respect to NHS and Brexit Party will not trade deal with US 70,000 oppose Boris Johnson Crime / Law & Order / ASB 60,000

50,000 NHS / Hospitals / Healthcare 40,000 30,000 Environment / Pollution 20,000 10,000 0 Economy

TV Political Debates

Source: Synthesio

7 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public General Election vs. ITV Debate - Volume

Volume of posts about the topics

100,000 ITV Leaders Debate Conservatives 90,000 release manifesto 80,000 70,000 Labour release Corbyn releases manifesto documents 60,000 suggesting NHS at risk in trade deal 50,000 General Election 40,000 TV Political Debates 30,000 20,000 10,000

Source: Synthesio

8 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Volume 02 In this section, we look at the volume for each topic. Volume is the number of posts on social media platforms that are related to the topic. Posts can be published by private users, corporate accounts or influencers. A comment, share or retweet of the item does not add to the total volume, these are types of interactions (see later).

9 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Absolute Volume Change Volume Rank since Oct of Top 10 Brexit / EU / Europe -14% Crime / Law & Order / ASB +10%

Topics NHS / Hospitals / Healthcare +59%

Environment / Pollution -5%

Economy +18%

Foreign affairs / Defence / terrorism +27%

Taxation +72%

November 2019 Education / Schools +40%

Poverty / Financial Inequality +32%

Immigration / immigrants +10%

0 1 2 Source: Synthesio Millions

10 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Volume Rank ABSOLUTE VOLUME Brexit / EU / Europe Crime / Law & Order / ASB of All Topics NHS / Hospitals / Healthcare Environment / Pollution Tracked Economy Foreign affairs / Defence / terrorism Taxation Education / Schools Poverty / Financial Inequality Immigration / immigrants Monarchy Pensions / social security / benefits Fake news / disinformation Housing Internet security / personal data November 2019 Unemployment Countryside / rural life Devolution / Scotland / Wales / N Ireland Wages / low pay / minimum wage Animal welfare

0 1 2 Source: Synthesio Millions

11 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public All Topics for November – Volume

Volume of posts about the topics

90,000 Brexit / EU / Europe Crime / Law & Order / ASB 80,000 NHS / Hospitals / Healthcare Environment / Pollution 70,000 Economy 60,000 Foreign affairs / Defence / terrorism Taxation 50,000 Education / Schools Poverty / Financial Inequality 40,000 Immigration / immigrants 30,000 Monarchy Pensions / social security / benefits 20,000 Fake news / disinformation 10,000 Housing Internet security / personal data 0 Unemployment Countryside / rural life Devolution / Scotland / Wales / N Ireland Wages / low pay / minimum wage

Animal welfare

Source: Synthesio

12 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Top 5 Topics for November – Volume

Volume of posts about the topics Met Police pass file of criminal evidence against Vote Leave campaign to the CPS 90,000 Corbyn reveals Jeremy Corbyn outlines documents in Brexit / EU / Europe 80,000 Labour’s Brexit policy Farage announces Brexit respect to NHS and Party will not oppose trade deal with US 70,000 Boris Johnson ITV Leaders’ Debate 60,000 Crime / Law & Order / ASB

50,000

40,000 NHS / Hospitals / Healthcare 30,000

20,000 Environment / Pollution 10,000

Economy

Source: Synthesio

13 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Beneath the Headlines – November – Volume

Volume of posts about the topics

40,000 London Bridge Foreign affairs / Defence / terrorism terror attack Taxation Corbyn tweets: ‘when politicians Education / Schools 30,000 resort to blaming immigrants you Labour Party unveil Poverty / Financial Inequality know you’ve run out of ideas’ manifesto Immigration / immigrants Monarchy 20,000 Pensions / social security / benefits Fake news / disinformation

10,000 Housing Internet security / personal data Unemployment 0 Countryside / rural life Devolution / Scotland / Wales / N Ireland Wages / low pay / minimum wage

Animal welfare

Source: Synthesio

14 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Top 5 Topics by month over past year – Volume Volume of posts about the topics 2,000,000 Boris Johnson to Proposed Brexit deal prorogue Parliament 1,800,000 European Parliament Brexit / EU / Europe election 1,600,000

1,400,000 Corbyn alleges Conservatives will sell off Crime / Law & Order / ASB 1,200,000 NHS in a US trade deal 1,000,000 800,000 NHS / Hospital / Healthcare 600,000 400,000

200,000 Environment / Pollution 0

Economy

Source: Synthesio

15 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Beneath the Headlines by month over past year – Volume Volume of posts about the topics 600,000 London Bridge Foreign Affairs / Defence / Terrorism terror attack Education / School 500,000 Terrorist shooting at two Poverty / Financial Inequality mosques in Christchurch, New ISIS leader Abu Bakr al- Immigration 400,000 Zealand Baghdadi killed by US forces Taxation 300,000 Monarchy Pension / Social Security / Benefits 200,000 Internet Security Countryside / Rural Life 100,000 Unemployment Fake News / Disinformation 0 Devolution / Scotland / Wales / N Ireland Housing Wages / Low Pay / Minimum Wage Animal Welfare

Source: Synthesio

16 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Interactions 03 Interactions are the types of user engagement on social media platforms. Interactions can be a like, dislike, comment, share, retweet, video view, any kinds of engagement with the post. The data is based on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and some mainstream media. Interaction analysis is the most effective way to measure audience engagement and to identify the sources and posts that were the most engaging.

17 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Top 5 Topics for November – Interactions

Level of engagement with posts about the topics

Corbyn reveals documents in respect 2.5 to NHS and trade deal with US Crime / Law & Order / ASB Jeremy Corbyn publishes social post paying tribute London

Millions 2.0 to NHS campaigner Bridge attack coverage NHS / Hospitals / Healthcare 1.5

1.0 Brexit / EU / Europe

0.5 Environment / Pollution

0.0

Foreign affairs / Defence / terrorism

Source: Synthesio

18 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Beneath the Headlines – November – Interactions Level of engagement with posts about the topics

1.2 Music artist Stormzy tweets in Social media response to Boris Monarchy response to Jacob Rees- Johnson saying the Monarchy is Mogg’s comments on Grenfell ‘beyond reproach’ in #ITVDebate Education / Schools

1.0 Economy Millions Jeremy Corbyn tweets about Poverty / Financial Inequality 0.8 politicians blaming immigrants for UK’s problems Taxation Immigration / immigrants 0.6 Housing

0.4 Countryside / rural life Pensions / social security / benefits 0.2 Fake news / disinformation Unemployment 0.0 Devolution / Scotland / Wales / N Ireland Animal welfare

Wages / low pay / minimum wage

01/11/2019 04/11/2019 07/11/2019 03/11/2019 05/11/2019 06/11/2019 08/11/2019 09/11/2019 10/11/2019 11/11/2019 12/11/2019 13/11/2019 14/11/2019 15/11/2019 16/11/2019 17/11/2019 18/11/2019 19/11/2019 20/11/2019 21/11/2019 22/11/2019 23/11/2019 24/11/2019 25/11/2019 26/11/2019 27/11/2019 28/11/2019 29/11/2019 30/11/2019 02/11/2019 Internet security / personal data

Source: Synthesio

19 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Volume vs. Interactions – November

Brexit / Europe Crime / Law & Order / ASB 120 3.5 120 3.5 3.0 3.0 2.5 2.5 80 80 2.0 2.0 1.5 1.5 40 40 1.0 1.0

0.5 0.5

Volume (thousands) Volume

Volume (thousands) Volume Interactions (millions) Interactions 0 0.0 (millions) Interactions 0 0.0 5/Nov 11/Nov 19/Nov 5/Nov 14/Nov 19/Nov 26/Nov Volume Interactions Volume Interactions Source: Synthesio Source: Synthesio

Brexit related topics continued to lead both conversation and engagement 5 Nov: Jeremy Corbyn and music artist Stormzy react to comments Jacob Rees- Mogg made about Grenfell victims 5 Nov: Both Corbyn and Johnson publish social posts outlining their Parties’ positions on Brexit 14 Nov: YouTuber Shaun Attwood posts a video about the Prince Andrew / Epstein interview 11 Nov: Nigel Farage announces Brexit Party will not oppose Boris Johnson 19 Nov: News coverage of the two prison guards who guarded Jeffrey Epstein 19 Nov: Johnson and Corbyn take part in ITV Leaders’ Debate being arrested

26 Nov: Further videos related to the Prince Andrew and Epstein posted by Shaun Attwood on YouTube

20 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Volume vs. Interactions – November

Environment / pollution NHS / Hospital / Healthcare 80 2.5 80 2.5

2.0 2.0 60 60 1.5 1.5 40 40 1.0 1.0 20 20

0.5 0.5

Volume (thousands) Volume

Volume (thousands) Volume Interactions (millions) Interactions 0 0.0 (millions) Interactions 0 0.0 02/Nov 7/Nov 12/Nov 15/Nov 19/Nov 28/Nov 14/Nov 18/Nov 27/Nov Volume Interactions Volume Interactions Source: Synthesio Source: Synthesio

2 Nov: New coverage of Leonardo DiCaprio calling climate activist Greta 14 Nov: Nike create shoes to help doctors and nurses get through long shifts Thunberg ‘a leader of our time’ 18 Nov: News coverage of the black lungs of ‘52-year old cigarette smoker who 7 Nov: ASOS publish Instagram post about their renewable energy credentials got through a pack each day for 30 years’ 12 Nov: Huffington Post pay tribute to Leonardo DiCaprio for his climate activism 27 Nov: Corbyn releases uncensored official documents which he says provide 15 Nov: Venice council reject climate change measures shortly before flooding confirmation that the NHS is at risk in a trade deal with the USA 19 Nov: Image of a Greta Thunberg lookalike circulated widely 28 Nov: Popular image of eco-friendly holiday resort posted

21 © Ipsos | Social Britain | November 2019 | FINAL | Public Volume vs. Interactions – November

Economy Foreign Affairs / Defence / Terrorism 40 Sajid Javid tweets ‘Every single Labour government in 2,000 40 2,000 history has left this country with an economic crisis’ London Bridge terror attack 30 1,500 30 1,500

20 1,000 20 1,000

10 500 10 500

0 0 0 0

Volume (thousands) Volume