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Home , EUobserver, Laura Kuenssberg, Margrethe Vestager, Politico Europe

October 2016

Analyzing MEPs’ connections on : who’s worth following?

Most popular media outlets, journalists, think tanks, opinion leaders and politicians.

To perform some of the analyses for our project ThinkingAbout.EU, we collected a list of 643 ​ ​ ​ Twitter accounts that covers the presence on the social network of the 751 Members of the currently in office. Once we had a complete list (that you can find on our Github), in October 2016 we decided to ​ ​ check all the accounts followed by these MEPs. Among them, we took into consideration the first 8000 ones, ranked by the number of MEPs following them (e.g. the first one is

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@JunckerEU, followed by 401 Members of the Parliament). ​ Using the Louvain algorithm to analyze this network, we were able to detect emerging ​ communities. A community is a group of accounts with a density of connections higher than the average. ​ ​ The most connected account inside a community is considered the most central ​ one. ​ Analyzing 8000 accounts, we were able to identify 10 communities. In each one of them, we were able to see the MEPs accounts we started with and the followed accounts. We used MEPs’ nationalities to describe each community since, based on what the algorithm showed us, it was pretty clear that MEPs from the same country tend to be grouped in the same community. This happens because — and it’s a first discovery from this analysis, even if it could be expected — MEPs tend to follow media, journalists and politicians from their own country. So, two members from the same country have in many cases more followed accounts in common, than two members from different countries.

This offered us an interesting view of what members elected in each country consider worth to follow. Which journalists? Which media outlets? Are national politicians more important than European ones? Who are the opinion leaders? What role do specialized media have?

This research has been originally published on our Medium account. ​ ​

Elif Lab www.eliflab.com [email protected] ​

ThinkingAboutEU www.thinkingabout.eu @thinkingabouteu

WHO

We are Elif Lab, a data company that provides analyses on politics and institutions and we ​ ​ are working on a project called ThinkingAbout.EU that analyzes various data coming from ​ the European institutions. Contact us on our website www.eliflab.com or send a mail to [email protected] ​ ​ ​

INDEX

Analyzing MEPs’ connections on Twitter: who’s worth following? MEPs’ communities 4 ​ Greece and Cyprus: Greek and Cypriot MEPs — Twitter Community 4 ​ France (and Belgium): French and Belgian MEPs — Twitter Community 5 ​ : Polish MEPs — Twitter Community 7 ​ : Italian MEPs — Twitter Community 9 ​ : Danish MEPs — Twitter Community 10 ​ Spain: Spanish MEPs — Twitter Community 12 ​ Netherlands (and Belgium): Dutch MEPs — Twitter Community 14 ​ Sweden: Swedish MEPs — Twitter Community 15 ​ Austria: Austrian MEPs — Twitter Community 16 ​ Germany: German MEPs — Twitter Community 18 ​ United Kingdom: British MEPs — Twitter Community 19 ​ Conclusions 21 ​ EU Media outlets 21 ​ EU Politicians 23 ​ Differences in the communities’ composition 24 ​

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MEPs’ communities

Greece and Cyprus:

Greek and Cypriot MEPs — Twitter Community

The first community we analyze gathers together 16 MEPs from Greece and 4 from Cyprus and the accounts they follow. The most central account is the one of the journalist Nikos Chatzinikolaou (@NChatzinikolaou) closely followed by the one of Michail Ignatiou (@mignatiou), ​ ​ ​ ​ correspondent from the United States. Other popular journalists are there: Sia Kossioni (@SiaKossioni) and Sofia Papaioannou (@Sofpap360) from Alpha TV. ​ ​ ​ ​ The most central news media are, instead, Amna News (@amna_news), Enikos ​ ​ (@enikos_gr) and Real.gr (@Real_gr). ​ ​ ​ ​ A big emphasis (especially compared to other communities) is for politicians operating at

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national level: we find many of them in the top 30 central accounts. First one is Nikos Pappas @nikospappas16 (current Minister of State), but of course we have premier Alexis ​ ​ Tsipras (@atsipras), deputy prime minister Yannīs Dragasakīs (@YDragasakis) and ​ ​ ​ ​ Governor of Attica Rena Dorou (@renadourou). There’s also space for economist John ​ ​ Milios (@john_milios) former Syriza economic advisor. ​ ​ At the European level, MEPs from Greece and Cyprus prefer to follow President Juncker (@JunckerEU) and Cypriot Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid & Crisis Management ​ ​ (@StylianidesEU). No other commissioner appears in the first 30 ​ ​ accounts. Interesting to note, Members are also following Vangelis Demiris (@vangelisdemiris), ​ ​ multimedia editor for the Commission, who is the only “insider” providing European news in top accounts.

France (and Belgium):

French and Belgian MEPs — Twitter Community

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This second community shows closeness among French Members (65) and some of the Belgians (7). This community is quite different in its composition from the Greek and Cypriot one. No national politicians are among the top 30 accounts. Instead we can find various media outlets: the most central one is Le Monde (@lemondefr). ​ ​ Agence France-Presse (@afpfr), France Info (@franceinfo), France Inter (@franceinter), ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Libération (@libe) are also at the top of the most followed accounts. ​ ​ Looking for journalists we bump into Jean Quatremer (@quatremer), European ​ ​ correspondent for Libération, François Beaudonnet (@beaudonnet) France2, Jean-Jacques ​ ​ Bourdin (@JJBourdin_RMC) RMC, Christophe Barbier (@C_Barbier) L’Express and Aurélie ​ ​ ​ ​ Herbemont (@aurelherbemont) from Europe1. ​ ​ News about European politics are delivered by specialized French media such as Toute l’Europe (@touteleurope), but also by EurActiv (@EurActiv), which is in top 30 accounts ​ ​ ​ ​ with both its generalist account and the French one (@EurActiv_FR). ​ ​ President Juncker (@JunckerEU) is in this community the only member of the Commission ​ ​ appearing in the top 30 accounts. What about the Council? No sign of so far.

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Poland:

Polish MEPs — Twitter Community

The Polish community is generated by the connections of 32 Polish MEPs. The most central account is the one of Radosław Sikorski (@sikorskiradek) now senior fellow ​ ​ at the Harvard University’s Center for European Studies but in the past Marshal of the Sejm and Minister of Foreign Affairs. In second place, we find Donald Tusk (in this community both with @donaldtusk and @eucopresident) Polish president of the European Council, ​ ​ ​ several positions above Commission President Juncker (@JunckerEU). ​ ​ Paweł Graś (@pawelgras), senior political and communication advisor to the president Tusk ​ ​ also seems to be very popular among Polish MEPs. The Polish Community is rich of politicians operating at national level like the Prime Minister Beata Szydło (@PremierRP), Jan Vincent-Rostowski (@janrostowski) former ​ ​ ​ ​ Minister of Finance in Poland, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz (@KosiniakKamysz) leader of ​

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the Polish People Party, Paweł Zalewski (@ZalewskiPawel) former Member of the European ​ ​ Parliament and Agnieszka Pomaska (@pomaska) member of the Polish Parliament and ​ ​ Vice-chair of EU Affairs Committee. Exploring media and journalists, we can see the most followed media outlets are TVN24 (@tvn24), TVP INFO (@tvp_info) and the political magazine 300 Polityka (@300polityka). ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Leading journalists are, instead, Konrad Piasecki (@KonradPiasecki) from Radio Zet, ​ ​ political commentator Igor Janke (@IgorJanke), Krzysztof Skórzyński from TVN ​ ​ (@skorzynski) and Bartosz Węglarczyk (@bweglarczyk) from Onet. ​ ​ ​ ​ Among top 30 accounts, we find a political think tank too: Instytut Obywatelski (@IObywatelski), affiliated with the Civic Platform Party. ​ ​

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Italy:

Italian MEPs — Twitter Community

The Italian Community (based on the connections of 65 Italian MEPs) mostly contains media outlets: news agencies (@Adnkronos, @Agenzia_Ansa), all news channels ​ ​ ​ ​ (@SkyTg24, @RaiNews), newspapers (@Corriere, @Repubblicait, @sole24ore, @LaStampa, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ @fattoquotidiano) and media specialized on European politics (@eunewsit, @ansaeuropa). ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ A very distinctive trait is that there’s only one journalist in the top 30 central accounts: Mario Calabresi (@mariocalabresi) director of the newspaper La Repubblica. ​ ​ Differently from what we saw for the Polish Community, we cannot find many national politicians among the most followed accounts. There’s of course the premier Matteo Renzi (@matteorenzi) and the other two politicians there are Enrico Letta former Prime Minister ​ ​ now President of the Jacques Delors Institute (@EnricoLetta) and Laura Boldrini who ​ ​ presides the Camera (@lauraboldrini). ​ ​

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In the top 30 accounts we can also find the omnipresent President Juncker (@JunckerEU) ​ ​ along with (@FedericaMog) High Representative of the EU for Foreign ​ ​ Affairs and Security Policy. Stereotypically enough, Pope Francis ranks high in this community with the Italian official account @Pontifex_it. ​ ​

Denmark:

Danish MEPs — Twitter Community

If we saw almost no journalists in the Italian Community, the Danish one (based on the connections of 11 Danish MEPs) is full of them: Niels Kvale (@NielsKvale) correspondent ​ ​ from Bruxelles and for Danmarks Radio, Jens Ringberg (@JensRingberg), Ask ​ ​ Rostrup (@askrost) and Uffe Tang (@Uffe_Tang) also from Danmarks Radio, Lotte ​ ​ ​ ​ Mejlhede (@mejlhedetv2) Europe-correspondent for TV2, Mette Østergaard ​ ​ (@metteoestergard) from TV2 news, Bent Winther (@Winther12) editor at Politiko. ​ ​ ​ ​

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In the top 30 there’s almost no place for media outlets, the only ones are TV2 News (@tv2newsdk) and specialized news media Altinget EU (@AltingetEU). ​ ​ ​ ​ Unusually we don’t find Juncker in this community, but another commissioner is here, rising star (@vestager) for Competition. There’s also ​ ​ space for former Commissioner for Climate Action (@CoHedegaard). ​ ​ European institutions are represented as well by Anne Mette Vestergaard (@AnneMetteEP) ​ ​ chief of the European Parliament office in Denmark. Another popular account seems to be the one of Bjarke Møller (@BjarkeMoeller) director of ​ ​ the political think tank EUROPA. Focusing on national politicians, the Minister for children and education Ellen Trane Nørby (@EllenTraneNorby) is the most central one, along with MP Jakob Ellemann-Jensen ​ ​ (@JakobEllemann), leader of the Radical Left Morten Østergaard (@oestergaard), former EP ​ ​ ​ ​ Member and Minister of Food Dan Jørgensen (@DanJoergensen) and the Minister of Justice ​ ​ Søren Pind (@sorenpind). ​ ​

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Spain:

Spanish MEPs — Twitter Community

The Spanish community is generated by the connections of 42 Spanish MEPs. The most popular account is the one of Ignacio Escolar (@iescolar), founder and director of the ​ ​ newspaper eldiario.es. Among the top 30 most followed accounts, we also find other periodistas (journalists), ​ ​ especially EU correspondents: Antonio Delgado (@adelgadoRne) correspondent for RNE, ​ ​ Claudi Pérez (@claudiperez) for El Pais, Griselda Pastor (@grispastor) for Cadena Ser, Ana ​ ​ ​ ​ Pastor (@_anapastor_) (a super popular journalist with 1,85 millions of followers) and Julia ​ ​ Otero (@julia_otero) director of “Julia en la onda” on Radio Onda Cero. ​ ​ Some of these media outlets are also in the top 30 with their official accounts: in addition to El Pais (@el_pais) and eldiario.es (@eldiarioes), there are also Diario Público (@publico_es) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ and the news agency EFE noticias (@EFEnoticias). News concerning the ​ ​

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are broadcasted by specialized tv show Europa on TVE (@Europa_TVE) and twitted by ​ ​ Jaume Duch (@jduch) European Parliament’s Spokesman and Director for Media, who ​ ​ ranks high in the list. Focusing on national politicians, only two of them are in the most central accounts: former MEP and leader of Pablo Iglesias (@Pablo_Iglesias_) and Pedro Sánchez ​ ​ (@sanchezcastejon) who recently lost the leadership of the Socialist Party. ​ ​ President Juncker is here as well (@JunckerEU), but there is no other commissioner. ​ ​ A former European Union’s High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy (also former Secretary General of NATO) is here anyway: Javier Solana (@javiersolana), now ​ ​ President at ESADE Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics.

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Netherlands (and Belgium):

Dutch MEPs — Twitter Community

Some of the Belgians are part of the French community. Some of the others (11) are instead closer to the Dutch community (that emerges analyzing the connections of 23 Dutch MEPs). This is a very EU-focused community. Most popular news outlet is Europe (@POLITICOEurope) (and many MEPs are still following the account of the absorbed ​ ​ @EuropeanVoiceEV as well) , but Euractiv is also there (@EurActiv), with EUobserver ​ ​ (@euobs) and Parliament Magazine (@Parlimag). ​ ​ ​ ​ Into the top 30 there are many journalists writing about European affairs like Carla Joosten (@ElsevierDenHaag) from the Elsevier, Tijn Sadée (@tijnsadee) correspondent for NRC, ​ ​ ​ ​ NOS and VPRO and Ryan Heath (@PoliticoRyan) from . With them we find ​ ​ Dutch political journalist Jaap Jansen (@JaapJansen). ​ ​

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Less specialized media outlets are also there: newspaper (@TheEconomist), ​ ​ late night talkshow Pauw (@pauwnl) and dutch newspaper de Volkskrant (@volkskrant). ​ ​ ​ ​ The community is populated by European politicians: Donald Tusk (@eucopresident), ​ ​ Jean-Claude Juncker (@JunckerEU), (@TimmermansEU), Federica ​ ​ ​ ​ Mogherini (@FedericaMog), Cecilia Malmström (@MalmstromEU). ​ ​ ​ ​ In the top 30, there is also place for (@MartinSelmayr) head of Cabinet of ​ ​ President Juncker, (@J_Dijsselbloem) Eurogroup president and Neelie ​ ​ Kroes (@NeelieKroesEU) former vice-president of the EU commission, now board member ​ ​ at Salesforce and in the Uber advisory board.

Sweden:

Swedish MEPs — Twitter Community

The Swedish community is based on the accounts followed by 18 Swedish MEPs. Political reporter Niklas Svensson (@niklassvensson) is the most central account. Among top ​ ​ accounts there are also Patrik Oksanen (@patrikoksanen), Anders Pihlblad ​ ​

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(@Pihlblad) from TV4 News, Margit Silberstein (@margitsilber) political reporter at ​ ​ ​ ​ Aktuellt. Many media outlets are there. Among them, the most popular are Ekot (@sr_ekot), a news ​ ​ program on Swedish Radio, the opinion page of the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (@SvDDebatt), the opinion page of the Aftonbladet (@ABDebatt) and the official account of ​ ​ ​ ​ the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (@SvD). ​ ​ Focusing on national politics, we find Maria Wetterstrand (@M_Wetterstrand), former ​ ​ spokesperson for the Swedish Green Party, Green MP Maria Ferm (@MariaFerm), the ​ ​ Minister of Enterprise Mikael Damberg (@mikaeldamberg) and the Liberal MP Birgitta ​ ​ Ohlsson (@birgittaohlsson). ​ ​ Cecilia Malmström (@MalmstromEU), in charge of the European Trade policy, is the only ​ ​ commissioner in the top 30. No President Juncker in this community.

Austria:

Austrian MEPs — Twitter Community

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The Austrian community is mainly based on the Twitter connections of 15 Austrian MEPs. The most central account is the one of the tv journalist Armin Wolf (@ArminWolf). We find ​ ​ many other journalists in the top 30, like Alexandra Föderl-Schmid (@foederlschmid) ​ ​ chief-editor at Der Standard, Julia Ortner (@Julia_Ortner) from News.at, political ​ ​ commentator Corinna Milborn (@corinnamilborn), Florian Klenk (@florianklenk) from ​ ​ ​ ​ falter.at and Thomas Mohr (@thomas_mohr) from Puls 4 News. ​ ​ We also have different media outlets: national ones like Der Standard (@derStandardat) and ​ ​ Kurier (@KURIERat) and European ones like Politico Europe (@POLITICOEurope) and ​ ​ ​ ​ EurActiv (@EurActiv). ​ ​ Exploring the presence of politicians in the list, Europe lines up Jean-Claude Juncker (@JunckerEU), Federica Mogherini (@FedericaMog) and Frans Timmermans ​ ​ ​ ​ (@TimmermansEU). Former MEP Jörg Leichtfried (@jleichtfried) now Austrian Minister ​ ​ ​ ​ for Transport, Innovation and Technology is also there, but there are no others Austrian politicians in the most popular 30 accounts. A relevant position is occupied by Karin Strobl (@KarinStrobl) chief communications officer of Austrian Greens. ​ ​ In the top 30, there are also the political analyst Hubert Sickinger (@HubertSickinger) and ​ ​ Paul Schmidt (@_PaulSchmidt) from the Austrian Society for European Politics which is ​ ​ also in the list with its own account (@oegfe). ​ ​

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Germany:

German MEPs — Twitter Community

To analyze the German community we took into account the connections of 70 German MEPs. Starting with media outlets, the most popular ones are ARD (@tagesschau), weekly ​ ​ publication Die Zeit (@zeitonline), newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (@SZ), news magazine ​ ​ ​ ​ Der Spiegel (@SPIEGELONLINE) and radio station Deutschlandfunk (@DLF). ​ ​ ​ ​ Representing EU-level media, we find EurActiv (@EurActiv), Politico Europe ​ ​ (@POLITICOEurope) and Parliament Magazine (@Parlimag). ​ ​ ​ ​ Better ranked journalist is Rolf-Dieter Krause (@rdk_bxl) former manager of the ARD ​ ​ studios in . Other names here are Christian Feld (@ChrFeld) now Nieman Fellow at ​ ​ Harvard and previously EU affairs correspondent for ARD TV, Florian Eder (@florianeder) ​ ​ managing editor at Politico Europe, Peter Spiegel (@SpiegelPeter) news editor of Financial ​ ​

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Times and Stefan Leifert (@StefanLeifert), correspondent in Bruxelles for the ZDF. ​ ​ The community counts in many EU-level politicians: President Juncker (@JunckerEU) with ​ ​ the head of Cabinet Martin Selmayr (@MartinSelmayr), commissioners Günther H. ​ ​ Oettinger (@GOettingerEU), Frans Timmermans (@TimmermansEU) and Cecilia ​ ​ ​ ​ Malmström (@MalmstromEU), High Representative Federica Mogherini ( @FedericaMog) ​ ​ ​ ​ and President of the European Council Donald Tusk (@eucopresident). ​ ​ German politicians are less represented with only the SPD leader (@sigmargabriel) in the list. Steffen Seibert (@RegSprecher), former journalist and now ​ ​ ​ ​ speaker of the Government also ranks high.

United Kingdom:

British MEPs — Twitter Community

The UK community is based on the connections of 64 British MEPs. The most central account is the one of BBC show Daily & Sunday Politics (@daily_politics), ​ ​

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one of the many BBC-related accounts in the list. We have BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking), BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) and BBC (@BBCNewsnight) as ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ well, while Parliament Magazine (@Parlimag) and EurActiv (@EurActiv) represent ​ ​ ​ ​ EU-focused media outlets. Popular journalists among British MEPs are Andrew Neil (@afneil) who also presents the ​ ​ Daily & Sunday Politics, Nick Robinson (@bbcnickrobinson) from BBC Radio 4, European ​ ​ correspondent Georg von Harrach (@yourmeps), Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) BBC ​ ​ ​ ​ Political editor and Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick), political correspondent for Channel 4 ​ ​ News. One of the few bloggers we’ve seen so far, Guido Fawkes (@guidofawkes) is in the list ​ ​ as well. We are also able to identify different think tanks in the top 30 most popular accounts: British Influence (@britinfluence), Open Europe (@OpenEurope), European Movement UK ​ ​ ​ ​ (@euromove) and also a poll aggregator, Britain Elects (@britainelects). ​ ​ ​ ​ Not many politicians populate this community: Donald Tusk (@eucopresident), President ​ ​ Juncker (@JunckerEU) and David Cameron (@David_Cameron), are, along with the official ​ ​ ​ ​ UK Prime Minister account (@Number10gov) the only ones in the top 30. ​ ​

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Conclusions

It’s time for some conclusions. We will briefly expose some of our findings on:

● EU media outlets ● EU politicians ● Differences in the communities’ composition

EU Media outlets

In the table we compare the number of MEPs following some of the most popular EU media outlets. Data are the ones we analyzed at the beginning of October, and remember that nothing (especially on Twitter) is set in stone. These media outlets are quite different one to each other, but they all represent specialized news sources on what’s happening at the EU level.

EurActiv (@EurActiv) is the most ​ ​ popular one with 296 MEPs following it and it also ranks 6th in a more

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general classification where most followed account is @JunckerEU with 401 followers. ​ ​ You will not find the European Voice (@EuropeanVoiceEV) in the table, since it doesn’t exist ​ ​ anymore, but it still has 221 followers among MEPs (@POLITICOEurope, its successor, has ​ ​ 224). Among EU journalist, the first one is Peter Spiegel (@SpiegelPeter) with 171 MEPs ​ ​ following him, with newsletter-man @PoliticoRyan in second place (164). ​ ​ No other journalist has more than 100 MEPs among his/her followers. Analyzing the geographic distribution: the map shows the most central EU-media-account in each community.

The match here is between EurActiv (France and Germany) and POLITICO Europe (Netherlands and Austria), but it’s also interesting to see how Spanish, Italian and Danish MEPs are relying on local EU-specialized media.

British MEPs, instead, prefer reading the Parliament Magazine (@parlimag). ​ ​ Are they going to miss the MEP Awards after the ?

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EU Politicians Who are the most central EU politicians inside the different country-based-communities? Of course we are excluding MEPs here (so no in the map). Well, the President of the Jean-Claude Juncker almost takes it all, but the British and Dutch MEPs prefer Donald Tusk in his institutional version.

Mr. Tusk is also a prophet in his own home Poland, with his bilingual account @donaldtusk. ​ ​

Interesting to note, Denmark and Sweden are instead more interested in following what their own Commissioners Margrethe Vestager and Cecilia Malmström have to say.

Elif Lab www.eliflab.com [email protected] ​

ThinkingAboutEU www.thinkingabout.eu @thinkingabouteu

Differences in the communities’ composition Analyzing the top 30 central accounts in the different communities, we’ve already seen how some of these groups are focused on media outlets, some on journalists, some others are full of national politicians, while others are not. Here is a summary.

Note: the sum for each community is not 30 because we are excluding think tanks, EU politicians, EU official accounts etc. from this visualization.

Twitter Data: October 2016

If you would like to know more about this and other analyses we are working on, contact us at [email protected] ​

Elif Lab www.eliflab.com [email protected] ​

ThinkingAboutEU www.thinkingabout.eu @thinkingabouteu