1.
Social Network Analysis of Russian
Protest in Twitter
Alexander Semenov
Zurich, 4-7 September 2012

2.
Data acquisition in Twitter: Free vs. $
•Twitter Search API •LOTS of tweets
•150 – 350 requests per hour •Sophisticated filters
•Not representative •Representative
•Not augmented •Augmented (Klout
•Free score, etc.)
•$$$

3.
Twitter 101: what you see…
Avatar Twitter name
Person’s name
Hashtag
Twitter text
Hyperlink
Date Reply
Retweet

4.
… is NOT EVERYTHING you get!

5.
24.12.2011 – Official meetings on Prospekt Sakharova & Poklonnaya Gora
VS
Opposition meeting on Prospekt Pro-government meeting on
Sakharova Poklonnaya Gora
#24дек (24dec)

6.
Data Summary
twitter.text contains "24дек"
Timezone = UTC
Networks Retweet Reply_raw Reply
Graph Type Directed Directed Directed
Vertices 385 2031 351
Unique Edges 267 1387 235
Edges With Duplicates 656 392 86
Total Edges 923 1779 321
Self-Loops 3 2 1
Reciprocated Vertex Pair Ratio 0,013774105 0,007073955 0,042801556
Reciprocated Edge Ratio 0,027173913 0,014048531 0,082089552
Connected Components 93 513 103
Single-Vertex Connected Components 2 2 1
Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component 114 365 103
Maximum Edges in a Connected Component 715 476 144
Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter) 13 14 17
Average Geodesic Distance 4,724113 5,016783 7,076381
Graph Density 0,002489177 0,000379827 0,002181522
Modularity Not Applicable Not Applicable Not Applicable

7.
Reply Network: Top Users
navalny* 58 xenia_sobchak* 7
xenia_sobchak* 23 navalny* 7
varlamov* 15 burmatoff* 6
burmatoff* 12 VRSoloviev* 5
tvrain* 12 “False” replies removed angeina_may 5
VRSoloviev* 10 varlamov* 4
vdagamov* 7 rybakoff 4
aavst 6 WakeUpR 4
WakeUpR 6 i_kaya 4
rykov* 6 Pro-opposition users Alexgizn 4
abuse “false” replies to
celebrities (marked *) to
get their attention and
promote their ideas.

8.
Retweet network: Top Users
olly_jolly 19
kurginyanRU* 18
angry_moscovits 17
Burmatoff* 15
anton_aprelin 13
Comrade_Vo 13
Kolobrod1 13
temkinmir 11
Alexgizn 7
flipboardnews1 6
Pro-government users
People are consistent
obuse “retweet” function,
in their retweet
spreading tweets, written
behavior: they
by common people.
retweet either pro-
government users
(green) or opposition
(yellow), not both.

9.
Network of “replies” with at least one
mutual tie
Mutual degree >= 1 (max. = 4)
Twitter is not a place for discussion?

10.
Conclusions
Analysis of hashtags on Twitter has several caveats:
•If there are several different tags for an event, the sample is not representative
•Users, who participate the discussion, but cut the hashtags to have more symbols are
not included => some network metrics are useless (reciprocity)
Key findings:
•Both sides of the conflict abuse Twitter features to dominate in the information field:
•Pro-government users mostly do it with “Retweet” function;
•People are consistent in their retweet behavior: they retweet either pro-
government users (green) or opposition (yellow), not both.
•Opposition users tend to use “Reply” function to get attention from the
celebrities
•Russian Twitter (like Russian Parliament )is not a place for discussion =).

11.
Thank you!
Alexander Semenov
semenoffalex@gmail.com