The Automatic Identification of German AfD Supporters on Twitter: The Vanellus-Follower-Classification-Index VaFCI.

7 Pages Posted: 24 Aug 2018

Date Written: August 14, 2018

Abstract

Vanellus (the peewit) is a twitter-bot developed by Christian “Chrilly” Donninger. The bot downloads all German tweets in real-time and stores them in a special-purpose and efficient database. The database can be searched and analyzed according a host of criterion. This article describes the automated identification of the German AfD – a new right-wing-populist-party – supporters with the Vanellus Follower Classification Index VaFCI. The VaFCI is not restricted to this sort of classification. The supporters of the AfD were selected, because the AfD is rather present and active on Twitter and there is a clear polarization between supporters and opponents. For a human it is relatively easy to classify a user in Pro or Contra. The VaFCI misses a few – for a human – obvious AfD supporters. But a classified supporter is almost always indeed one.

Keywords: Twitter, automated classifications of users, Political orientation

Suggested Citation

Donninger, Chrilly, The Automatic Identification of German AfD Supporters on Twitter: The Vanellus-Follower-Classification-Index VaFCI. (August 14, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3230936 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3230936

Chrilly Donninger (Contact Author)

Nimzowerkstatt OEG ( email )

Altmelon 110
Arbesbach, Lower-Austria A-3925
Austria

HOME PAGE: http://www.godotfinance.com

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
49
Abstract Views
548
PlumX Metrics