Ukraine War Twitter Audience Analysis

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its tenth day, the data team at Trafalgar Strategy analysed the Twitter channels of pundits and reporters covering the conflict on the ground. Their analysis focused on audience growth since the 23rd of February 2022 to better understand who users were turning to for news on the crisis.

New Twitter Followers Since 23rd February 2022

Everyone Trafalgar Strategy analysed (see above) had seen an increase in followers. Yet surprisingly, it is the BBC’s Clive Myrie who topped the charts, with over 78k new followers. Night after night, Clive has led the BBC’s efforts from the rooftops of Kyiv and his audience growth is a sign that despite COVID or Brexit, the BBC remains the most trusted outlet in news, and moreover that Twitter users increasingly view him as an authoritative source of information on the crisis.

Other notable strong performers include the FT’s Polina Ivanova and the Guardian’s Luke Harding, both of whom have grown their audiences by over 30k in the past two weeks.

ITV’s Dan Rivers and Sky’s Mark Austin can be pleased with their reception – having both grown their audiences by over 25k. However Channel 4’s Matt Frei is lagging far behind in a worrying sign that the outlet’s limited news programming could be having a detrimental effect as the world’s attention remains fixated on events in Ukraine.

Number of new Twitter followers since 23rd February 2022: Nodes represent the number of new followers

Not included in the graph above, but worth adding for context is the performance of The Kyiv Independent which has seen a staggering 1.5m new Twitter followers since the Russian invasion began. In many ways, this could also be attributed to the importance of Kyiv as the centre of Ukrainian resistance but this also goes to demonstrate the enormous public interest in the conflict.

Increasingly social media and journalism are one and the same. Platforms like Twitter are capable of reporting news in real-time which is why users follow reporters they believe to be credible and capable of providing timely and insightful information. That is why, across the board reporters and pundits from broadsheets and broadcasters have outperformed their tabloid colleagues.

Commenting on the research, Giles Kenningham the Founder of Trafalgar Strategy said: “The crisis in Ukraine underscores the importance of mainstream news. Yet clearly, the 24-hour news channel is no longer enough as people want access to the reporters they watch and read in real-time.“

Digital Digest – 3 March

1. 
   

In this week’s digital digest we look at the NHS employing a data analytics firm to help cut patient backlog and the ASA’s ban on a cryptocurrency ad campaign.

We then take a look at big tech as Tesla doubles its car production in China and Apple joins a growing number of companies pulling out of Russia.

---

Closer To Home

Watchdog bans London tube Floki Inu cryptocurrency ad campaign

An advertising campaign for a cryptocurrency named after Elon Musk’s pet dog has been banned for misleading consumers. The advertisements encouraged people who had missed out on similar crypto crazes to get in on the action, but the Advertising Standards Agency judged that the advert trivialised the risk of investment despite small print on the advert warning that investments can “go up as well as down”.

The company’s use of a cartoon logo based on Musk’s dog, as well as naming it after the billionaire’s pet, were aimed at brand recognition but the ASA saw this as being used to underplay the potentially damaging effects of crypto investment. The position of the advertisement, on a tube network, was also cited as a factor contributing to the ruling due to the wide target audience that the advertisement spoke to.

This ruling is symptomatic of a wider appetite for increased regulation on crypto. The Treasury committed in January to cracking down on crypto advertisements by bringing them under the the Financial Conduct Authority’s remit.

Palantir technology to help cut NHS elective care backlog

Palantir, a US data analytics firm with ties to the defence and security industries, will roll out its software across 30 NHS hospital trusts after a pilot of its technology at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Trust proved successful in reducing the inpatient waiting list by 28%. The NHS is currently facing a backlog of six million patients, it is hoped that the use of the tech can help alleviate some of this pressure.

Palantir has become a favourite partner of the NHS in recent years having been used during the pandemic for the management of PPE equipment and ventilators as well as helping to facilitate the successive vaccine rollout.

The six million patient backlog of those waiting for non-urgent medical services has increased from under four and a half million pre-pandemic. The technology is going to be used in various ways in order to facilitate smoother operations for the NHS, including to reduce the number of appointment cancellations.

---

Big Tech

Tesla plans to double car production in China

Tesla is planning to double production in China with an expansion to its Shanghai factory. Construction is understood to commence later this month.

Reuters understands that once the new plant is fully operational, Tesla will be able to produce up to two million cars per year, an increase from the 1.1 million produced in 2021. This figure would exceed the output from other Chinese plants, with Toyota, General Motors and Volkswagen producing between 1 million and 1.6 million annually. Tesla’s impressive plans for expansion represent the rising demand for electric vehicles within both Chinese and global markets.

Tesla’s plans do not stop in China, with proposed plans for a new plant in Berlin. It is understood that approval has been delayed by a court case challenging a licence granted to its water supplier. The German plant is crucial to Tesla’s plans to compete with Volkswagen on the European market.

Apple joins companies pulling back from Russia over Ukraine attack

Apple joins other major firms in taking action against Russia following their widely condemned invasion of Ukraine. The tech giant released a statement on Tuesday 1st March, saying that it was ‘deeply concerned about the Russian invasion of Ukraine’ and that they stood ‘with all of the people who are suffering as a result of the violence’.

Apple has halted all product sales in Russia, limited the use of Apple Pay and other services in Russian territory and removed Russian state media, RT News and Sputnik News from their Apple Store outside Russia. The decision came as big tech companies faced increased pressure to respond to the conflict. Apple joins other tech companies such as Reddit, who quarantined their r/Russia channel in response to rises in misinformation, and Meta, who have barred Russian state-run media from selling adverts on Facebook and Instagram.

---

Also In The News

1. UK taxpayers are set to take a golden share in a top secret military tech firm Ultra Electronics, in return a takeover bid for the firm can be pushed through. See here.

2. Fitbit, the Google owned fitness tech company, has recalled almost two million smartwatches due to a ‘burn hazard’. See here.

3. The Home Office is targeting Facebook investors, including Vanguard and BlackRock, to pressure the tech giant to allow government access to encrypted content. See here.

4. Airbnb has announced it will offer free housing to 100,000 refugees, covering the costs incurred by any host that agrees to take part. See here.

5. Crypto exchange boss, Binance, has resisted calls for a blanket ban on Russian transactions. See here.

---

Worth A Read

1. The Guardian: The data game: what Amazon knows about you and how to stop it

2. The Daily Telegraph: Kanye West’s baffling, bizarre music player may be the future of music – and it’s British

3. The Times: TikTok a new propaganda machine in Russian invasion

Subscribe

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Job Title

Company

Industry

Boris Johnson’s political headache isn’t over as the threat to the Union rears its head again

Giles Kenningham

Boris Johnson has often been both the Houdini and the Heineken politician over the past decade. But if he survives the latest party-gate scandal he may unwittingly walk into a much bigger domestic political headache, with more than just his career on the line – the future of the union. 

Of course he will do everything to kick the issue of a second Scottish referendum on independence into the long grass. Lose and he will not only have to resign; he will also go down in history as the Prime Minister who oversaw the break up of the union. Johnson could end up being the PM who took the UK out of Europe and then England out of the UK.

Covid-19 gave devolved nations a taste of greater independence – with Nicola Sturgeon, Mark Drakeford and the former First Minister of Northern Ireland Arlene Foster stepping into significant leadership roles as they forged an often different path in the fight against the pandemic.

Despite constant assurances from Johnson that the devolved nations were working together on Covid-19 restrictions, there were divergent measures on masks, on social gatherings, and even on border controls. Sturgeon and Drakeford banned people from England travelling across the Scottish and Welsh borders at some points.

The pandemic might have put the brakes on IndyRef2 campaign temporarily, but in the eyes of many, it has strengthened the cause and motivation by giving their leaders the opportunity to show what it would look like if they held the reins.

Northern Ireland is still awaiting the final Brexit settlement and depending on how that nets out it could have huge ramifications for their place in the union. And while the Tories still have strong representation in Wales, a majority of those seats came in 2019, and without a prospering Boris Johnson they might disappear as quickly as they came.

It is much harder to reel in this newfound sense of independence, putting the future of the union firmly back on the political map. In his charge as head of the union unit last summer, Michael Gove promised not to stand in the way of another Scottish independence vote if it is clearly the “settled will of the Scottish people” to have one.

One important lesson learnt from the Brexit referendum is that it is very difficult to turn the tide in a short period of time.

We need an external group that is constantly campaigning for the Union and holding the likes of the SNP and Plaid Cymru to account. Despite being a very accomplished politician, Sturgeon has a woeful record in office. Crime has soared, drug deaths have tripled and NHS targets routinely missed. Yet she is rarely challenged over a litany of broken promises and instead lauded for what in Scotland has been seen as a more capable handling of the pandemic.

The Tories are too polarising to take on the role of heading up an external campaign group. Labour have equally struggled to incorporate the union into their political mission. And the Lib Dems remain in the political wilderness, not the force they once were.

The Republicans artfully used the campaign group America’s Rising to their advantage in the 2016 Presidential Elections producing opposition research on Hilary Clinton. They were famously behind her email saga revealing the politically damaging allegations that she used a private server for official government communication. These claims dogged her right up to polling day and played into the issue of trust.

If business groups, politicians and activists are serious about saving the union, they need to be putting together a cross-party group before the starting gun goes off.

Businesses dislike uncertainty – so the perceived precariousness of the union creates challenges for companies and will of course make foreign investors jittery. Given the relentless disruption over the past five years, the last thing the economy needs is the spectre of another referendum that will polarise the country.

First published in City AM.