The (Un)heavenly Virtual Chorus: How Interest Groups in the European Union Utilise Twitter

Social media has become an essential tool for interest groups, yet its distributional effects on the prominence and balance of different types of advocacy groups remain uncertain.

Leveraging a comprehensive dataset of social media behavior and background information from interest groups across more than 100 countries registered in the EU Transparency Register, this study examines the different stages of the social media lobbying production process—specifically, the presence, usage, and content strategies of various types of interest groups. Combining tweet volume analysis with machine learning-based content classification, our analyses reveal that digital advocacy is a double-edged sword: although citizen groups are more active in both Twitter usage and lobbying efforts than firms and business associations, they are also more reliant on resources to shape their advocacy. These results suggest that despite the democratizing potential of social media, resource disparities continue to shape whose voices are amplified in digital lobbying spaces—not only directly but also indirectly, as some advocates’ lobbying content is more dependent on these resources than others

Anne Rasmussen is a Professor of Political Science at King’s College London and the University of Copenhagen. Her research explores interest groups, political representation, public opinion, social media, gender, citizen engagement, and democratic dialogue. She is also deeply involved in the study of public policy-making, digital democracy, and political parties. Anne holds degrees in political science from Aarhus University and the University of Copenhagen, as well as in Political Economy from the University of Essex. Prior to her current role, she was a full-time professor at the University of Copenhagen, a Professor II at Bergen University, an Associate Professor at Leiden University, and a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence.