The Ebb and flow of controversial debates on social media

Abstract

| openaire: EC/H2020/654024/EU//SoBigDataWe explore how the polarization around controversial topics evolves on Twitter - over a long period of time (2011 to 2016), and also as a response to major external events that lead to increased related activity. We find that increased activity is typically associated with increased polarization; however, we find no consistent long-term trend in polarization over time among the topics we study.Peer reviewe