Initiated by Greta Thunberg and carried by students who skip school
every Friday to call for climate justice and the safeguarding of their future,
FridaysForFuture emerged and proliferated along with both recognition and criticism. This
study analyzes diffusion dynamics and connectivity formation in the German-speaking
#FridaysForFuture network from its emergence to its expansion. Based on a diffusion network
and cascade analysis (N = 238,458), it presents how different diffusion dynamics facilitated
the emergence of #FridaysForFuture on Twitter. According to findings, FFF activists and
organizations are the leading intermediaries and activators for movement diffusion. Most of
the tweets in #FridaysForFuture are about activism, introducing the movement, and calling
for action. During the development, news, liberal left, and right-wing actors joined,
bringing discussions about the movement, the youth, and leading activists to the
Twittersphere. While cascades by FFF clusters were more likely to gain attention and spread
farther, faster, and deeper, cascades activated by right-wing actors were greater, but not
broader, faster, or deeper. In contrast to the reciprocal reposting activities between
left-wing and activist groups, right-wing actors are relatively isolated, expressing
criticism of the movement. This study shows that the German-speaking #FridaysForFuture
network serves as a facilitator of offline movements and features a public arena of
political discourses. Through the mobilization endeavors of FFF clusters, engagement of
left-wing hubs, and the counter-public of right-wing actors attacking the movement, it
gained continuity and momentum to flourish.
SOCIAL COLLECTIVES AND NETWORKED MOVEMENT: DIFFUSION DYNAMICS IN THE
GERMAN-SPEAKING #FRIDAYSFORFUTURE NETWORK ON TWITTER