# How to Hijack Twitter: Online Polarisation Strategies of Germany's Political Far-Right

**Authors:** Philipp Darius, Fabian Stephany  
**arXiv:** [2010.05546](https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.05546)  
**Date:** 2020-10-12  
**Summary page:** https://www.summarizepaper.com/en/paper/2010.05546v1/

## Key points

- The study examines the digital political communication strategy of the German far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and their potential use of a "hashjacking" strategy.
- Right-wing politicians, along with their supporters and retweeters, actively and effectively polarize discourse not just by using their own party hashtags but also by "hashjacking" the political party hashtags of other established parties.
- This strategy has contributed significantly to the success of right-wing parties in online platforms and elections.
- Understanding the success of right-wing parties as a direct consequence of their digital political communication strategy rather than solely as a result of external factors such as migration is important.
- The research analyzes thirty randomly selected retweets and compares cluster assignment with content sentiment towards AfD.
- A Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.92 indicates that cluster assignment and content's sentiment are well aligned.
- Logistic regression models show high association between the pro-AfD cluster and contra-clusters of all other parties, indicating that users in these clusters are more likely to be located in the pro-AfD cluster than users in other clusters on average.

## Summary

The study "How to Hijack Twitter: Online Polarisation Strategies of Germany's Political Far-Right" examines the digital political communication strategy of the German far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and their potential use of a "hashjacking" strategy. The findings suggest that right-wing politicians, along with their supporters and retweeters, actively and effectively polarize discourse not just by using their own party hashtags but also by "hashjacking" the political party hashtags of other established parties. The research reveals that this strategy has contributed significantly to the success of right-wing parties in online platforms and elections. The study also highlights the importance of understanding the success of right-wing parties as a direct consequence of their digital political communication strategy rather than solely as a result of external factors such as migration. Additionally, the research analyzes thirty randomly selected retweets and compares cluster assignment with content sentiment towards AfD. A Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.92 indicates that cluster assignment and content's sentiment are well aligned. Furthermore, logistic regression models show high association between the pro-AfD cluster and contra-clusters of all other parties, indicating that users in these clusters are more likely to be located in the pro-AfD cluster than users in other clusters on average. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into how right-wing parties use social media platforms to polarize discourse and gain support among voters.