Due to the full-scale war, the number of Ukrainian-language tweets on the X social network increased by 87% – scientists
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Scientists drew attention to the increase in the number of tweets in the Ukrainian language on the X social network. It happened in several stages. The largest jump occurred at the beginning of a full-scale invasion.
This is stated in a study by scientists from the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, the Technical University of Munich and the University of Bath in Great Britain. His results are published in the journal Communications Psychology.
The researchers analyzed almost 4.5 million tweets from almost 63 thousand users. For study, they chose posts from January 9, 2020 to October 12, 2022.
First, with the help of artificial intelligence, scientists filtered out tweets that contained geo-information in order to save only those that were published by users from Ukraine.
| Photo: BongkarnGraphic/Depositphotos |
In the resulting dataset, they removed duplicates and potential spambots, as well as users who posted more than 100 messages per day. That left 2.8 million tweets from nearly 42,000 X users for analysis.
Researchers have established that the number of tweets in Ukrainian has increased by 87% since February 2022. Scientists are convinced that the data indicate “a conscious choice of users in favor of a more Ukrainian (online) identity and self-definition as Ukrainians.”
“Languages can be a source of conflict and are often included in the definition of cultural and ethnic identity and are the basis for nation-building and political change.” – noted the researchers.
The researchers also noticed an increase in the number of Ukrainian-language tweets after the Euromaidan and the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
“The use of language is inherently political, often a vehicle for cultural identity and a foundation for nation-building. Obviously, the war makes people abandon the Russian language more“, the scientists explained in the article.
It will be recalled that the number of Ukrainians who use exclusively the Ukrainian language in everyday life has also increased since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. According to the survey conducted in August 2023, their share is 59% of citizens.
Read also: Russian-language songs have completely disappeared from Ukrainian radio airwaves – the language ombudsman
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