Communicating Mobility Restrictions During the COVID-19 Crisis on Twitter: The Legitimacy Challenge

Abstract

In response to Covid-19, governments have imposed substantial restrictions on people's mobility. To encourage compliance, political actors have deployed direct communication strategies on social media. In this paper, we evaluate the legitimacy of the Swiss government's crisis communication on Twitter during the first wave of the pandemic. We examine and compare tweets regarding international and domestic travel, as well as social distancing. Using content and network analysis, we analyze the legitimacy of crisis communication by measuring its timeliness, consistency and congruence. We find that communication on domestic mobility restrictions has enjoyed a higher level of consistency and congruence, but has suffered from a disengagement of political parties, while the communication of international travel restrictions has become increasingly politicized.