Safe spaces? Grounding political talk in WhatsApp groups

Abstract

Instant messaging (IM) platforms are believed to foster intimate and controlled conversations within small groups and hence provide safe social settings for political conversations, and yet we know little about how political talk emerges from the everyday social interactions in these environments. To fill the gap, this study examines how sociability within small, private WhatsApp groups shapes the extent and forms of political talk among young adults. Relying on in-depth interviews conducted in the Netherlands, we find that young people perceive politics as personal, offensive, divisive, and depressing, hence unsafe for WhatsApp groups where they find comfort in communicating care and phatic exchanges. Nonetheless, rules, relationship qualities, and strategies enacted in these groups allow some political talk to become temporarily possible. However, they perceive that what makes political talk safer also makes it unproductive. Our findings thus contribute to a finer-grained understanding of political talk in the closed digital spaces.