#SaveTheChildren: A pilot study of a social media movement co-opted by conspiracy theorists

Abstract

In a preliminary analysis of 121,984 posts from X (formerly known as Twitter) containing the hashtag #SaveTheChildren, we found that conspiratorial posts received more engagement than authentic hashtag activism between January 2022 and March 2023. Conspiratorial posts received twice the number of reposts as non-conspiratorial content. Our initial findings of a forthcoming larger multi-platform study suggest that the way that users strategically exploit the #SaveTheChildren hashtag may have implications for the visibility of legitimate social movements on the X platform. Future work should consider other social media platforms to determine if the visibility of legitimate social movements is decreasing more broadly, particularly in the context of 2024 being the largest election year in history.