Partisanship over security: Public narratives via Twitter on foreign interferences in the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections

Abstract

Using a mixed methods approach, we explore the main narrative themes conveyed by the public, via microblogging platform Twitter, in regard to foreign interferences in the U.S. presidential elections of 2016 and 2020. Our findings show that rather than expressing serious concerns about foreign threats to the United States’ democracy and its electoral process, the tweets reflected the political polarization that has come to characterize the American public. Rather than perceiving the interferences as a national security issue, the public appeared to selectively use the foreign threats to bolster their partisan positions.