#RejoinEU dreams and COVID-19 uncertainty: how the Brexit debate has evolved on social media
Since the EU referendum in July 2016, the Brexit saga has dominated social media - especially Twitter, where the debate between leavers and remainers has often been extremely heated.
Until October 2019, when the EU and the UK agreed to extend the end of the Brexit transition period to January 31, 2020, millions of people were discussing on social media what Brexit could mean for both parties involved.
But, unexpectedly, the year-long Brexit debate suddenly cooled down as COVID-19 forced itself into every aspect of our lives, making everything else seem almost irrelevant.
Percentage of total mentions of #Brexit and #COVID-19 on Twitter between April 2019 and January 2021. Source: Digimind
Percentage of total mentions of #Brexit and #COVID-19 on Twitter between April 2019 and January 2021. Source: Digimind
The explosion of the COVID-19 pandemic has put a great many things into perspective: as handling this unprecedented health crisis took absolute priority over other problems, arguing about old issues like Brexit, for example, seemed almost out of place.
Between a deadly pandemic and a hard Brexit, the last year has been especially difficult for both the EU and the UK. And yet in the midst of the first and then second wave of infections, nobody seemed to have time for Brexit, despite negotiations deadlines inexorably approaching.
An analysis of social media during the last twelve months shows that less than 2 million tweets mentioned Brexit in April, when the UK and many countries in the EU were under strict lockdowns, compared to the almost 15 millions in October and November the previous year.
Number of times #Brexit was mentioned on Twitter between March 2019 and February 2021. Source: Digimind
Number of times #Brexit was mentioned on Twitter between March 2019 and February 2021. Source: Digimind
As the inevitable reality of Brexit kicked in once the end of the transition period approached, Brexit became once again an urgent thought on people’s minds - and the debate around the topic resurfaced strongly on social media.
The conversation around Brexit started picking up in September last year, when conflict between the EU and the UK emerged over Northern Ireland during Brexit talks in Brussels.
Number of times #Brexit was mentioned on Twitter between January 1, 2021 and February 28, 2021. Source: Digimind
Number of times #Brexit was mentioned on Twitter between January 1, 2021 and February 28, 2021. Source: Digimind
Then, in the first 2 months of 2021, straight after the UK left the EU on December 31, 2020, Brexit was mentioned in almost 65 million tweets.
Together with social media intelligence platform Digimind, we pulled data from all Brexit-related hashtags on Twitter in the two-month period between January 1, 2021 and February 28, 2021, to understand what is driving the conversation around Brexit on social media.
What are people talking about when they talk about Brexit?
One aspect of the Brexit debate absolutely dominated conversations on the topic on social media: the Brexit deal.
As negotiators were struggling to find common ground to finalize the EU-UK trade deal, uncertainty and anxiety grew amid businesses and the general public alike.
After bitter negotiations, European and UK leaders finally agreed on a trade deal on Christmas Eve, December 24.
But that wasn’t the end of the discussions around Brexit. In fact, as of January 1, 2021 another question was insistently pressing on people’s mind: What will be the reality of Brexit? How will this divorce between the EU and the UK work, after decades of living, working and trading together as one?
Most frequent words used in conversations around Brexit on Twitter between January 1 and February 28, 2021. Source: Digimind
Most frequent words used in conversations around Brexit on Twitter between January 1 and February 28, 2021. Source: Digimind
The separation is an especially painful topic for Scotland, where the majority of the population in 2016 voted to remain in the EU. Unsurprisingly, Scotland was one of the most discussed topics related to Brexit: the country has vowed to seek independence from the UK and if it manages to, it promises to subsequently rejoin the EU.
Northern Ireland, a troublesome border for Brexit, has also been one of the main topics discussed on social media. When agreeing on a deal, both the EU and the UK decided that maintaining the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland was an absolute priority. But in the reality of post-Brexit, despite the decision of maintaining the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland open, new checks on goods have caused significant disruption – especially in the food supply chain.
Such complications in the aftermath of Brexit have caused many to call for the UK to rejoin the EU, with #RejoinEU being one of the most used hashtags on Twitter between January and February 2021.
Brexit has triggered the resurfacing of clashes between nationalists and loyalists in Northern Ireland, with violence breaking out in the streets.
Brexit has also sparked demands for a new independence referendum in Scotland, where in 2016 the majority of the population voted to remain in the EU.
At the 2014 Scottish independent referendum, 44.7 of people voted for Scotland to be a country independent from the UK.
Who’s talking about Brexit?
Gender of Twitter users who engaged in conversations around Brexit between January 1 and February 28, 2021. Source: Digimind
Gender of Twitter users who engaged in conversations around Brexit between January 1 and February 28, 2021. Source: Digimind
The Brexit conversation on Twitter has been primarily driven by men.
The data we collected between January and February 2021 show that more than two-thirds of those talking about the issue were men – 69 percent against 31 percent women.
These numbers very closely reflect the demographics of Twitter itself, with 68.5 percent of users worldwide identifying as male compared to 31.5 percent identifying as females.
Countries which generated the most tweets about Brexit between January 1 and February 28, 2021. Source: Digimind
Countries which generated the most tweets about Brexit between January 1 and February 28, 2021. Source: Digimind
When it comes to where people are discussing Brexit, it's not surprising that the UK dominates the debate on the issue, as the topic hits very close to home.
Over the two months period we collected and analyzed the data, UK users generated more than half a million tweets about Brexit.
France, the UK’s closest continental neighbor, generated the next-highest number of conversations around Brexit, but the topic was almost 20 times less popular there.
Fishing was the key issue that the French government and people were particularly worried about.
Spain was also talking about Brexit, because of one reason: Gibraltar. The British territory nestled on the coast of Spain became tied into Brexit negotiation, and there are also hundreds of thousands of Britons living in Spain.
Brexit was also discussed in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and a major political player in the EU, and Italy.
Mat Oxley has been a MotoGP journalist since 1988 and is now an author at Motor Sport Magazine.
He's been very vocal about his criticism of Brexit and the way it's affecting sports and all kind of performing industries - as you can see from his tweet below.
For those who moan about me moaning about Brexit... due to Brexit I am currently unable to enter Spain, France and various other EU countries to cover MotoGP events due to Covid regs barring third country nationals. So Brexit is messing with my livelihood & those of many others
— Mat Oxley (@matoxley) March 4, 2021
People’s reactions - in emojis
If emojis can reveal how people feel about Brexit, then the answer is clear: the face with tears of joy wins.
This emojis – recently deemed uncool by Gen Z on TikTok – has long been one of the most popular on people's keyboards. It was even chosen as Oxford Dictionaries 'word' of the year in 2015, and as the most-loved emoji by Emojipedia's users in 2017.
An analysis by Emojipedia also found that the laughing-crying emoji was the most used on Twitter in 2020.
As 2020 didn't give us much to laugh about, you can imagine that the emoji is often used in a sarcastic, ironic way – quite a fitting reaction to Brexit.
Our analysis of emojis used in relation to Brexit on Twitter between January 1 and February 28, found that the EU flag was overall the most popular emoji, likely to be used by those who had once wished to remain in the EU and now hope against hope that the UK could rejoin the bloc.
The use of the British flag, the second most used emoji in our report, is less straightforward. The Union Jack has been used in conversations both to express nationalism, as well as a neutral symbol of the issue – often next to the EU flag.
Most used emojis in connection to Brexit-related conversations on Twitter in between January 1 and February 28, 2021. Source: Digimind
Most used emojis in connection to Brexit-related conversations on Twitter in between January 1 and February 28, 2021. Source: Digimind
The Scottish flag was the third most used emoji after the EU and the British flag.
As mentioned before, right after the referendum the future of Scotland, a country which voted strongly to remain in the EU, has been at the center of many Brexit discussions on social media.
What follows is angry and doubtful emojis, face-palms and eye-rolls on one side of the Brexit debate, and supportive heart and winking emojis on the less prominent (or less talkative) other side of this very polarized argument.
