The Knowledge of Protest: An Assessment of Topical Social Media Usage in Contentious Politics

This article leverages social media, survey and interview data to probe the scope and depth of political knowledge possessed by participants in the Romanian 2017 #rezist protests. For several months, demonstrators gathered in town squares around the country to oppose a project law intended to water down penalties for corruption in high office. We investigate their social media usage with an interest in the formulation and circulation of political knowledge. We find evidence of applied political knowledge as a prominent component of activist communication on Facebook.