Democratic Contestation or Contestation of Democracy? The Debate over Mandatory Coronavirus Vaccines on Twitter

This paper investigates online debates in support and in opposition to mandatory Coronavirus vaccination laws in Austria. It is based on an analysis of Twitter data selected around specific hashtags (such as #impfpflicht, #impfzwang etc) collected between the official announcement of the Austrian government that a mandatory vaccination law would be introduced until the entry into force of the law. The paper combines network analysis with content analysis to map the main actors and clusters in the virtual debate about mandatory vaccination, as well as to identify the arguments and concepts they use to make their case. Twitter data is complemented with analysis of documents by key actors (public officials, activists and civil society organizations). Theoretically, the paper contributes to current debates about transnational political mobilization and civil society digital activism, as well as to the literature on democratic transformations. It focuses in particular on (1) how the conflict surrounding mandatory anti-Corona measures, and in particular the mandatory vaccination laws, are generating new social and political cleavages that cut across left and right; (2) how both the pro- and anti-vaccine camps mobilize the language of democracy to defend their respective positions, and how key concepts such as freedom, autonomy and self-determination get reconfigured in this process; and (3) how digital activism is impacting the mobilization for and against the Coronavirus measures, generating transnational public spheres where ideas about democracy are both transmitted and contested. Our investigation sheds light on the process by which specific sets of actors – including more radical ones – are being able to maximize their influence in an unprecedented way.