#EndSARS: Analyzing 48 Million Tweets in 10 Days Using Brandwatch

Deep-dive into the data behind the #EndSARS movement. 

We analysed 48 million tweets from 5 million users to find 5 key lessons.

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In 2019, Nigerians on Twitter sent over 1M tweets a day. During the peak of #EndSARS Nigerians sent over 10x this amount rallying around the hashtag.

(Source: @Brandwatch) Conversations on the ongoing protests against SARS in Nigeria have already received 48M mentions as of 14th October.

Mentions expose the plight of brutality experienced by Nigerian youth at the hand of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), urging youth in Nigeria to continue with the protests.

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Volume Over Time

Conversations on #EndSARS started in December of 2017, with the first tweet uploaded by @mzNkemjoy. Following that, it has ebbed and flowed but never with the sort of public outcry like in October 2020.

We analyzed the ongoing protests by Nigerian youth against the SARS police force from October 05 2020 - October 14 2020. The conversation has since gone global with notable influential people from the US, mainly in the Entertainment scene have joined in the online protests in support of the cause.

The hashtag has a total of 48 Million mentions with 5 million unique authors contributing to the trending hashtags: #EndSARSNow with other supporting hashtags used to communicate the protests such as #EndPoliceBrutalityinNigeria and #EndSARS

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Demographic Information from Authors

There were more male authors contributing to the online conversation than female authors. 

A summary of the authors in the tweets of our query shows there were a total of 10,467 female authors and 20,883 Male authors contributing to the conversation

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Number of views and conversations over time 

Volume of mentions from the 6th October accounted for a total of 73,463 mentions.

• Top entertainers such as WizKid, DonJazzy and Davido among others, had joined in on the conversation contributing to the growing reach the protests was gaining in the online space.
• Announcements for an organized protest set to happen on the 8th October was also being heavily announced around this period.

Volume of mentions started peaking from the 9th October with 6,884,257 mentions accounted for. 

• Top mentions by reach that contributed to this analysis reference tweets from Mike Edwards that sought to lead the protests in London for Nigerians in the diaspora. 
• News sites such as Sahara Reports and ChannelsTv also contributed to the growth of mentions by reach through their individual platforms sharing updates on the protest.
• Media personalities such as Toolz O.D, also contributed to the growth of mentions by reach advocating for news site CNN to pick up the on the conversation.

Volume of mentions for the period analyzed were at an all time high on 11th October with 14,958,523 mentions accounted for.

• This can be credited to influential authors in the online space picking up on the conversation and pushing for more coverage on platforms such as Twitter and other global news sites. Authors such as Aproko Doctor and Debo Macaroni to name a few.

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Mentions saw a dip on the 12th October with a total of 5,318,306 accounted for. 

Conversations mainly referenced the announcement from Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari who promised extensive reforms amid the ongoing protests against police brutality in the country, as reported by BBC Africa.

During this period, online updates were also being shared on the jailed protesters as well as conversations on the happenings of the protest.

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Top Authors

Top Authors presents a list of people that are both highly talked about through retweets, replies and @mentions.

Sample tweets from influential authors contributing to the conversation on the #EndSARS protest through their individual platforms that has since gone global.

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Top Contributors to the Conversation

Top contributors to the conversation are mainly news outlets reporting on the protests for which news outlet Channels TV had the most mentions.

Other news sites such as Sahara Reports, BBC Africa and Vanguardngrnews also contributed to the engagement.

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Source of Conversations

Conversations are mainly being disseminated through the Twitter social site which had the highest volume of mentions (15,161,299) on October 11th.

Comparing other news outlets ranks nairaland.com and gistmania.com as top sources of information in the news category with tooxclusivve.com and latestnaija.com ranking high in the blog category.

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Top Hashtags

A number of hashtags have been incorporated since the beginning of the protests. The top hashtag currently in use going by the number of retweets received is the #endsars hashtag.

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Word Cloud

Additional hashtags have been used to communicate on the movement. Hashtags such as #sarsmustend, and #endswat have been used incorporated. 

Use of the fist emoji is also being used to reference unity in ending police brutality.

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Volume of Mentions by Country (Top 10)

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Volume of Mentions by Local Cities (Top 10)

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Volume of Mentions by Cities (Top 3)

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Conclusions

• Conversations on the #EndSARS protest started peaking on the 5th of October on Twitter.
• Conversations have since gone global with major engagement coming in from the top 5 countries leading the conversation through mentions, replies and retweets, namely: Nigeria, United States, Indonesia, United Kingdom and Ghana.
• Contributors to the conversation from some of these countries are influential voices such as Piers Morgan and musical artist Stefflon Don from the U.S, globally recognized local artists in Nigeria such as Wizkid, Banky W and Davido and artists from Ghana such as Efya, Samini Dagaati and Nana Abrompa to mention a few.
• Message board and online forum website Nairaland.com distinguished itself as a local conversation starter and point for dialogue between local Nigerians and the diaspora. Mentions of #EndSARS permeated the website and dominated conversations among its users.

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