Data School: Research report ‘Playing with fire’ translated to English

The research report that was originally published as ‘Spelen met vuur’ in October 2023 has now been translated from Dutch to English.

Researchers from Utrecht University’s Faculty of Humanities and Data School investigated the dynamics between political debate in the Dutch House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) and reactions, comments and framing on social media.

Analyses of nearly 50 million messages on Twitter and Telegram provide insights into the interaction between political debate in the House of Representatives and online. Central to these analyses is how threatening and radicalising language moves between politics and social media.

The conclusion is that there is indeed an exchange between the parliamentary debate and conversations on social media. Thus the telling subtitle of the report reads: ‘How the interplay between the Dutch House of Representatives and social media fuels rage’.

Find the full research report ‘Playing with fire’ in English here.