Zhao, B., Ren, W., He, Y., & Zhang, H. (2026). Demystifying hashtag hijacking in the public opinion game: attention, narratives, and social bots. Information, Communication & Society, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2025.2531130
Summary
This paper theorizes and analyzes “hashtag hijacking” — the strategic appropriation or redirection of trending hashtags — as a deliberate move in online public opinion contests rather than as incidental noise. Published in Information, Communication & Society, the study integrates three analytic strands: the dynamics of attention capture, the framing and substitution of narratives, and the role of automated agents (social bots). The authors argue that these three forces interact to determine whether a hijacking attempt succeeds in reshaping the discursive frame attached to a hashtag, situating the phenomenon within broader debates on platform politics and computational propaganda.
Key Contributions
- Provides a framework for understanding hashtag hijacking as a strategic public opinion tactic.
- Integrates attention dynamics, narrative framing, and automated agents into a single analytic lens.
- Advances scholarship on the role of social bots in contested online discourse.
Methods
Conceptual and empirical analysis of hashtag hijacking episodes. The available abstract does not specify the particular datasets, platforms, or computational techniques used.
Findings
- Hijacking succeeds through a combination of attention capture and narrative substitution.
- Bot-driven amplification is implicated in shifting the trajectory of hashtag conversations.
- Attention, narrative, and bot activity operate jointly rather than independently.
Connections
This work sits at the intersection of social bot research and coordinated influence, connecting to studies of bot behavior and detection such as DeVerna2025-dl, Yang2025-iv, and Luceri2025-tr. Its focus on hashtags and coordinated amplification as vehicles for shaping discourse relates to the coordinated link-sharing and hashtag-based coordination literature, notably Giglietto2020-9d8acdd7 and Giglietto2019-e9be81c1, while its concern with narrative framing and attention in public opinion contests echoes broader work on computational propaganda and influence operations like Starbird2025-jj.