Mapping the e-petition ecosystem through Social Media: mobilization in the EU across issues and ideologies

Abstract

We study petition-related mobilization on Social Media across issues and ideologies. Using calls to sign petitions on X in the seven most spoken EU languages, we build the first multi-platform, multi-language map of the e-petitioning ecosystem.  To ensure cross-language and cross-ideology comparability, we infer call for signatures’ issues using ManifestoBERTa and users' ideological orientation via Ideology Scaling methods calibrated using expert survey data. We classify active individuals into an ontology of mobilization types. Results show that e-petition activism is issue-specific and short-lived, with only a small portion of individuals engaging in sustained mobilization. We characterize differences in e-activism across the Left-Right spectrum, with Right-leaning users being most active on issues like political corruption and traditional morality, while environmental protection sees low engagement levels compared to its reach.