Social networking users blast progressive party over scandal

The minor opposition United Progressive Party faces heavy criticism on social networking sites, which had been the party’s stronghold, in the wake of the party`s admission that the nomination process for proportional representation candidates for last month`s parliamentary elections was rigged.

This shows that many ardent supporters of opposition parties are turning their backs on the left-leaning party though most social networking site users are in their 20s, 30s and 40s and support progressive figures and opposition parties.

With assistance from Social Metrix, a company that analyzes such sites, The Dong-A Ilbo analyzed 201,000 Twitter messages that mention the progressive party over the past month from April 11, the day of the general elections, to Thursday. Among 1,521 tweets related to the party that were sent on election day, those positive toward the party (1,038) outnumbered those negative.

The situation the next day was the same with 2,559 positive opinions and 2,054 negative. At the time, many tweets contained the words “expectations” and “hope” for the progressive party, said Social Matrix.

With party members raising suspicions of the rigged selection of proportional representatives late last year, the number of negative tweets about the party began to jump from May 2, when a party investigative team concluded that the selection process was rigged. The number of positive tweets was 971 while that of negative ones was 1,871 the same day.

In particular, social networking sites saw a deluge of public criticism May 4 and 5, when the party held its national steering committee meeting for more than 33 hours. On May 4, netizens posted 6,419 negative messages, 2.4 times as many as affirmative ones. The next day, negative messages (8,082) outnumbered positive ones (2,892) by 2.8 times.

Most search keywords for the party around that time were negative in tone such as “problem” and “shock.” Tweets sent by those who support leaders of the party mainly had keywords like “support,” “democratic” and “affection.”

Among the top 10 keywords of party-related Twitter messages generated over the past month, six were negative toward the party. Just one keyword was positive and three were neutral.

A non-mainstream party member said, “The party is set to lose many SNS supporters due to the latest incident.”

ddr@donga.com