Thread popularity inequality as an indicator of organization through communication in a networked movement: an analysis of the LIHKG forum

Abstract Many contemporary networked social movements are marked by the absence of central leadership. This raises the practical question of (self-)organizing through communication. The online forum LIHKG was widely recognized as the central communication platform for supporters of the Anti-ELAB movement in Hong Kong. How can we discern whether forum users were engaging in action organization through discussion or merely having conversations? This study proposes that inequality in thread popularity could be a useful way in to tackling that question. An analysis of the contents of LIHKG between June and December of 2019 illustrates that signs of action coordination can be discerned by examining inequality in thread popularity and whether forum users’ attention increasingly concentrated on the most popular threads as the number of users increased. An examination of how attention competition and thread content combined to shape thread popularity then provides insights into the characteristics of the forum’s organizing efforts.