Telegram and the anti-ELAB movement in Hong Kong: reshaping networked social movements through symbolic participation and spontaneous interaction

Abstract Networked social movements can create autonomous communication networks supported by digital media and are often viewed as leaderless and decentralized under the logic of connective action. Nevertheless, a certain level of leadership may exist and is informally distributed among movement participants. This essay examines protest activities in networked social movements and discusses how loosely connected protests can be collectively mobilized and organized utilizing social media affordances through two forms of participatory activity: symbolic participation and spontaneous interaction. Specifically, this essay investigates the messages and chats of the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill movement (anti-ELAB) in Hong Kong on the public channels of the social media platform Telegram. An analysis of two million anti-ELAB messages revealed two important protest activities conducted to organize and mobilize social movements. First, Telegram users, although they varied in their usage of the platform’s technology, engaged with subscription models to navigate the symbolic and tactical repertoires of diverse user groups and to organize theme-oriented actions by creating informative, supportive/backup, and cooperative networks. Second, they employed hashtags to promote and organize spontaneous interactions to rally and sustain autonomous individuals. Furthermore, geolocation hashtags allowed for engagement with others by scaffolding real-time and spontaneous communications that transcended space and time. This essay provides insights into how participants in networked social movements use digital media to mobilize, organize, publicize, and participate in protests.