Turf wars: Using social media network analysis to examine the suspected astroturfing campaign for the Adani Carmichael Coal mine on Twitter

• Author: David Schlosberg,Mitchell Hobbs,Chao Sun,Hannah Della Bosca
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2057
• Date: 01 May 2020
• Published date: 01 May 2020

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Turf wars: Using social media network analysis to examine the

suspected astroturfing campaign for the Adani Carmichael Coal

mine on Twitter

Mitchell Hobbs

1

| Hannah Della Bosca

2

| David Schlosberg

2

| Chao Sun

3

1

Department of Media and Communications,

The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South

Wales, Australia

2

Sydney Environment Institute, The University

of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,

Australia

3

Sydney Informatics Hub, The University of

Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Correspondence

Dr Mitchell Hobbs, Department of Media and

Communications, The University of Sydney,

NSW 2006, Australia.

Email: mitchell.hobbs@sydney.edu.au

Funding information

University of Sydney, Grant/Award Number:

D9278 00000 M3POSTRUTH

This article uses social media network analysis (SMNA) to examine whether there

was an astroturfing campaign on Twitter in support of the Adani Carmichael coal

mine in 2017. It shows that SMNA can be used to visualize and analyze outsider lob-

bying activity in issue arenas and is capable of identifying networks of fake opinion.

This study found that in April 2017, there was a small network of accounts that made

a series of suspiciously similar pro-Adani tweets that could be considered a form of

duplicitous lobbying. However, this study concludes that these posts were likely a

weak influence on public opinion in Australia and largely ineffectual as a lobbying tac-

tic. Nevertheless, this analysis shows how communitas public interests can be sub-

verted by covert social media campaigns used in support of corporatas goals, as well

as the role digital research methods can play in protecting the integrity on public

debates by exposing disingenuous actors.

1|INTRODUCTION

On April 17, 2017, the news website BuzzFeed published a news story

(Di Stefano, 2017) in which they alleged that an “army”of “suspicious”

Indian Twitter accounts had emerged and begun to publicly lobby for

the proposed Adani Carmichael coal mine in Queensland, Australia.

The Carmichael coal mine is currently in development by Adani Min-

ing, a wholly owned subsidiary of India's Adani Group, which has a

somewhat dubious reputation on both financial and environmental

grounds (see Long, 2017; Safi, 2017). At the time of the BuzzFeed

news story, Adani was lobbying the Australian federal government for

a loan of up to AU$900 million-dollars to help establish their mine and

its necessary rail infrastructure, which was later awarded by the fed-

eral government, but then subsequently blocked by the Queensland

state government (Hewett, 2017). Herein lies the significance of the

BuzzFeed news story. The news website had seemingly identified the

emergence of a grassroots campaign in support of Adani at a time

when the corporation was seeking further support from the Australian

government, with a so-called “army”of Twitter accounts emerging

and posting similar messages about the economic dividends and

employment opportunities that would result from the Queensland

coal mine. Of course, the similarity of these Twitter posts belied their

authenticity and suggested instead that a fake grassroots network had

been mobilized in support of the mine; a controversial public relations

tactic known as “astroturfing.”

Beyond providing a potential example of a disreputable public

relations/public affairs tactic, this news story was of further signifi-

cance due to the environmental stakes associated with the mine's

development. The proposed Carmichael mine will be the largest coal

mine in Australia, which is already one of the world's largest exporters

of coal (see Ritter, 2018). As a fossil fuel, coal is a significant environ-

mental pollutant that releases CO

2

into the atmosphere as a by-

product of thermal energy production. Although coal has historically

been pivotal in providing affordable base-load power and the energy

foundation for mass industrial societies around the world, it is increas-

ingly recognized as a major source of greenhouse gas and a significant

carbon pollutant (Wright & Nyberg, 2016). If the nine mines of the

Galilee Basin go ahead as planned, they will release an estimated

705 million tons of carbon pollution into the atmosphere each year

(Ritter, 2018). Moreover, this coal is planned to be shipped to India

via a significantly expanded and upgraded coal port terminal at Abbot

Point, which is located near the Great Barrier Reef, a UNESCO World

Heritage site (Horn & Ford, 2015). Despite the environmental condi-

tions and restrictions placed on the redevelopment of Abbot Point,

Received: 6 January 2019 Revised: 25 June 2019 Accepted: 11 November 2019

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2057

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