Bernie Sanders Internet Culture And Online Campaigning

Bernie Sanders, an American politician who has served as a United States Senator since 2007 and previously served in the House of Representatives from 1991 to 2007, rose to national prominence during his campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination in the 2016 presidential election. As a self-described democratic socialist who caucuses with the Democratic Party, Sanders established himself as a dark horse candidate with primary and caucus victories in 22 states. He officially endorsed Hillary Clinton in July 2016 after she secured the required delegates for the nomination. Sanders announced his entry into the 2020 Democratic Primary on February 19, 2019, via email to supporters and a Twitter announcement video, raising over $1 million in less than four hours following the announcement.

Social Media Presence and Engagement

Bernie Sanders maintained a significant presence across multiple social media platforms. His profile on Facebook had 2,950,000 likes as of February 1st, 2016. On Twitter, the SenSanders account had 1,305,000 followers and the BernieSanders account had 1,264,000 followers. The berniesanders Instagram profile had 656,000 followers, and his YouTube channel had 91,000 subscribers with his five most popular videos all exceeding 250,000 views as of February 1st, 2016.

YouTube content posted by Sanders achieved notable viewership. On March 12th, 2014, Sanders posted a video titled "Health Care: U.S. vs. Canada," which garnered 1,383,000 views with 5,900 likes and 181 dislikes as of February 1st, 2016. On August 17th, 2015, the All In with Chris Hayes Facebook account posted a video featuring Sanders stating that regardless of who is elected, the power of Wall Street, corporations, and campaign donors would prevent addressing problems facing working families.

Reddit Community and Fundraising

The Reddit platform served as a major hub for Sanders supporters. The subreddit /r/sandersforpresident had 164,000 readers as of February 1st, 2015. Top search results for "Bernie Sanders" on Reddit showed high engagement, with the top two most commented results each having 20,000 comments and the top five each having 10,000 comments as of December 18th, 2015. Reddit users raised $750,000 for Sanders's campaign as of January 10th, 2016, with that amount increasing to $1,000,000 by January 26th, 2016.

Sanders participated in a Reddit AMA on May 19th, 2015, on the subreddit /r/IAmA under the account name bernie-sanders. His comments received 54,000 upvotes, and the AMA link received 7,300 upvotes and 13,000 comments as of February 1st, 2016. On September 14th, the official Bernie Sanders Reddit account posted to /r/SandersForPresident, requesting help sharing a video about income and wealth inequality with friends and family, particularly Republican voters. The post linked to a video from the Bernie Sanders Facebook account titled "Bernie Sanders: In-Depth Explanation of Income Inequality," which garnered 5,300 upvotes and 6,080,000 views as of February 1st, 2016.

Meme Culture and Facebook Groups

Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash was a Facebook group page devoted to creating and distributing memes, including image macros and exploitables, in support of Sanders during the 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary. The group was known for producing memes about Sanders at a high rate of mutation.

On April 25th, 2016, several Bernie Sanders-related Facebook groups were purportedly removed from Facebook after being flooded with sexually explicit content. Affected groups included Bernie Sanders For President 2016, Bernie Sanders 2016 – Ideas Welcome, Bernie Sanders Activists, Bernie Believers, and Bernie Sanders is my Hero. Redditor jbher315 submitted a post about the removals to the /r/SandersForPresident subreddit, receiving upwards of 9,300 votes with 75% upvoted and 1,900 comments in 48 hours.

In the comments section, Redditor BernieTron2000 speculated the pages were removed due to "Hillary trolls mass-reporting." Facebook user Bee Jay submitted screenshots to the Bernie Sanders for President 2016 Facebook group showing a Facebook user bragging about reporting the Bernie Sanders Activists group for "containing a credible threat of violence." The Internet news site Heavy published an article reporting that members of the Facebook group Bros4Hillary were behind attacks inundating Bernie Sanders Facebook pages with false complaints and explicit content. The article included a statement from Bros4Hillary Political Director Alex Mohajer, who disavowed any connection to the Facebook page raids and claimed the Facebook user connected to the harassment had been removed from the Bros4Hillary group. Mohajer stated that Bros4Hillary was created to provide a positive community for Hillary Clinton supporters and that the group did not approve of or condone harmful or offensive rhetoric or harassing behavior targeting other candidates' supporters. By the end of the day, all the Facebook groups had been reinstated.

Viral Content and Hoaxes

Several viral phenomena emerged around the Sanders campaign. The hashtag #BernieLostMe became popular after media reports of Sanders victories depicted diverse states, including Hawaii, as being "white and rural." Supporters of Hillary Clinton used the hashtag to share reasons why Sanders was less suitable for the Democratic National Convention, trending after Sanders refused to denounce some supporters who behaved violently at the Nevada Democratic Convention in May 2016.

Bernie Sanders Glowsticks was a viral hoax image designed to trick Sanders supporters into making chlorine bombs by providing false instructions for homemade luminescent light sticks. The hashtag #BernieLostMe gained traction following reports that depicted Sanders' diverse state victories, including Hawaii, as "white and rural."

2020 Campaign Announcement

Bernie Sanders announced his entry into the 2020 Democratic Primary on February 19th, 2019, via email to his mailing list and a campaign announcement video posted to Twitter. The announcement stated, "I'm running for president. I am asking you to join me today as part of an unprecedented and historic grassroots campaign that will begin with at least 1 million people from across the country. Say you're in." The campaign raised over $1 million in less than four hours following the announcement. Traditional left-wing publications such as Paste and Jacobin responded positively, with Paste declaring that Sanders would easily win the 2020 primary. Twitter users were split on the announcement.

Political Context and Reputation

Sanders was motivated to enter politics at an early age because his father's family was killed during the Holocaust. He is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history. During the 2016 campaign, he consistently polled far better than Hillary Clinton in head-to-head matchups with Trump. After the Democratic Primary, speculation arose regarding Sanders' potential performance in the general election. A tweet by @freddoso claimed that per a CNN source, the Sanders campaign said "We have nothing polite to say right now," causing speculation that Sanders may have been referring to the primary results. This idea became a major topic on Twitter the next day, and The Independent published an article claiming Sanders would have won the election had he been the nominee.

Sources

1. Know Your Meme - Bernie Sanders