TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Young protestors of Taiwan’s Bluebird Movement have been using Threads and Instagram as their main source for information sharing and organization, according to new research.

While Threads has struggled to maintain momentum globally following its July 2023 launch, in Taiwan it seems to have bucked this trend. The app proved popular before the presidential election in January and has remained a key source of information for young people amid the recent protests.

Threads popularity is supported by research recently published by Streetcorner Sociology (巷仔口社會學), which found that 74% of 15-24 year olds used it to find information about the Bluebird Movement protests. The research was conducted by a self-organized research group made up of postgraduate students from universities throughout Taiwan, and involved interviews with 208 protestors on May 21 and 24 in different areas around the legislature.

Member of the research team Lee Chun-yin (李俊穎) told Taiwan News he did not find Threads popularity in Taiwan surprising. In a written interview he said algorithm limitations mean it is harder for users to obtain real-time information from the likes of Facebook and local platform PTT (批踢踢), which were both more widely used in the past.

By contrast, Lee said that Thread’s algorithm allows users to freely read other users’ posts and respond to them, which meant it became the main information channel for those wanting to know about the protests. However, he said that because Threads’ algorithms are not made public, it is unclear whether the app will continue to be a “mobilization pipeline” for future protests.

Streetcorner Sociology findings also showed PTT use amongst protestors had dropped dramatically when compared to the Sunflower Movement, a protest held at the legislature over law changes 10 years earlier. Less than 1.5% of those surveyed said they used PTT to find information about the protests, compared to nearly 54% ten years prior.  

“Threads and Instagram have become important mobilization networks in the movement, while PTT no longer played an important role,” the researchers summarized. Lee said respondents were not asked why they used certain platforms over others, and therefore the result is only a reflection of PTT’s relevance to this movement, rather than of Taiwan society as a whole.

Second-year computer science student at National Taiwan University (NTU) Jeff Chen (陳致和) attended Bluebird Movement protests and is a Threads user. He told Taiwan News he first heard about them from a friend and turned to Threads for further information, where he found lawmakers posting about the issue.

“I got a deeper understanding about what was going on,” he said. Chen said that while he mainly follows “green“ leaning (Democratic Progressive Party) politicians, he saw content and replies from pan-blue (Kuomintang and Taiwan People’s Party) supporters also.

Chen theorized that Threads' usership in Taiwan is relatively higher amongst young people because it was the first experience many of his peers had with a Twitter-like social media platform.

Twitter appears to be relatively unpopular with Taiwan’s social media users. Its reported ad reach for the total population was 12.9% in 2023, compared to Singapore’s 74.1% and Hong Kong’s 49.9% in 2023. That is compared to Facebook and Instagram, with a reported 67.8% and 42.2% ad reach respectively in the same year.

Chen’s classmate Justin Liao (廖奕凱), also a second-year computer science student at NTU, said because he already was using Twitter when Threads came out, he opted not to sign up for the Meta app as the functionality was basically the same. However, both Chen and Liao agreed that language was a key point of difference between the two.

“On Threads (the content) is Chinese, and on Twitter it's English,” Chen said.

Liao, Chen, and other protestors in the 15-24 age bracket told Taiwan News that they were shown many posts in their Threads feeds from users unknown to them, which helped them to understand different perspectives on the protests. They also said if they were to read online news, it was almost always delivered via Instagram or Threads posts.

Streetcorner Sociology plans to release further research findings gathered at the protests on their website in the coming days, Lee said. He said the team of researchers will also conduct surveys at Bluebird Movement protests planned for Wednesday (June 19) and Friday (June 21).