Investigating Language Use by Polarised Groups on Twitter: A Case Study of the Bushfires

Online social media platforms have become an important forum for public discourse, and have often been implicated in exacerbating polarisation in public sphere. Yet the precise mechanisms by which polarisation is driven are not fully understood. The study of linguistic style and features has been shown to be useful in exploring various aspects of online group discussions and, in turn, the processes which could contribute to polarisation. We present a case study around the hashtag #ArsonEmergency, collected from Australian Twittersphere during the unprecedented bushfires of 2019/2020. The dataset consists of two polarised groups and one unaffiliated group. We examine the linguistic style, moral language, and happiness profiles of 1786 users active during this catastrophic event. Our results suggest that polarised groups pushed ‘affective polarisation’ on Twitter while discussing the Australian Bushfires.