For example , if we take Holocaust Remembrance Day or Europe Day as a benchmark , Twitter saw an increase both in interest and in impact from 2019 to 2020 . Europe Day doubled in impact , while the impact of Holocaust Remembrance Day grew by a factor of twenty . In principle , the latter growth can be explained by the seventy-fifth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz , which prompted increased participation by EU institutions and the media . This generated much more content in 2020 , which was replicated in greater participation by leading figures and subsequently by other users . The analysis has also shown how messages on current issues are repeatedly mixed with messages about the past , relating the hate of the Holocaust with Brexit or with the rise of the far right across Europe today , or relating Europe Day with the need to seek unity in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic .
As for specific one-off commemorations , the analysis has shown that they tend to have a greater impact on the platform , generating a higher volume of information and more trending topics . This is almost certainly due to the relative newness of institutional events , which occupy more of the political agenda throughout the year and therefore generate a great deal of interest . As shown by Chart
2 below , the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 2019 and the centenary of the end of the First World War in 2018 had a high following . At the European level , however , the fall of the Berlin Wall generated much greater impact than any other event . By contrast , a greater volume of the tweets on the armistice of 1918 came from the Americas ( identified by using time bands ).
While all of the analyses will continue throughout 2020 and 2021 , the results of greatest interest here concern Europe Day . This is the commemoration that will be used in the comparisons and the constant monitoring analysis in order to identify the political uses of the date and the various meanings that it is given on Twitter .
Europe Day
Europe Day , which is celebrated each year on 9 May to commemorate the 1950 Schuman Declaration , is a key date on the European calendar . Representing a foundational moment for the European Union , the date seeks to commemorate the collaboration and efforts undertaken to overcome the differences of the past and build a present together . The celebration of the date continues to have an increasing impact in
IMPACT OF ONE-OFF COMMEMORATIONS TWEETS
NUMBER OF TWEETS
36272
148.489
126.570
5
END OF FIRST WORLD WAR FALL OF BERLIN WALL 75 TH ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY
5 . Impact of non-structural commemorations . | Source : Own elaboration .
18
Observing Memories ISSUE 4