Taking voice and taking sides: the role of social media commenting in solidarity contestation

In this paper bottom-up mobilisation of solidarity is commonly analysed in terms of initiatives by civil society activists, affected citizens, communities and grassroots movements to provide support to vulnerable groups of the population. An investigation of bottom-up contestation about solidarity on social media sheds light on a particular arena where citizens form their opinions and commit to social and political norms or values, as in our case solidarity. Our investigation emphasises hereby, first, the ways in which citizens express their opinions and emotions and how they make use of some of the affordances offered by social media. We wish to address the question to what extent emotional expressions translate into moral commitment and political speech, that is, the question of the civic- or uncivicness of solidarity contestation. Second, we focus on citizens’ moral commitments and political speech themselves, that is, the question of  to what extent they reject or support solidarity in these instances. The following analysis adds to an understanding of  solidarity contestation from the bottom up, considering users’ Facebook comments below posted news articles as arenas for direct intervention with political discourse.