Celebrating the 45th Anniversary of the University of Macau:

Computational Social Sciences Workshop | I wish I did not say that: A comparison of deleted tweets and publicly available tweets of U.S. legislators

Speaker: Prof. Siyuan Ma, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Macau

Date: 26/2/2026 (Thu)

Time: 13:30 – 15:00

Venue: E21A-G035

Language: English

Register: https://isw.um.edu.mo/evmapp/register/css_siyuanma26

Abstract:

Politicians nowadays – especially elected legislators – need their social media accounts to better construct their public image. They deliberately delete or keep their tweets publicly available to maximize their desired public image. The current study first provided a qualitative description of all 116th U.S. federal-level legislators tweeting and deleting time sequences from January 3rd, 2019, to September 30th, 2020. The current study then used logistic regression to analyze a random sample combining the deleted tweets (N = 328) and publicly available tweets (N = 808). Results show that legislators are more likely to maintain a professional but party-oriented public image on social media. The current study also finds that: 1) legislators seldom post tweets related to false information and party-violating information; 2) legislators are more likely to delete tweets that have mentioned private life or other specific politicians; 3) legislators are more likely to keep the criticism tweets publicly available. Besides, Representatives are more likely to delete tweets than Senators. These findings indicate that legislators do deliberately manage a public image, containing a clear party affiliation, a critical and non-private concentration, and a good reputation for reliable information and respecting colleagues.

For those who have registered and attended the workshop, 1 SP & 15.0 “Knowledge integration ” (CS) will be given to each student. Please note the following guidelines of Smart Point scheme:

• Students who attend the WHOLE activity and arrive ON TIME will be given one Smart Point;
• Students who arrive late or leave early within 10 minutes will be given only half a Smart Point;
• Students who arrive late or leave early over 10 minutes will NOT be given any Smart Point;
• Students who leave the venue during the activity for over 15 minutes will NOT be given any Smart Point;
• Students are required to check in/out of the activity with Student ID Card.

Enquiry：8822 8976 or fss.enquiry@um.edu.mo