Campaigning organisations dominate conversation ahead of G8

Campaigning organisations dominate conversation ahead of G8

With the leaders of the world’s most powerful nations set to descend on Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, for the G8 Summit, Portland has been monitoring conversation on Twitter and over the next two weeks will be providing analysis and roundups on the top themes, discussion and individuals leading the debate.

This year’s summit, under the presidency of the United Kingdom, focuses on the three themes of advancing trade, ensuring tax compliance and promoting greater transparency. The UK government have also organised a series of events in the lead up to the summit, the first being the social impact conference on 6th June and over the weekend, the Nutrition for Growth meeting in London.

The G8 is a natural target for NGOs and campaigning groups, who have launched their own initiatives to complement or influence the agenda. Beyond the G8 hashtag, the most successful on social media over the weekend was the Big IF, a coalition of charities calling on the G8 to take action to end hunger:

NGOs have also led the way on top tweets, posting four of the top five most popular tweets of the last 24 hours. Oxfam’s International account (@oxfam) and Spanish account (@oxfam_es) take 2nd, 4th and 5th, with the ONE campaign in 3rd. The most shared tweet, however, was Canadian columnist Stephen Lautens’ critical take on G8 security costs, receiving 87 retweets:

The most ‘authoritative’ Twitter accounts mentioning G8 reflect the influence of campaigning organisations online. The UN Foundation lead, followed by Oxfam and Ashoka, the social impact organisation. Lauren Laverne, who played a role in the Big IF, gave visibility to the campaign through her large fan base, while The Guardian comes in as the top news organisation at five.

1. @unfoundation
2. @Oxfam
3. @Ashoka
4. @laurenlaverne
5. @guardian

The most active countries on Twitter in the past 24 hours are the UK followed by the US. As host, we expect the UK to continue to take the top spot as the overall volume increases as the summit approaches.


We will be closely following the tweets and trends around the G8 over the coming days and hope you will follow our updates on the Portland Notebook.

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